May 09 updates to my DSP portfolio

It has been 10 months since my last post. The nice part about writing this blog is that I can go back and read my thoughts from last year and laugh at them. I can see that I was completely wrong with my analysis on where the market stood, when I thought the likes of Oshkosh, Office Depot and Texas Instruments were at historic lows. Back then I was also considering investing in DSP plans in the financial sector, such as WAMU, BOA, Lehman Brothers. Am I glad I did not step into any of those direct stock plans.

However, the market deterioration since last July has not deterred me from continuing to invest in the direct stock purchase plans I had initiated last summer. I am continuing to dollar cost average my stake in the following stocks.



I add two more companies to my basket, General Mills (GIS) (Google Yahoo Earnings Chart) and Cash America International (CSH) (Google Yahoo Earnings Chart).

You are probably wondering how I have fared since last July? Is there really a benefit to dollar cost averaging? Let me show you how I have fared. If I simply compare my initial purchase price for these stocks (purchase price associated with my first purchase in each DSP) with the current price (as of May 27, 2009) here is how I fared:


Note - I have only listed new stocks I initiated last July.

Now, if you factor in dollar cost averaging, here is how I have really fared:


The higlighted columns shows the relevant data.

My worst investments have been PNM Resources and Oneok, Inc. The remaining 4 have not yielded terrible results. Two of them, Oshkosh and Office Depot, are in the positive. I am not sure I would have been able to achieve the same by attempting to time the market. Considering how bad my analysis was last year, as to where the market stood, I am confident that I would have failed to time the market. I am quite happy with how my DSP portfolio has fared in the last year.