wwwtractor's Account

[wwwtractor]

I went all in to SLV (Silver) today. I know it is a little late but I think silver is still going up for a long time over all trend. I have a Roth in Fidelity and so have several options for free trading in ETFs. SLV is already up over 2% for the day so far and up over 50% from July 10, 2009.

[etftalk]

Welcome wwwtractor, and good luck!

Sorry it took me so long to see your PM.

I got your message on the morning of 9/14/10:


I have a Roth account with ETFs and I just went all in to SLV today at $19.90

[wwwtractor]

I would like to do better on my Roth with ETFs. I am about even on TSP and Roth for this year. Maybe I can do better next year and the rest of this year. I still feel that inflation has got to hit and be recognized eventually.

[wwwtractor]

I am selling one half of SLV to preserve the gains. We will see what the market brings today.

[wwwtractor]

I put the SLV profits into SCZ because it is down about 20% over the last five years and I like small capitalization companies. It was a no commission buy in Fidelity.

Anyone have any suggestions for new money in the Roth for five or ten year growth? I am all in EFA in the TSP so I am looking for other options for the Roth.

I may open an account with TD Ameritrade for the 101 commission free ETFs.


TD Ameritrade's zero-commission program is designed to appeal to long-term investors. If investors do not hold the ETF for 30 calendar days, the brokerage's standard $9.99 per trade commission will be charged.
TD Ameritrade's move extends free trades to investors who couldn't qualify for similar deals at other brokerages before. Most large online brokers with free ETF trading require $1,000 or more to open accounts. Other brokerages, including Zecco, Wells Fargo (http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Banking,+Financial,+Insurance,+Law/Wells+Fargo) and Bank of America (http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Banking,+Financial,+Insurance,+Law/Bank+of+America), offer a limited number of free trades on any stock, including ETFs, but a minimum account balance of $25,000 is required to qualify.


http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/funds/2010-10-08-chart-ameritrade-etf_N.htm

[etftalk]

5 to 10 years? Tough one. Natural gas (UNG) may be a sleeper as it appears to be trying to bottom from a long decline.

[wwwtractor]

Well, I guess I goofed selling SLV when it jumped almost 6% in one day but I am in for the long term so SCZ should go on up eventually. I may put new money into UNG since natural resources are limited and will always go up in value. Thanks.

[wwwtractor]

My SLV and UNG are doing great in my new Roth. I was thinking about adding DBA - Commodities. Any thoughts on commodities or real estate for long term investments.

Also, I was wondering about contango on the UNG - Natural Gas because the storage costs may eat up the profits. I was thinking about FCG or other natural gas companies as a better long term idea.

Thanks for your ideas.

[etftalk]

Depending how high natural gas goes, and of course that is speculation, the companies that mine it are probably better bets long-term, than companies that use it - if you go that way.

[wwwtractor]

Current split in Roth account:

EWL 39.20% Switzerland because the exchange rate alone has a very positive prediction. Up 3% with purchase of less than one week.
SLV 30.94% To fight inflation with 77% return since purchase.
IYR 23.37% Also to fight inflation which I just bought.
EFA 06.49% Has had good return recently since I bought it and I like international stocks with almost 10% return since purchase.

I would be pleased to get any comments on this allocation which I expect to maintain at this point until about October. I sold one half of my SLV recently when I read about the banking lawsuits which of course I should have kept. Thanks.

[wwwtractor]

I was wondering if there may be a plan to one day track returns here like on TSPTalk. Thanks.

[XL-entLady]

I was wondering if there may be a plan to one day track returns here like on TSPTalk. Thanks.
Tractor, I know it was talked about very briefly when the MB began. But given the wide universe of choices, nobody could figure out a way to make it work. It's just too unwieldy.

I do think that if someone could figure out a way to do it in a relatively clean and simple manner that Tom would be willing to entertain the thought.

[alevin]

It would be extremely difficult. besides, I have a hard enough time keeping up with keeping Tracker consistent with real TSP already-I can make changes in Tracker from home, but can't do it from work. so sometimes I make changes in Tracker but I don't get those changes made in real TSP that morning after I leave home due to lack of time, other priorities.

