November 2013 Picks

Lots to do this month — it’s time to update both the Plan 5 Monthly and the Plan 5 Quarterly portfolios. We’ll begin with the Plan 5 Monthly results:

Plan 5 Monthly: October 2013 Results

Oct 1 Open Oct 31 Close % Change
Caesarstone (CSTE) 45.51 42.17 -7.34%
LinkedIn (LNKD) 247.71 223.67 -9.70%
Netflix (NFLX) 314.77 322.48 +2.45%
Sierra Wireless (SWIR) 16.52 18.06 +9.32%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 193.96 159.94 -17.54%
Plan 5 Monthly: September 2013 -4.56%
S&P 500 1682.41 1756.55 +4.41%

This month saw the first down period for Plan 5 Monthly. Several of the picks lost value, including a major slide for Tesla Motors. But here’s the challenge: don’t sweat it. (I say that at this point mostly for my own benefit, since I don’t expect many people are following along with Plan 5 just yet!) Stick to the plan — it’s expected to have downs as well as ups (as I said back in August, backtesting leads me to expect Plan 5 Monthly to lose value in one out of three months). By its nature, Plan 5 will have a good deal of volatility. All that’s important is that it beats the market in the long term, and so far it has been.

Moving forward, here is the November list of Plan 5 Monthly picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: November 2013 Picks

Company Symbol
Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD
Caesarstone CSTE
Dreamworks Animation DWA
Netflix NFLX
Tesla Motors TSLA

Next up is our first round of results for Plan 5 Quarterly:

Plan 5 Quarterly: August 2013 – October 2013 Results

Aug 1 Open Oct 31 Close % Change
Caesarstone (CSTE) 32.97 42.17 +27.90%
LinkedIn (LNKD) 206.99 223.67 +8.06%
Netflix (NFLX) 246.54 322.48 +30.80%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 135.00 159.94 +18.47%
WisdomTree Investments (WETF) 13.12 13.90 +5.95%
Plan 5 Quarterly: Aug 2013 – Oct 2013 +18.24%
S&P 500 1689.42 1756.55 +3.97%

Plan 5 Quarterly also lost a bit in the past month, but that was more than made up for by its steep gains over the previous two months. Overall it beat the market handily, showing an 18.24% gain against the S&P 500’s 3.97% gain.

Here is the latest batch of Plan 5 Quarterly picks:

Plan 5 Quarterly: November 2013 Picks

Company Symbol
Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD
Caesarstone CSTE
Dreamworks Animation DWA
Illumina ILMN
Tesla Motors TSLA

Lots of changes this time around. You might notice that the new Plan 5 Monthly picks hold on to NetFlix, while Plan 5 Quarterly replaces it with Illumina. It will be interesting to see how the two compare in performance.

If you’re following along with either Plan 5 Monthly or Quarterly, it’s time to make some trades. You can find a review of how to rebalance your portfolio with the new set of picks right here.

And that covers it for this month. I’ll be back at the end of November with a progress report, and the latest Plan 5 Monthly picks.

Thrive!

Mike Ferrier