2010 Investment returns

[littleroc02us]

Happy New Years! How did everyone do last year with investment YTD returns. We have a competition in our family on who has what returns. I couldn't believe it when I saw ours. The major one was our Roth IRA (Total Market Index Fund) returned 22.8% for the year. Wow! My brother in law got 15% on his Roth's. I have a Pension but don't know the exact investment returns. Exciting news, I hope everyone else had a good year, if not I'm not sure what you were doing...

[disneysteve]

our Roth IRA (Total Market Index Fund) returned 22.8% for the year.

What fund is that exactly? I'm curious because Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index fund was up 17%. It sounds a little odd that another total market index would have outperformed that by nearly 6%.

[Snodog]

I got 17% from a 62% stocks/38% bonds, 50% US/50% International portfolio.

[gambler2075]

Happy New Years! How did everyone do last year with investment YTD returns.

I was somewhere between +125% and +150% returns (more than doubled my investment in 2010) but that was because I was a trader, not an investor. In 2009 I had 542% returns, but of course the market was incredible if you were trading the long side of things.

As my portfolio size increases, it becomes harder and harder to get the same returns, and I have started to trade more swing positions rather than daytrading.

I would consider myself very fortunate if I repeat my 2010 performance in 2011.

g

[Scanner]

Mmm. . .not sure what my portfolio return was for 2010 but since June 2009, I am up 100%.

[disneysteve]

I haven't looked at everything yet, but here is a quick run down of our funds. This list isn't complete and a couple of the YTD numbers are as of 11/30. They haven't posted the 12/31 numbers yet.

VIGRX 16.96%
VGHCX 6.16%
VGTSX 11.12%
VBMFX 6.42%
JANDX 11.31%
HRTVX 10.28%
CSRSX 21.47%
OPGSX 54.50%

Overall, a very good year to be an investor.

[KTP]

DW 401K 17%
DW Roth 14%
My Roth 14%
My IRA 265%
Wells Fargo taxable 31%

The only two I actively trade are my IRA and the taxable account. Maybe you can't beat the market long term, but short term you sure can slap it upside the head a bit.

[disneysteve]

our Roth IRA (Total Market Index Fund) returned 22.8% for the year. My brother in law got 15% on his Roth

DW 401K 17%
DW Roth 14%
My Roth 14%
My IRA 265%
Wells Fargo taxable 31%

Are you guys referring to single funds or the overall performance of the portfolio? KTP, for example, is your Roth that earned 14% all in one fund that had a 14% return or do you have multiple funds within that account and the average return was 14%?

[KTP]

Are you guys referring to single funds or the overall performance of the portfolio? KTP, for example, is your Roth that earned 14% all in one fund that had a 14% return or do you have multiple funds within that account and the average return was 14%?

both of our Roths were in VWIGX, a single Vanguard international fund. We got in at a dip due to me moving it out of the star fund in June 2010, so the return was ~20% (better than the overall return of VWIGX for 2010, but the star fund was down a bit when I switched). They are both still in VWIGX because I haven't really thought about a better place.

The 401K was a mix of the only three Vanguard index funds offered in the account (which btw had the lowest expense ratio). A lg cap growth, lg cap value, and small cap. The small cap did the best overall, but I had the least in it (figures).

[littleroc02us]

What fund is that exactly? I'm curious because Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index fund was up 17%. It sounds a little odd that another total market index would have outperformed that by nearly 6%.

The fund is called "Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares", what we do is login and click on performance/investment returns/Personal rate of return/YTD. 22.8% is mine ytd

[disneysteve]

The fund is called "Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares", what we do is login and click on performance/investment returns/Personal rate of return/YTD. 22.8% is mine ytd

Gotcha. You are reporting your personal rate of return, not the fund's rate of return. That explains the variance.

[littleroc02us]

Are you guys referring to single funds or the overall performance of the portfolio? KTP, for example, is your Roth that earned 14% all in one fund that had a 14% return or do you have multiple funds within that account and the average return was 14%?

I currently just have VTMSX..... I will be moving more this year and buying different funds.

[MaxPowers]

Vanguard Roth made 15.9%.
Have most of my money in the target retirement fund. VTIVX Now that I have close to 25k, I will be looking at redistributing it if anyone has any advice. Might drop at least 5k into small cap growth. It did well for 2010.
I cant figure out how to easily see growth of my account as a whole for my brokerage. (Zecco) So I estimate it at about 19%
Zecco is great because there are no commission fees, but it is very basic and all the tools cost extra.

[rj.phila]

i've shied away from stocks and funds in the past. can i ask you guys a few questions?

1-how often are you moving your money around? are these largely things you've held for years, are are you re-allocating every month?

2-what kind of knowledge base do you consider necessary? is there a cliffs notes of sorts for funds/stocks, or is this something you are constantly staying abreast of(the performance of products)?

thanks.

[gambler2075]

i've shied away from stocks and funds in the past. can i ask you guys a few questions?

1-how often are you moving your money around? are these largely things you've held for years, are are you re-allocating every month?

2-what kind of knowledge base do you consider necessary? is there a cliffs notes of sorts for funds/stocks, or is this something you are constantly staying abreast of(the performance of products)?

thanks.

I don't know if this was directed at me, but I will answer.

1- I usually trade positions in the few day to multi week timeframe, based on impending catalysts.

2 - For biopharmas I think that you need both enough knowledge to do the fundamental analysis (preferably PhD/MD/or at least graduate school) as well as the trading experience to effect your strategies. As I have said elsewhere, the trading experience took about 5-7 years to attain (probably 60-80 hours per week, 52 weeks per year) and the bio background I got in medical school as well as my years as a researcher.

g