I've recently put two and two together and have improved my ability to monitor stocks via GoogleDocs. In the past I've been limited to the capability of the GoogleFinance function, manual entry and related calculations. And GoogleFinance has some distinct limitations, so this has been quite time consuming and perhaps not as effective as it could be.
The manual entries were quite a pain as I had to navigate to another URL, find the data of interest, then paste or type it into the GoogleDocs spreadsheet.
I've now been able to use the Import function as a substitute for these manual actions. It also requites some other embedded functions to create the desired URL and parse the data. But the result is a much easier process that I'm able to update more frequently.
A given spreadsheet is limited to 50 imports, so I'm not able to keep live data at all times, but it's much quicker to update the data now than before (using the import formula, then copying to the same cell using "Paste Value"). I update these fields more frequently now.
October represented another good month. I was able to realize a few gains to make it my fifth best month to date in terms of dollar gains. But I was also able to buy into a few new positions at the end of the month.
I've rolled over several CDs over the last few months and had a few callable CDs called, so I'm only 58% invested and a bit more cash heavy than at the first of the month. So I'm pretty well positioned for any post election change. If the market heads downward, I'll be able to buy in in a big way. If it goes up, I should be able to do a lot of profit taking. So I'm looking forward to Tuesday!
There were three sales this month. Each realized 12-13%:
- Universal Corporation - Held two months, but I held on long enough to be eligible for a dividend payable in November.
- The Buckle, Inc. - Held 4 months
- Nokia Corporation (ADR) - Held 4 months
Current holdings and unrealized gains/losses are as follows. Note that I also included the gain/loss from recent months to demonstrate trends. Although down from mid-month peaks, things are still positive.
- Exxon Mobil Corporation - Down 0.6% (7.6% in Sept, -11.6% in Aug, -10.7 in July and -14.7 in June)
- Exelon Corporation - Down 9.3% (-5.4% in Sept, -9.6% in Aug, -7.1 in July and -15.7 in June). It actually went positive earlier in the month!
- FirstEnergy Corp. - Down 2.7% (+1.8% in Sept, -3.5% in Aug, -0.4 in July and -6.9 in June)
- TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. - Up 21.9% (-12.1% in Sept, -30.7% in Aug, -26.4 in July and -31.5 in June). I almost took profits on this one this month. If I would have, this would have broken all my monthly records. Hopefully I'll be able to do this in the coming months.
- Harsco Corporation - Down 0.3% (+5.7 in Sept, -14.3% in Aug, -10.0 in July and -8.7 in June)
- EnCana Corporation (USA) - Up 2.2% (+9.4% in Sept, -0.6% in Aug)
- Lockheed Martin Corporation - Up 2.0% (+2.0 in Sept, -1.3% in Aug)
- National Grid plc (ADR) - Up 6.4% (-4.2% in Sept, -5.5% in Aug, -9.0 in July and -17.4 in June)
- Kellog Company - Up 2.0% - New acquisition.
No dividends, But will collect Harsco and Universal divs in November. Also several holdings going ex-div in November for collection in Nov/Dec.
Almost 6 months ago in April, I was contemplating contemplating the purchase of three telecom stocks; Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo (TSP), Telecommunications Systems (TSYS) and Nokia (NOK). I eventually bought into all three stocks. In each case, I suffered months in the red, but I'm happy to say that I'm now above water with all three.
I found Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo to be the least comfortable holding of the three. I held a standard size lot, but got out of this position as soon as I was able to show a reasonable 6.5% profit in June. I did not collect the annual dividend and did not wish to hold long enough to do so.
At the time of my initial writing, I had not bought in on Nokia, but the price continued to drop and I soon found the temptation too great. I bought in with a half sized lot in May, then watch it drop some more and bought in with another half in June. Although the price dropped even further, I resisted the urge to throw good money after bad. After holding until October, I was finally able to discard for a tidy 12% gain. As with TSP, I had no desire to hold long enough to collect the annual dividend.
Telecommunications Systems has proven to be the scariest ride of all. I have bought in with a total of eight lots of increasing size to date. I was significantly underwater with these until earlier this week despite an absence of news that should justify the continued low price. On Wednesday and Friday, there were announcements of military contracts that have significantly buoyed the stock price and have left me with a current 16% unrealized gain. But I still am significantly below my initial buy-in price, so I feel that there is still a lot of upside to this holding. So I'm now faced with the best strategy for vacating my position. The next quarterly report is at the end of October, so I'd like to close out before then....but then again, I don't want to leave money on the table if it can be helped.
So the TSYS story and the overall success of my telecom ventures remains undetermined at this time.
