$10,000 Beat-the-Benchmark Speculative Portfolio Update – April 2013

Here’s the April 2013 update for my speculative portfolio, the second of three portfolios being tracked monthly as part of my Beat the Market Experiment. Here’s an update on the overall race; the bull stock market has pushed the passive benchmark portfolio into the lead past my lagging stock picks.

$10,000 Beat-the-Benchmark Speculative Portfolio as of April 1, 2013. Many people speculate with their money, buying and selling stocks now and then, but they rarely track their performance even though they may brag about their winners. Honest tracking is the primary reason for this “no-rules, just make money” account. I am using a TradeKing account for this portfolio as I’ve had an account with them for a while and am comfortable with their low-cost $4.95 trade structure, free tax-management gain/loss software, and free dividend reinvestment. Here is a screenshot taken from my TradeKing home page on 3/31/13 after market close:

(click to enlarge)

No new activity. I (again) didn’t trade anything last month. My Enphase holdings rocketed up to over 60% of my $3.80 buy price, which helped bump up my portfolio back above the $10,000 level. My Apple holdings inched up, but are still in the red. I plan on holding onto Apple at least until their next major round of product announcements. Here’s a pie chart of my holdings, tracked via Google Docs spreadsheet (2nd tab):

Total value of stocks $9,297
Cash balance: $856
Total portfolio value (4/1/13): $10,153

2013 YTD return: +1.3% (based on $10,019 value on 1/1/13)
Total return since inception (11/1/12): $153, or +1.5%