heavy trading sent the stock in a spiral to under $25 per share. When buying bonds I did not realize that the commissions charged would be so much higher than stocks. I bought 1 Treasury note and 3 corporate bonds each maturing at different times. The interest received on all 4 of my bonds totaled $1082.00. I estimated the amount of interest given for each bond by using its coupon payment. Bond Exxon 6s 05 Ticker Symbol: B-XON Number Bought: 10 Beginning Bond Price: $981.30 Ending Bond Price: $972.50 Holding Period Return: 1.0022 Annualized Holding Period Return: .0115 Bond CompUSA 9 00 Ticker Symbol: B-CPU Number Bought: 10 Beginning Bond Price: $998.80 Ending Bond Price: $998.80 Holding Period Return: 1.0182 Annualized Holding Period Return: .0986 Bond ChaseM 6 1/8 08 Ticker Symbol: B-CMB Number Bought: 10 Beginning Bond Price: $938.80 Ending Bond Price: $937.50 Holding Period Return: 1.0125 Annualized Holding Period Return: .0670 Bond July 02 6 Ticker Symbol: B-T026 Number Bought: 10 Beginning Bond Price: $1,006.5625 Ending Bond Price: $1,001.25 Holding Period Return: 1.0142 Annualized Holding Period Return: .0555 In retrospect I believe I should have chosen some stocks that had riskier betas in addition to having a risky asset allocation. I was sad that only 11 of my 25 stock selections had positive returns. My disappointment was increased whenever I looked at the class rankings. I thought that my investment strategies would produce good returns, but my total return for the investment period was -1.16%. By comparison the S&P 500's return during that same time was 7.40%. Overall I feel my investment strategy would have worked if the time frame would have been longer. Unfortunately many of the stocks that I bought at or near their respective 52-week lows, kept right on declining. Most of my picks were on the rise over the last month as I steadily began to make back some of the money that I had previously lost....
