3 Trades Today: 1 Stock Sale, 1 Stock Buy, & 1 ETF Buy

Today is going to be an overly active day for me.

Sold: 3D Systems
I sold half my position in 3D Systems (DDD) at $84.10.  The sale reduced me down to 67 RShares total.   The price point was selected because it marked a 100% return in my 5 months of ownership.  My original investment is off the table and I'm playing with the house's money.  I continue to hold shares of ExOne (XONE) and Stratasys (SSYS).  3D printing has been a bright point in my portfolio lately, especially since my other "amazing technology that will change the world" stock... Nuance (NUAN), has been an anchor holding me back.

Bought: Siemens
I love the automation play offered by Siemens (SI).   They are fresh off an earnings disappointment and have lagged the S&P since the 2011 lows, but have been coming on strong lately and offer a very steady return.  I don't know what industry will boom next, but I'm relatively sure that industry will be buying Siemens products to provide it's automation, power transmission, & distribution.  I picked up 40 RShares of Siemens at $131.03.

Bought: MOO
I remain very worried about the market; but I am relatively certain if there is a pull back, I'll still eat, you'll still eat, virtually everyone will continue eating.   Agribusiness is an investment opportunity I've been interested in since returning from my time in the Peace Corps.  World population is going up, usable farmland is going down, and that trend can't be quickly reversed.  I've got an exposure to agribusiness through DBA, and DAG in my portfolio right now, but those are both aimed for me to offload on a spike, MOO is a long term play that I feel can weather a correction and then catch the boom that follows.  Today I bought 107 RShares of the aptly named 'MOO' at $54.16.

Adding Value: BP

Today I added 107.2 RShares of BP to my portfolio @ $47.09 per share.  I'm struggling to find stocks I believe are undervalued right now, but the stigma of this company has kept it artificially low.  Yes there are risks, but I'll accept those risks gladly if it comes with a PE ratio of 6.3 and 4.65% yield.

This purchase contributes to shoring up my core stocks.  As you will see when I publish my current portfolio this week, I am over hedged currently, when the market goes up, I'm mostly flat, when the market goes down, I'm mostly flat. 

Well... that didn't go as planned.

In the winter of 2010, I was working on refining my portfolio, and had picked out a couple stocks I was interested in buying.  I had the idea of starting a blog to track my portfolio.   As a somewhat bored Peace Corps Volunteer, I thought it would be a fun and distracting hobby.  I made the first stock trade post on January 5, 2011.   I got very distracted by life that week and then went about 2.75 years without posting.

My portfolio has changed a good bit, my maturity as an investor has changed a good bit, and my life has changed a lot.  Catching Milo is now back, and since the hiatus has been so long, I feel it is necessary to start from the beginning with introductions.

I love investing, and I do it as a hobby.  I'm not a pro, and don't understand all the ins and outs pros do.  Maybe I'd be better served by picking a few index funds and not trying to beat the market, but that would be boring.  You probably shouldn't follow my lead.  If you are going to follow someone's investment advice, follow someone who can devote more than an hour or two a day to research.  Consider yourself warned... with that said:

I believe markets are irrational, and diversified rational thinking can beat the markets.  I am also wary of the words of John Maynard Keynes...

"The market can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent"

My attempts to beat the market will have a long term focus.  Beating or meeting the market performance in the short term means exposing yourself to whatever irrationality the market is being driven by.   I'll seek value and be patient in it being realized.  I'll report and grade myself as I go.  I'm not going to make any promises on how often I'll post or report, as my previous pledge to do so obviously didn't come to fulfillment.

I'll apply a multiplier to my portfolio shares and cash balance, since my net worth isn't any of your business.  I'll report units as R$'s and RShares.  I intend to post my current portfolio positions in this upcoming week.  I might even be announcing my first trade in today's session.

Prior to market open on Friday November 15, 2013 my portfolio value is R$ 262,455 with the S&P 500 at 1790.62. The scoring starts now.