This is a ‘historical’ posting from Obblogatory.com, but I reposted it as it has a better context here!

My investing experience started off in September 1998 when I opened my first broker account with what was then DATEK online. I remember I funded it with about $5000 dollars, which was quite a lot of money to me at that point in my life! In total, I funded my account with about over $15,600 since then.

Of course, the biggest event that happened during these eight years was the dotcom crash, which took with it about $5000 of my hard earned cash!  So it is this blog that can help me think through the past eight years of investing successes (there have been some) and failures (there have been those too!). See the story about NAT, YHOO, and others.

This is the first time I have really kept a blog like this with such a prominent name! But oh, well. I’m hoping that by sharing with you my experiences over the last six years that I will help to thrash out my own ‘investing values’. I would say that this desire is strongly tempered by two realisations:

1. I don’t know much (even now); and
2. the popular financial writers don’t really know that much either, esp. newspaper journalists, about finances, investing and making money.

This blog is not going to be an academic blog either; it will instead focus on the practical issues of investing and money management. But it is from this practical experience that I hope I will be able to derive lessons that can be of use to me, to you and to others!

Dogs of the Dow has been attractive to me for quite a while, because it is a strategy that values beaten down but still mainstream large cap U.S. companies. Right now, there are companies in there that represent sectors for the U.S. economy, e.g. for many years Philip Morris (a.k.a. Altria) was down beaten and undervalued. But it achieved a great turn around, had 5%-6% dividends for years, and finally cleared itself of its legal troubles. Result: this year achieved new highs, and made those patient investors a tidy sum in the meantime. Perhaps even a double of the stock price, plus years of dividends.

Right now, the Telecoms sector has been hugely undervalued. In the Small Dogs, I believe that they may represent good opportunities for the careful investor.

2006 Results

Not including dividends. Approx 16% Not a bad year, if you had bought all 10!

So, this might be a very good strategy for those who aren’t into active trading.