And sometimes I make changes in TSP after I get to work-after I thought I wouldn't make any changes-so didn't record the change in Tracker before noon that day. hard to keep things consistent between the real and virtual enough already.

I let the brokerage tell me how I'm doing on net gains/losses for each account and each holding-but even they don't tell me how the overall portfolio in either the Roth or Taxable is doing net/net. I wish they did.

[wwwtractor]

Current split in Roth account:

EWL=33% Switzerland because the exchange rate alone has a very positive prediction. Up 3% with purchase of less than one week.
SLV=27% To fight inflation with 81% return since purchase.
IYR=20% Also to fight inflation which I just bought and it is holding steady.
EFA=06% Had good return recently since I bought it and I like international stocks with 8% return since purchase.
FCG=14% Natural gas is good value I think and I got it at $22 today.

I like commodities and international stocks as I still think inflation is going to be very high for some time.

[Dubble Doh]

Greetings Tractor and others, by all means, please feel free to comment:
I read your comments regarding ETF’s in your Roth with Fidelity. I have been retired for two years and made a one-time withdrawal from TSP upon retirement. I’m seriously considering a full withdrawal via “gentle” monthly roll-overs into a traditional IRA, then convert monthly into a Roth. My main purpose in handling it this way is to eventually have all of my TSP in a generational/stretch Roth IRA and to manage my taxes on a yearly basis as I make the conversions. I understand that I have to deplete my TSP within 120 months (IRS rule for roll-over IRA eligibility). I want to buy mostly ETF’s that mimic the TSP funds and a few others, this method can also serve as a form of dollar cost averaging. I’ve had a Roth with TD Ameritrade for about 15 years (all stocks) and have about decided that their short –term trading fee of $19.99 for buying or selling the commission-free ETF’s within 30 days along with their rather high expense ratios is prohibitive. I’m also looking at Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard but leaning more toward Fidelity. If you were in my shoes, with which of these three investment firms would you open your IRA’s? Fidelity, Schwab and TD Ameritrade all have offices within 15 miles of my home. The drawback with Vanguard is that there will be no face-to-face interaction, seminars, they fact that they are so dang big, etc. With Fidelity when you sell do you have to wait 3 or 4 business days to settle before you can re-invest these same proceeds? No short-term trading fees right? Do you buy any ETF’s that mimic C, S, I, G and F? If so, what are they? What other tidbits can you offer regarding Fidelity or the other firms and your strategies for investing in ETF’s? If you were just now opening a Roth, would you still open it with Fidelity?
I’ve read tons of info on these firms' websites and it’still tough to make a decision on which one. All comments and opinions will be appreciated. :wacko:

[etftalk]

Welcome Dubble doh! I copied this post over to your own thread... http://www.etftalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=518

[wwwtractor]

New Roth as of today.

I took a few positive rates of return and went hard assets because I do not have that opportunity in TSP. I have pulled into the top rates of return on TSP boards since taking a little more active role in managing my funds there with a 12-Month Personal Rate of Return: 33.19% and a year to date return of over 13% for this year. I also bumped my contribution to TSP to 20% split equally among C, S, and I funds.


% ETF
18 FCG Long term investment
32 EWL Exchange rate play
29 GLD Hard asset
21 SLV Hard asset

I will probably stay with this configuration until this fall when I will sell EWL hopefully at a good profit and we will see what happens to the hard assets by then. I still see inflation as a major threat in the next 10 years as well as a drop in the value of the dollar around the world.

I am saving up for this:

http://www.delicious.com/wwwtractor/vw My next car with 22 miles on battery and 200 - 300 miles per gallon beats my current 70 MPG best with the Honda Insight 2001 CVT.

http://www.delicious.com/wwwtractor/trike or a reverse trike with electric assist. (20 miles per hamburger)

[wwwtractor]

Actually, my contributions are the exact same as my new allocation of funds in TSP.

