Reach for your personal best only
DEN SOMERA
Week 21 marks the end of the fifth month of the column’s seven-month “1st Virtual Stock Trading Contest of The Manila Times.” This obviously means that the contest will soon come to an end in the next two months.
When likened to a basketball game — a game of both skill and chance like stock investing and trading — the next two months is equivalent to its “last two minutes,” the time in which the contending players may still have the chance to change the outcome of their game.
As how they are in a basketball game, the pressure within this period could be tremendous which could make players resort to desperate moves that could drastically change the status of their play that could end into a number of results like from good to bad, bad to good, bad to worst or good to best.
In the game
In Pixiu’s case, despite her No.1 position in the leaderboard of the contest, she stepped up her play in an apparent bid to widen her lead. She submitted no less than 15 trading orders for the week which was about double her past weekly average.
Unfortunately, while stock prices generally advanced higher last Friday as the main benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed at 7,701.38 and ended with a whopping weekly gain of 301.77 points or 4.08 percent – and radically lessened the market’s year-to-date deficit to only 857.04 points or 10.01 percent — Pixiu’s performance standing dropped to a return on investment (ROI) of 106.22 percent, down 3.41 percent from the previous week.
Liquidation costs and slip in prices by most of her remaining stocks pulled down the profitability of her investment portfolio.
HRB 2015 has no transaction for Week 21 again but he’s one of those who greatly benefited from the market’s uptick last week. The price of MER (his only stock position) climbed higher that his performance standing moved up by 1.24 percent, ending with an ROI of 102.28 percent.
Play Hard is the biggest gainer for Week 21 with his investment performance of 99.08 percent ROI, up 3.30 percent. He didn’t have any transaction throughout the period but the sheer quality of his stock holdings propelled his standing to go one notch higher in the leaderboard to No. 3, past Dondee Prime who occupied the slot for some time.
With no transaction last week, too, Dondee Prime’s performance still improved, albeit slightly, by 0.59 percent. The market’s big rally proved beneficial to his investment portfolio, thus, driving his performance record to 97.05 percent ROI.
With only one trading order for the week that was rendered “void” due to lack of inventory of the stock, Small Time Trader had the second-best record of gains for the week. The value of his stockholdings rose along with the overall market’s climb. His investment portfolio made a net increase of 3.25 percent compared to the previous week. His performance standing for Week 21 then stood at 96.51 percent ROI.
St. Michael’s holdings in PXP went up while the market value of his investments in MWC dropped in last week’s general advance. Considering that his investment in MWC was bigger, his performance record fell by 0.63 percent for a net ROI of 90.87 percent.
Dud67’s standing slightly improved to 64.78 percent ROI with the improvement in the price of VITA in last week’s market rally. It could have been more if his holdings in MRC didn’t drop one price fluctuation when it closed last Friday which allowed Dud67’s performance to improve by only 0.54 percent.
Bottom line
In a way, stock investing and trading is unlike basketball as a game of both skill and chance. Pressure to score is not advised as a rule. When pressure is allowed to play in one’s game in the market, one is likely to fail than succeed. Pressure often drives investors to become victims rather than victors of the market.
Conventional market wisdom says that when you’re overtaken by pressure, it’s most likely that you’ll lose critical judgment. When this happens, you might fall into false hopes and resort to risky gambles, losing sight of your primary trading goal, which is to “reach for your personal best only.”
Den Somera is a licensed stockbroker. The article has been prepared for general circulation for the reading public and must not be construed as an offer, or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments whether referred to herein or otherwise. Moreover, the public should be aware that the writer or any investing arties mentioned in the column may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of their reported or mentioned investment activity. E-mail address of the writer is den.somera@manilatimes.net
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