The Sun's Financial Diary

This probably isn't something I really want to buy because of the struggle of the US auto industry. However, I made this one-time purchase today in my IRA account.
Before transferring my IRA from Scottrade to Vanguard, I have four Vanguard funds plus a non-Vanguard fund, BRSIX in my account. Since Scottrade charges commission for [...]

Here's a complete list of my mutual fund year-end distributions:

Symbol
Date
Dividend
Short-termcapital gain
Long-termcapital gain
Total

CSVFX
09/20/06
$0.12
$0.13
$2.51
$2.76

OAKBX
12/14/06
$0.5013
$0
$1.3081
$1.8094

TGLDX
12/15/06
$0.217
$1.122
$3.93
$5.269

PRSVX
12/18/06
$0.27
$0.25
$1.16
$1.68

PRNEX
12/18/06
$0.57
$0.34
$1.21
$2.12

TREMX
12/18/06
$0.42
$0
$1.06
$1.46

TAREX
12/20/06
$0.893
$0.062
$2.568
$3.523

DODGX
12/28/06
$0.54
$0.247
$6.405
$7.192

DODFX
12/28/06
$0.565
$0.144
$0.349
$1.18

CGMFX
12/28/06
$0.81
$0
$2.92
$3.73

Most of the funds I own distribute annually (except DODGX which distributes every quarter), with more payouts in the forms of dividend and long-term capital gain rather than short-term capital gain. The benefit of dividend and long-term gain is that they have [...]

Here's a complete chart of the 4-week T-bill rates of 2006. Overall, the rates were on the rise throughout the year. It was just above 4.0% when 2006 began, gradually moved up and peaked at 5.263% on November 30th, and ended the year with a 4.742% APR, a 17.6% annual increase in rates.
 
The sharp [...]

According to Briefing.com, China Life Insurance (LFC) will conduct a 2:1 stock split when the trading begins on December 29th. There have been some rumors on Yahoo! Finance discussion board lately about the split, but this is the first official announcement. Closed near $140 yesterday, the price after the split will be much more affordable. [...]

Legg Mason's Bill Miller, the manager of Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX), has beaten S&P 500 for 15 consecutive years since 1991. His winning streak, however, is about to come to an end as LMVTX returns only 6.71% as of yesterday compared to the 16.5% gain of S&P 500. According to a Bloomberg.com article, the [...]

Early this month, I posted an entry on my mutual fund portfolio. I also mentioned in the post that all the mutual funds I have in the taxable account are actively managed funds.  A reader asked me the question why I chose actively managed funds instead of index funds which, by common sense, have low [...]

Find out the pros and cons of some best online discount brokers including ShareBuilder, Firstrade, SogoTrade, Scottrade, TradeKing, OptionsXpress, OptoinsHouse, and Zecco before selecting one to trade stocks/ETFs.
Currently, I am using six discount online brokerage firms: Tradeking, Zecco, Scottrade, Firstrade, OptionsHouse, and OptionsXpress, plus two for scheduled investments at ShareBuilder (not active anymore) and QQQDirect [...]

Early last month, I sent the account application form together with a $500 check to P&G to invest in their stocks. The confirmation mail arrived yesterday, saying the initial purchase was made on December 1st. This part of my recent DRIP investments in dividend-paying stocks. So far I have bought three stocks: Bank of America [...]

As we entered the final weeks of 2006, mutual fund companies start to make year-end distributions. Yesterday, another fund in my mutual fund portfolio, Oakmark Equity and Income Fund (OAKBX), paid out annual dividend and capital gain. So far, two of my mutual funds distributed dividend and capital gain (CSVFX distributed on September 20th):

Symbol
Date
Dividend
Short-term
capital gain
Long-term
capital [...]

More than half of our taxable investment assets are in individual stocks. Currently I have 14 stocks/ETFs at four discount brokerage firms plus ComputerShare, the DRIP program provider. Following is a list of stocks I own:

Symbol
Value
Firstpurchase
%Gain
Monthlypurchase

BAC
$1,014
11/10/06
-3.37
$50*

GRRF
$3,544
03/30/06
-12.17
$0

LFC
$50,910
12/17/03
273.20
$0

MSFT
$6,014
11/10/04
0.72
$0

QQQQ
$50
12/07/06
0.62
$50

NT
$6,223
01/21/04
-50.59
$0

PGJ
$7,848
12/21/04
39.40
$0

PEY
$7,562
04/25/06
9.85
$100

PFM
$1,169
06/06/06
5.70
$100

PSI
$3,528
03/14/06
-5.99
$0

PHO
$4,650
03/14/06
6.30
$0

PID
$3,796
09/29/05
24.50
$0

PGN
$316
11/15/06
5.33
$50*

TSM
$14,269
12/13/02
53.18
$0