Welcome to the December update of Plan 5 Picks. The market has done well over the past month, and Plan 5 Monthly has done a bit better. Here are the Plan 5 Monthly results for November:

Plan 5 Monthly: November 2014 Results

Apple and BJ’s Restaurants lead the pack this month with gains of roughly 10% each, while Gilead Sciences performed worst with a 10.68% loss. The overall gain for Plan 5 Monthly of 2.6% just edges out the S&P 500’s gain of 2.42%.

There are two substitutions in this month’s new set of picks, with job recruiting firm Robert Half International and network equipment manufacturer Sierra Wireless replacing last month’s poorest performers, Gilead Sciences and WhiteWave Foods. Here are the December Plan 5 Monthly picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: December 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: November 2014 Progress Report

There’s still a ways to go before this Plan 5 Quarterly period is done, but its progress is looking good up to this point, having gained nearly 10% over the course of the month. This is due to several strong performers, most notably Sierra Wireless which gained over 20% in a single day (!) and continued to climb from there.

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

Plan 5 Quarterly takes the lead again this month over Plan 5 Monthly, but the margin is slim and, looking at it from the start 16 months ago, they’ve both performed substantially better than the S&P 500. Enjoy the holidays and the rest of 2014, I’ll be back at the end of December with another update.

Thrive!

Mike Ferrier

It was a bumpy ride, but the market as a whole went up over the past month, and Plan 5 did even better. Here’s how Plan 5 Monthly performed in October:

Plan 5 Monthly: October 2014 Results

Illumina led with its 17.17% rise, and none fell more than Under Armor’s -4.82%. Not bad. All told we saw a 3.84% gain for the full Plan 5 Monthly portfolio.

Quite a shakeup this month. Only two of last month’s picks, Gilead Sciences and WhiteWave Foods, carry over. The remaining slots are filled by newcomers Apple, BJ’s Restaurants and Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrances. Here’s the latest set of picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: November 2014 Picks

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: August 2014 – October 2014 Results

Illumina and WhiteWave showed the strongest results this period, rising 20.05% and 25.52% respectively. Their effect was mitigated a bit by Nuance’s loss of 14.66%, however. Still, the overall gain of 7.16% over the full period is a welcome relief after a few less than impressive quarters, and easily beat the S&P 500’s 4.57% gain.

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

Plan 5 Quarterly: November 2014 Picks

For the first time, there’s not a single pick carrying over from the previous period.

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 November with the latest picks. Until then…

Thrive!

Mike Ferrier