FinanciallYou

In January 2011 I wrote about a little experiment on stock market.  Well it has been one year and so here’s the result of the experiment.  In Dec 2010, I selected 5 stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange (S&P/TSX) using nothing but darts to see how the performance of the stocks would stack up against the index in one year’s time. I made no changes to the stocks during the year even as the stock market experienced a “correction.”  So here’s the data from Dec 21, 2011.

So the dart test did not beat the index in my test.  Including dividends, my annual return is -13.54% while the TSX returned  -11.07%.  Considering I didn’t include the trading costs of $99.95 to buy the shares my overall return on the investment is more like -15.30% , 4.23% less than the index.

The main contributor of my negative return were my heavy weighting in Encana during a year where oversupply for natural gas depressed all stocks related to the industry and the fact that Silver Standard lost 23% of its share price in one day after announcing reduction in reserve (how much silver is available to mine) and increases in production costs.

I have also included one of my favorite Canadian mutual funds in the table to illustrate how a different weighting (heavy in financials) would have impacted your returns. In 2011, while still negative this fund did significantly better than both my darts or the index.

So what conclusion can you draw from this experiment?  As anyone knows one year’s data isn’t worth much in the grand scheme of things.  Had the darts outperformed the index in 2011, I would have to reach the same conclusion.  I think what’s illustrative in this little demonstration is that by overweighing in specific stocks, you can skew the results significantly.  However, as you add stocks in your drive to diversify you will also drive your returns to match the index which means that if you are aiming to beat the index you won’t succeed (remember that there are always fees  even with ETFs).

So what to do?

“Don’t play the stock market” has always been my conclusion.  You don’t have enough time to be looking at the stocks, doing the research that’s required to “beat the market.”  If something like that exists then why are there so many advisors and analysts around?

Go back to your financial plan and see what return you need to grant you the goals you have set for yourself.  Create a portfolio that matches your risk profile and monitor it.  If need be, add more money into the pot, because savings are the best way to reach your goals.

Now if there is only a mutual fund out there that can give me 12% return….