Welcome to the March update of Plan 5 Picks. It’s been a month of smooth sailing for the market as a whole, and in particular for Plan 5. Here are the Plan 5 Monthly results for February:

Plan 5 Monthly: February 2014 Results

Tesla and CaesarStone in particular both saw fantastic growth this month, helping lift Plan 5 Monthly 14.09% versus the S&P 500’s already strong 4.31% gain.

There are two substitutions in this month’s new set of picks, with Netflix and Under Armor replacing last month’s poorest performers, 3D Systems and Cognex. Here are the March Plan 5 Monthly picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: March 2014 Picks

If you’re following along with Plan 5 Monthly, you’ll want to rebalance your portfolio at this point. You can find a refresher on how to do that right here.

If instead you’re following Plan 5 Quarterly, it’s not time to make any trades this month, but let’s take a look at how last month’s new picks are doing. Here are the results so far:

Plan 5 Quarterly: February 2014 Progress Report

There’s still a ways to go before this Plan 5 Quarterly period is done, but it’s making good progress so far, gaining more than twice the ground of the S&P 500.

Lastly, here’s a look at Plan 5’s overall progress from the beginning:

Both versions of Plan 5 have crossed the 50% gain mark this month! Not a bad start. I’ll be back at the end of March (Spring, at last!) with another update.

Thrive!

Mike Ferrier

It’s another big month for Plan 5, with lots to recap and two new sets of picks. Let’s begin by looking back at how Plan 5 Monthly has performed since last time:

Plan 5 Monthly: January 2014 Results

A lot of movement with this set of picks — they all either gained or lost percentages in the double digits. 3D Systems and Sierra Wireless lost quite a bit, but this was more than balanced out by the strong performance of the other three picks, most notably Illumina’s 37% gain. Overall a very active set of picks, shaking out to a total 7.18% gain.

Two substitutions in this month’s set of picks, with Cognex and Caesarstone taking the place of Netflix and Sierra Wireless. Here’s the latest set of Plan 5 Monthly picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: February 2014 Picks

If you’re following along with Plan 5 Monthly, it’s time to rebalance your portfolio. If you’re new to Plan 5 or would like a quick refresher on how to do this, you can take a look at this new page I put together that will step you through 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 2013 – January 2014 Results

Excellent results over this past quarter, with a return of 15.81% versus the S&P 500’s 1.36%!

Now here’s the new set of Plan 5 Quarterly picks:

Plan 5 Quarterly: February 2014 Picks

This quarter’s picks see three substitutions, with Buffalo Wild Wings, Caesarstone and Dreamworks Animation being replaced by newcomers Cognex, Netflix and Sierra Wireless.

Again, it’s time for you followers of Plan 5 Quarterly to rebalance your portfolios, and a step-by-step guide for doing this can be found here.

Finally, let’s step back and take a look at Plan 5’s overall progress so far, with a little help from this nifty chart:

As you can see, Plan 5 has had a very successful first six months. Plan 5 Monthly has risen a total of 33.88% since it began back on August 1st, only to be outdone by Plan 5 Quarterly’s 36.93% hike. Both versions of Plan 5 unequivocally trounced the S&P 500, which gained only 4.44% over the same period. What a start!

It’s valuable to be able to look back and see how we’re doing, so I’m planning to publish an updated version of this chart with each month’s picks. Positive results like these can incite feelings of elation and the motivation to charge ahead. But it’s also important not to get swept up in the emotions of the moment — not every month’s results will look as good as these, but it pays to stick with the plan over the long haul rather than changing course at the first sign of a downturn. Looking at this chart, we see that at the end of November we’d just gone through two months of losses in a row, for both Plan 5 Monthly and Plan 5 Quarterly. That’s down more than six percent in the same two months that the S&P was rising steadily… a certain recipe for doubts and second thoughts. But then we see how it paid off to refuse to be driven by those doubts, and to stick with Plan 5 through to today.

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

Thrive!

Mike Ferrier