[wwwtractor]

I am thinking of switching half or all of my natural gas investment to graphite or graphite related?

Does anyone have an insight into that investment possibly US or Canada areas or another good investment that may be expected to have increased revenues in the hard asset class?

[wwwtractor]

Finally, positive on all investments since purchase:

up 69.66% SLV ISHARES SILVER TR ISHARES
up 5.82% GLD SPDR GOLD TR GOLD SHS
up 4.12% EWL ISHARES INC MSCI SWITZERLAND INDEX FD
up 1.64% FCG FIRST TR ISE REVERE NAT GAS INDEX FD



Maybe it is up, up and away from here.

[alevin]

Hey WWW, I've been looking at graphite-related myself. got one small purchase that is a commodity value-add, purely spec at this point. Other direct supplier-buys, I haven't acted on yet, but got a couple I'm considering-looking at charts and fundamentals. One is in the states, the other is in Canada-only available on TSX. My brokerage doesn't operate in TSX space directly yet-buy waiting til Schwab finishes the deal to take over OptX this fall-hoping will be able to go direct buys in TSX after that. PM if you want to know more. I may try out one of your reverse trikes when I get into a dealer city later this fall, jus to see how it feels. I'm looking at a longer, bikeable commute starting next spring-due to office relocation.

[wwwtractor]

I bought this book today and started reading it. The first thing I did was to set a trailing stop loss on my Roth IRA investments. I wish we had an option for automatic operations in our TSP account.

http://www.buydonthold.com/ Bought and reading in Kindle for iMac.

I am looking for an ETF with graphite in it.

[wwwtractor]

Everything except GLD stopped out. This is my new configuration with gain since purchase. I am setting stops at "trailing last 5%" as soon as each one is profitable.

Gain Percent Symbol-Description
---------- --- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.000% 06 FDRXX-FIDELITY CASH RESERVES
18.83% 31 GLD-SPDR GOLD TR GOLD SHS
00.55% 15 IAU-ISHARES GOLD TRUST ISHARES
03.72% 15 PPLT- ETFS PLATINUM TR SH BEN INT
04.38% 33 SCZ- ISHARES TR MSCI EAFE SMALL CAP INDEX FD

[wwwtractor]

Latest allocation in Fidelity Roth account:

Symbol Percent
FDRXX 2% GLD 32% IAU 15% PPLT 16% SLV 35%
I plan to stay with this on longer term basis so I took off the trailing stops for now. All are in the green since purchase except silver.

[wwwtractor]

I have been using Fidelity for years and all of my family savings is there so I am prejudicial towards them. Even though I think precious metals will do well, I am thinking of adding a percentage of high dividend ETFs at this point for the long haul.

[wwwtractor]

I just got interested in shale oil production. I am looking for shale oil ETFs if you all know of them starting with engineering companies and any other good investments in the area. Thanks.

[wwwtractor]

I am also interested in natural resource ETFs in general.

[wwwtractor]

I have $2000 to invest for 20 years in my Roth account.

I am currently heavy into precious metals.

I am particularly interested in the commission free Fidelity ETFs.

http://personal.fidelity.com/products/trading/What_You_Can_Trade/offer-faq-popup.shtml

My current fund distribution follows:

Percent Position
30.8% SLV
15.6% FDRXX
15.0% PALL
12.3% IAU
12.0% PPLT
10.1% PAL
03.8% MDT
00.4% EFA

Anyone have any suggestions?

[wwwtractor]

Why are the russians trying to break in here?

[etftalk]

I assume to steal email addresses. A lot of vbulletin forums have been having issues with this latest aggressive push to gain access.

[wwwtractor]

You can make your own ETFs now on https://www.motifinvesting.com/offers/raf-friend?utm_source=raf&utm_medium=viral&utm_campaign=link_share&raf=YR5my8DFfX-w242g0YZ0cNzruDM3HKhcwyB5wCbTWFexlHzTBwkJfw..

You can get a basket of up to 30 stocks based on any theme you like. It is an interesting idea.