Fool Portfolio Report
Monday, December 4, 1995
Once again, ladies, gents, and Fools, Foolishness has hit a new high. Folly today is worth more than ever before, as Monday's market close put the Fool Portfolio total value at $96,826.46, up 93.65% from our debut 16 months ago. In fact, today is the 16-month anniversary of Foolishness on AOL, as the Motley Fool online financial forum was born August 4, 1994. How appropriate, therefore, that we'd smash through another new high en route to what we hope will be a 100% portfolio gain by New Year's Day!
Know any friends who own mutual funds? (That may well, of course, be most of the people we know.) Well, the S&P 500, which beats most mutual funds each year, is up 33.87% since our debut, which means that your offline mutual-fund owning friends are probably up less than 30% over the same period---many, substantially less. (If you are interested in "enlightening" one of these friends, you can call 1-800-592-3131 and order them a free disk and 10 FREE hours---and you get 5 hours free if your friend signs up!)
Now certainly much of our readership was simply not THERE on the grand first day of Foolishness Online, when we got 60 swings at our Today's Pitch, 35 messages on our boards, and had no MF remote staff members. Thus, despite our best efforts, we couldn't arrange things for you so that you bought into The Fool Portfolio on Day One.
BUT, since January first of this year---four months after we launched our forum---we're up 74.41%, vs. a gain in the S&P 500 of 33.62%, so anyone who's been mimicking the Fool Portfolio in 1995 has probably more than paid for online connect fees, with a good 50% or more left over.
But again, maybe you just weren't THERE back on January 1st of this year, because you simply hadn't even heard of online services until April or May. OK, well, let's fast forward to the first of September, just three months ago. SURELY, you were hangin' in Fooldom by then, right? Well, the Fool Portfolio is up 20.42% since then, with the S&P 500 up just 9.21% (the NASDAQ, in a tougher market environment, is up only 4.85% since 8/31).
What?! You say you didn't find us until yesterday? Or, that today is the VERY FIRST TIME you've EVER typed keyword FOOL and found this modest, wayward corner of cyberspace?! OK, well as of market close today, you'd be up 0.00%, with both indices not coincidentally also settled at returns of just 0.00%.
The question, of course, is where we are going, not where we've been. We've been asked time and time again, "I'm new. You guys are already well up. When and how should I enter the Fool Portfolio?" In fact, we've written a Fribble to answer that very question, but let me summarize here just by saying that we don't actually want you to mirror our portfolio. . . or at least, that's not our goal. Our goal is to help you help yourself make money, which is just another way of saying we want to teach you how to invest, so that you feel comfortable and confident beating the stock market. If that means holding a few Fool stocks, great. But again, it's not really the point.
We do not run our portfolio to give our readers "instant money" by blindly following us with no effort. Rather, the Fool Port exists to demonstrate how well individual investors can do in an investment world that Wisdom constantly tells us is hostile to the small guys. It is FAR too difficult, we frequently hear, for the little people to invest money in stocks on our own and beat the market.
Of course, it's ALWAYS going to be in Wall Street's best interest to tell us it's too hard, and we can't do it ourselves. Whether we're talking about outfits as different as Merrill Lynch or Vanguard, these guys have a vested interest in making managing our money sound too difficult to be worth the effort. . . because THEY will do it for us (and oh, by the way, skim some bucks off the top for their fees).
That is ultimately what The Fool Portfolio and all the rest of our collective online undertakings are about. What is happening here is a massive online community sticking out its tongue at Wall Street.
And it's terribly fun.
OK, we had all 8 stocks up today and our three best up strongest of all. America Online rose $2 1/8, Iomega rose $2 5/8, and The Gap bounced back $2 1/8 as well, as the Fool Port rocked and rolled to a 3.43% gain. If we can cobble together another 3.28% tomorrow, this week, or this month, we will hit the 100% gong. Expect your first official Fool press release if and when that happens!
Meantime, stay Foolish.
---David Gardner, December 4, 1995
AMER +2 1/8 AMAT + 1/2 CHV +1 GE +1 1/8 GPS +2 1/8 IOMG +2 5/8 KLAC +1 3/4 S + 3/8
Today's Numbers
Day Month Year History FOOL +3.43% 1.25% 74.41% 93.65% S&P 500 +1.10% 1.37% 33.62% 33.87% NASDAQ +1.37% 1.00% 42.27% 48.54% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 8/5/94 680 AmOnline 7.27 42.00 477.49% 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 15.11 43.75 189.47% 4/20/95 155 The Gap 32.55 44.88 37.86% 8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 38.63 33.53% 8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 69.50 20.00% 8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 50.25 2.55% 8/24/95 100 AppldMatl 57.52 47.50 -17.43% 8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 34.00 -23.96% Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change 8/5/94 680 AmOnline 4945.56 28560.00 $23614.44 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 5063.13 14656.25 $9593.12 4/20/95 155 The Gap 5045.25 6955.63 $1910.38 8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 6602.50 $1100.63 8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 5527.50 $137.51 8/24/95 100 AppldMatl 5752.49 4750.00 -$1002.49 8/24/95130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 4420.00 -$1392.49 8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 6373.13 $1600.48 CASH $18981.46 TOTAL $96826.46