I was very pleased with my portfolio’s first 6 months’ performance this year, while I don’t have exact number here (waiting for Scottrade to create June 2007 statement), my return is about 30%. My biggest winner is Crocs (CROX), which went up more than 100%, Mindray (MR) also helped a lot (went from $23 to $31). Some of the losers include: NINE, GSIT, SBUX (hate to say that because I think it’s a good company). And I made a mistake to let EDU go too early (sold at 37 and 40, it’s more than 50 now). So the No. 1 lesson is: keep the winners, sell the losers, not the other way around.
Note I do not trade on margin (borrow money from brokerage firm), short stocks or trade options (call, put). I merely buy and sell stocks, and I usually hold a stock from a few days to months. Also for the reference, S&P 500 went up 7.13% in last 6 months; Russel 2000 was up about 11.1%.
As much as I like, I don’t expect such a good return in the second half of this year.