4/27 Portfolio Update

So, it's been two weeks since the shift in portfolio holdings and things are moving along nicely.  The portfolio is up another 3.2% in the past two weeks mostly due to the performance of Silver, Gold and Real Estate.  Here are the Scorecard and Cheat Sheet:

Cheat Sheet since the change...

Holdings
US Stock	Type	Ticker	Weight	Shares	Purchase Price	Total Starting Value	Current Price	Total Current Value	% Gain (Loss)
Energy	ETF	VDE	10.00%	94	$116.48	$10,893	$116.30	$10,876	-0.15%
Real Estate	ETF	VNQ	10.00%	189	$57.54	$10,893	$61.45	$11,633	6.80%
Materials	ETF	VAW	10.00%	124	$88.01	$10,893	$89.06	$11,023	1.19%
Small Cap	ETF	VB	20.00%	276	$78.96	$21,786	$80.75	$22,279	2.27%
Iternational Stock			25.00%
Emerging Markets	ETF	VWO	25.00%	541	$50.37	$27,232	$50.62	$27,367	0.50%
Commodities			25.00%
Commodities	ETF	GSG	10.00%	278	$39.17	$10,893	$38.85	$10,804	-0.82%
Gold	ETF	GLD	5.00%	38	$143.81	$5,446	$149.08	$5,646	3.66%
Silver	ETF	SLV	10.00%	273	$39.88	$10,893	$47.17	$12,884	18.28%
						$108,928		$112,512	3.29%

Overall Performance Score Card

	Jan 24, 2011	today	% Change
My Portfolio	$99,994.75	$112,512	12.52%
S and P 500	1282	1355	5.69%
FTSE 100	5943	6068	2.10%
Commodities Index (GSG)	33.99	38.85	14.30%
20 Year Treasury (TLT)	92.43	92.84	0.44%

As you can see, the portfolio is up 12.5% year to date and silver continues to be the superstar holding.  The SLV is up 78% since I started this portfolio in January and I am not afraid to add more to that holding.  See previous post as to my reasons why.  If you are managing your portfolio inside of a 401K at work, there should be a precious metals fund that you should be able to own.  If so, own it!  

Otherwise, not much else to report today and I am happy with the portfolio ratios as is it.  Full steam ahead.  

Happy Investing!

4/11 Portfolio Update

Time to make some slight changes...

Commodities, as expected, have moved into an higher weighting and are now on par with International Equities.  The new portfolio breakdown should look like this:

50% in US Stocks
25% in International Stocks
25% in Commodities.

Below, is what the portfolio looked like at the end of trading on Friday the 8th of April.  Up almost 10% since mid January.  The obvious laggards are the Tech Sector and Consumer Discretionary Sector.
I am selling them both at the market today and buying 10% of the portfolio in VDE, the Vanguard Energy Sector ETF.  If you are not a sector rotator, just scale out of stocks 10%.  I will also sell about 5% of the value of the VWO, the emerging markets ETF which should leave me enough to buy about 10% of the portfolio's value worth of the GSG and whatever cash is left will go into buying more Silver, because it is far and away, the best performing asset out there and based on historical levels, should be worth closer to $90 and ounce.  It is currently around $40.

I am going to hypothetically "lock in the gains" of the portfolio at 9.83% and re-balance the new ratio of holdings at a portfolio value of $108,928 as of 4/8/2010.  I will, for the sake of making things easy on me, make the individual holding's "purchase price" the market value at market open on 4/11/2011.

I will make the necessary changes to the Score Card link so that the it represents the original portfolio starting value and original benchmark values as well.

____________________________________________________________________
OLD PORTFOLIO

Holdings
US Stock	Type	Ticker	Weight	Shares	Purchase Price	Total Starting Value	Current Price	Total Current Value	% Gain (Loss)
Cons. Disc.	Vanguard ETF	VCR	9.67%	165	$60.50	$9,983	$63.83	$10,532	5.50%
Real Estate	Vanguard ETF	VNQ	9.51%	180	$55.50	$9,990	$57.54	$10,357	3.68%
Materials	Vanguard ETF	VAW	9.94%	123	$81.00	$9,963	$88.01	$10,825	8.65%
Technology	Vanguard ETF	VGT	9.26%	158	$63.25	$9,994	$63.83	$10,085	0.92%
Small Cap	Vanguard ETF	VB	20.22%	279	$72.25	$20,158	$78.96	$22,030	9.29%
Iternational Stock			30.00%
Emerging Markets	Vanguard ETF	VWO	29.50%	638	$47.00	$29,986	$50.37	$32,136	7.17%
Commodities			10.00%
Gold	IShares ETF	GLD	5.02%	38	$130.00	$4,940	$143.81	$5,465	10.62%
Silver	IShares ETF	SLV	6.88%	188	$26.50	$4,982	$39.88	$7,497	50.49%
						$99,995		$108,928	9.83%

___________________________________________________________________
NEW PORTFOLIO

Holdings
US Stock	Type	Ticker	Weight	Shares	Purchase Price	Total Starting Value	Current Price	Total Current Value	% Gain (Loss)
Energy	ETF	VDE	10.00%	93	$116.48	$10,800	$116.48	$10,800	0.00%
Real Estate	ETF	VNQ	10.00%	188	$57.54	$10,800	$57.54	$10,800	0.00%
Materials	ETF	VAW	10.00%	123	$88.01	$10,800	$88.01	$10,800	0.00%
Small Cap	ETF	VB	20.00%	274	$78.96	$21,600	$78.96	$21,600	0.00%
Iternational Stock			25.00%
Emerging Markets	ETF	VWO	25.00%	536	$50.37	$27,000	$50.37	$27,000	0.00%
Commodities			25.00%
Commodities	ETF	GSG	10.00%	276	$39.17	$10,800	$39.17	$10,800	0.00%
Gold	ETF	GLD	5.00%	38	$143.81	$5,400	$143.81	$5,400	0.00%
Silver	ETF	SLV	10.00%	271	$39.88	$10,800	$39.88	$10,800	0.00%
						$108,000		$108,000	0.00%