February 2016 Picks

Welcome to the February update of Plan 5 Picks. It was a rough beginning to the new year for the market, and Plan 5 followed suit. Here’s how Plan 5 Monthly performed in January:

Plan 5 Monthly: January 2015 Results

Jan 4 Open Jan 29 Close % Change
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 38.05 34.82 -8.49%
Amazon.com (AMZN) 656.29 587.00 -10.56%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 32.29 29.29 -9.29%
Netflix (NFLX) 109.00 91.84 -15.74%
SINA (SINA) 48.24 45.95 -4.75%
Plan 5 Monthly: January 2016 -9.77%
S&P 500 2043.94 1940.24 -5.07%

Every pick went down this month, with the overall loss of -9.77% being a good bit worse than the S&P 500’s change of -5.07%. As is typical, market losses are exaggerated by Plan 5.

Three new picks this month, with NVidia, Netflix and Sina being replaced by Casey’s General Stores, Facebook, and Google. Here’s the latest set of picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: February 2016 Picks

Company Symbol
Activision Blizzard ATVI
Amazon.com AMZN
Casey’s General Stores CASY
Facebook FB
Google GOOG

If you’re following along with Plan 5 Monthly, it’s time to rebalance your portfolio. An easy way to do that is to use the online Balance Calculator. If you’re new to Plan 5 or would like to read more about rebalancing a Plan 5 portfolio, check out this comprehensive guide to the process.

If you’re following Plan 5 Quarterly, it will also be time to rebalance your portfolio this month. But first let’s take a look at how Plan 5 Quarterly has performed with its last set of picks over the past three months.

Plan 5 Quarterly: November 2015 – January 2016 Results

Nov 2 Open Jan 29 Close % Change
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 34.25 34.82 +1.66%
Amazon.com (AMZN) 627.13 587.00 -6.4%
Netflix (NFLX) 109.20 91.84 -15.9%
Pegasystems (PEGA) 27.84 23.50 -15.59%
Xoom (XOOM) 24.92 24.91 -0.04%
Plan 5 Quarterly: Nov 2015 – Jan 2016 -7.25%
S&P 500 2080.76 1940.24 -6.75%

Plan 5 Quarterly also lost some ground over the past three months, though its -7.25% loss was not dramatically worse than the S&P 500’s -6.75% loss. Four of the five picks went down, with two of them losing over 15% of their value. Only Activision Blizzard showed a small gain.

Here’s the new set of Plan 5 Quarterly picks:

Plan 5 Quarterly: February 2016 Picks

Company Symbol
Activision Blizzard ATVI
Amazon.com AMZN
Casey’s General Stores CASY
Facebook FB
Google GOOG

There are three replacements for the new quarter, as Netflix, Pegasystems and Xoom are being substituted by Casey’s General Stores, Facebook and Google.

Again, followers of Plan 5 Quarterly will want to rebalance your portfolios. The online Balance Calculator and the step-by-step guide are useful resources for helping with this.

Finally, here’s a look at overall Plan 5 performance so far, since its inception:



That’s all for this month. I’ll be back at the end of February with the latest picks.

Thrive!

Mike Ferrier