Big Changes

I bought a couple of stocks today, so of course I must update ye olde blogge.  First, though, some housekeeping.

Normally, in order to buy something I've got to sell something.  This week, though, I decided to move some funds from my TD Ameritrade Amerivest rollover IRA to the self-directed rollover IRA that is the subject of this blog.  In so doing I have necessitated the closing of one chapter and the opening of another.

First, let's close the books on how I've done, previously.

I started my self-directed IRA with $12,460 and made my first equity purchase therein on 16 September 2011.  Until today no additional funds were added. All of my trades have, eventually, been noted here.  The upshot is that at the close of business yesterday - 29 January 2014 - I had accumulated in cash and equities a total of $29,120.61.  I owned 8 equities, and the fees associated with turning them into cash would have totaled $79.92 ($9.99 x 8), so let's say that I really had accumulated $29,040 and change.  As best I can determine, I seem to have achieved an average annualized increase of around 40%.  Not too shabby.

Now that I've injected new cash, though, then I need to start a new chapter with a new initial amount.

I have added $17,500 to my current account total of $29,120.61.  That brings my new "initial" investment to $46,620.61.

I've not decided how I'm going to invest all of the new $17,500, but I have made a couple of purchases.

Today I bought 10 shares of shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at $500.02 per share.  Apple just released a quarterly report in which the company beat expectations overall, but sold fewer iPhones than expected.  The market, in typical fashion, freaked out and sold Apple shares at a discount.  Apple has lost nearly 10% of its share price in the last few days.

Apple's historic share-price high was $700 back in 2012.  With that in mind, I've been very tempted to buy at its recent price of around $550.  Now that it's gone down to $500 then it's too good an opportunity to pass.

For now I've placed a sell order at $700 a share.  I'll probably sell at a lower price, but I doubt I'll sell Aple for less than $550 a share.  Mostly I'm just waiting for the market to regain its senses.

Another equity being mistreateda by the market just now is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE:KKD). KKD released an excellent quarterly report back in December, and the market decided to sell.  KKD hit a 52-week high of 26.63 back in November.  Since then it's lost about 35% of its share price.

I purchased 245 shares of KKD today at $17.685 per share.  I've placed a sell order for $26.50 a share.  I'm guessing that KKD will re-attain its high at some point in the coming year, and when it does I stand to make a 50% profit.

I'll be making more investments in the next few days, and I'll keep you informed as I do.