How my college friends and I turned Beer Night into the TNC – the Thursday Night Consortium (1)

How I lost my morals on the first step (Part 1):

I started this game with the intent of only investing in stocks that would be for the betterment of humanity. That went out the window on my first purchase ($700 for 8 shares of an insurance company, eek). I knew that the company was a safe bet and that they would probably split this year in February. I still felt guilty about abandoning my ideals during step one though.

Three weeks later I finally saved up an additional $500. But, before making a choice I did some serious research. I looked up every “green hedge fund” to see what companies they were interested in. One fund listed Union-Carbine as “an environmentally friendly chemical company.” Holy WTF, Batman! If you don’t know why this is shocking, check out this letter from Bhopal, India to Union-Carbine shareholders. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Email me if you want specific research details, ‘cause it’s pretty boring and I don’t want to your eyes to glaze over just yet.

Finally I opted for 14 shares of a green-friendly natural gas company (okay, getting better). It was a safe choice. I bought them at the lowest point in what appears to be a pretty regular fluctuation of the share price. The dividends covered most of the commission costs and then I sold them at a profit. I currently have a limit order in place as they go into their next trough.

This was pretty small potatoes stuff and it scratched my investment-itch. Better yet, I’ve got 4% return per month on my choices. But I wasn’t proud of what I ha, and what good are my 8 or 14 votes in a company where there are millions of outstanding shares? None.

To be continued…

How my college friends and I turned Beer Night into the TNC – the Thursday Night Consortium (P)

Preface: The Itch

Every fall, when the student loan money comes in, I get the urge to play in the stock market. And this October I scratched that itch. Sure, I might loose the money, but honestly – we’re talking coffee and cig money here. It may actually be healthy for me to lose the dough and ditch these habits.

“Joseph, it’s borrowed money,” became my partner’s refrain after I mentioned this to him. That’s not quite true though: the loan money went to the school and living expenses. The meager stipend I get from the college paper and the occasional freelancing checks are what get funneled into this game.

Did you catch the usage of the word game? Game, experiment, hobby – that’s all this is. Sure, I want to make a buck but I’m not holding my breath. Ultimately, I just want to have fun as a small fry in the turbulent oceans of exchange.

Somehow, due to a stock tip dropped during on a drunken Thursday night (the regular bar night for a bunch of us English majors), my little game grew and the TNC was born.

Our goal? To change the world with the very tools that have made it such a hard place for so many people. To be young college students who realize we have the power to bring a social conscience to Mega-Corp America, that we can take control through the markets that are the very blood of these companies and encourage life and environment saving technologies to be shared globally. And if we can’t, as share holders we run the company into the ground.

Sure, we want to make a buck but we know we won’t get rich doing this (our constitution actually insists the TNC never becomes our primary source of income).

To be continued…

Money makes the world go round...

As well as making wine, there’s another experiment I’ve embarked on: the market. This is the “games” part of “Minotaur Wine & Games.” My entire investment philosophy is based completely on the idea of treating the stock market as a game that even some one with as little capital as I have can play in.

Now, I know that with the amount of money I’m playing with, I can’t expect any big payoffs. I think I’m doing pretty well to have made back what I’ve spent on commissions – with one major exception that I’ll talk about in December. But I’d like to know what you think about what I’ve misnamed as the “Minotaur Funds – a Very Tiny Hedge Fund.” My goal with posting updates on this investment experiment is not to give advice (read: do not listen to me for advice) rather I want to start a discussion about the small time investor and the responsibilities s/he has to the market and the market has to him/her. And if I can make a bit of bread off this experiment so much the better.

The pie chart in the corner represents the break down of my investments, I’ll be putting a more detailed one up eventually with percentages and details about shares up but right now I’m looking at making some major changes to my minor holdings.

It's time to sign off now this morning. Let me know what you think about this investment discussion idea and what topics should be discussed.