In my investments class, we were given an assignment to pick 5 stocks and put a fictional $2 million in each of them for a portfolio of $10 million. (Yeah, obviously fictional, right?) At the end of the semester, we have to see how our portfolio performed against the class-selected portfolio, which was chosen by the dartboard method.
I selected: Royal Dutch Shell, Pfizer*, Procter & Gamble, Netflix and TJX Inc.
As of today, I've lost $500,000. That's a lot of money! On the other hand, it's "only" 5%. I still have $9.6 million to buy my sweet party condo on the beach and lot of really great shoes.
*Update: I'd forgotten that I'd meant to include Pfizer in my list initially. My strategy was to pick companies I thought would do well in a crummy economy because people would still need their products, like Procter & Gamble, or switch to it to save money, like Netflix & TJX. Shell is on the list because at the time, gas/oil prices were stable and predicted to go up, and Shell also has interests in all kinds of energy, including green options like wind energy.
So why Pfizer? It was my dad's recommendation: they make a popular anti-anxiety medication, and he thought they might experience increased demand. (Hmm, wonder why?) They replaced Southwest Airlines which I'd selected mostly because I am a fan. Although I suspect travel in general isn't going to do well for a while, I thought they had the best shot since they've stayed profitable even when other airlines haven't. However, when I realized I left off Pfizer, I dropped them because they weren't as close a fit with my strategy.
-- Copyright Rebecca's Miscellanies ( http://rebeccasmiscellanies.blogspot.com/ )
If it makes you feel better, my family generates enough laundry to keep P&G afloat for many years to come!
ReplyDeleteExactly! The need to do laundry is recession-proof, that's why I picked it.
ReplyDelete