Trading Diary: February 2012

The latest ASX Challenge is now open.  After a very slack last six months in the way of trading, I’m excited to be back in the game.

Have yet to make a buy order; but am studying charts nightly – have to get back into the habit!

So watch this space and I’ll post updates weekly.

When it comes to investing, are women better than men?

warren-buffett-invest-like-a-girlAccording to a new book called Warren Buffett Invests Like A Girl by LouAnn Lofton; perhaps they are.

Academic researchers and behavioral economists have been putting in the long hours and hard work necessary to tease out the differences between how men invest and how women invest. The studies and surveys go back years and cover nearly every aspect of investing–decision making, risk assessment, trading frequency and consistency of results, just to name a few.

Researchers have also studied the differences among professional investors, both male and female, highlighting the fact that these variations in temperament aren’t limited just to the universe of the individual investor. And some of the most interesting recent studies have just begun to uncover the role of testosterone in investing, risk taking and trading. You’re not shocked to hear it has one, are you? [Read more...]

Trading Diary: Game End

Well it’s been an interesting game. Over the game period, the sharemarket fluctuated considerably due to events such as the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the Aussie dollar reaching record highs, commodities falling and continuing concerns about the health of a number of developed economies.

This is reflected in the following:

  • only 20% of players finished the game in profit
  • the average player portfolio value was $48,153
  • the All Ordinaries was down by 4.70%
  • only 3 sectors were in profit – energy, telecommunications and  utilities.

There wasn’t a lot of trading going in this game… mainly just monitoring positions.  I’m pleased to report that I finished in profit (yah!) and in the top 4% of players. [Read more...]