I Am Beating Gold

Over two years have passed since my last blog post, but my track record now has two more years in it to show that I do know how to invest my money. Anybody who pays attention to financial markets once in a while knows that gold has been awesome over the past five years:

The above chart shows a 133.86% rise in gold over the past five years. This rise in gold equates to an average annual rise of 18.5%. But my track record over the past five-plus years has been even more awesome than gold! I demonstrate below that the rate of return on my investments over the past five-plus years has been 20.5% per year. I am better than gold by two percent per year! If you do not believe me, read on and wade through all the detail below. Otherwise, contact me for advice on investing. I shall start with the following chart that lists the dates and amounts of all the deposits into the four brokerage accounts under my control:

The above four brokerage accounts include my Roth IRA, my spouse's Roth IRA, my child's Coverdell Education Savings Account, and my spouse's Traditional IRA. The above chart indicates that the deposits have resulted in a total balance of $93,272.49 as of Monday, May 7, 2012. This outcome is equivalent to purchases of bonds that return 20.5% per year. For my Roth IRA, the above chart shows that I have made a total of four deposits and one withdrawal. My March 25, 2010 post shows proof of the first three deposits. I have no complaints about Scottrade, but after March 25, 2010; I decided to use more than one broker for our family in order to reduce the chance that broker bankruptcies would wipe us out. I transferred my Roth IRA from Scottrade to Tradeking. Tradeking does not appear to offer a convenient list of deposits and withdrawals like Scottrade does, so the documentation that I need from Tradeking for verifying the above chart is more complex than the documentation that I would have needed had I never transferred my Roth IRA from Scottrade to Tradeking. So please look at my March 25, 2010 post again and view the image showing that my Roth IRA then held 685 shares of ASFI, 2936 shares of BMRA, 2770 shares of KYCN, and 7530 shares of SVLF. The following image shows that I transferred all these shares into Tradeking:

The following two images show my sale of BMRA and purchase of more shares in SVLF on August 11, 2010:

Now I have to reveal a gap in my records because Tradeking messed up my records as it switched its clearing firm from Legent Clearing to Penson Financial. The following image shows the September 30, 2010 transfer of my stocks from Legent Clearing to Penson Financial:

In October and November, 2010; I sold all my shares in ASFI and SVLF in order to buy MILL and BG. I failed to record these transactions with the foolish belief that TradeKing would actually keep accurate records for me. Here is proof that Tradeking failed to maintain records of my October, 2010 transactions with either Legent or Penson:

Legent shows a statement dated November 30, 2010; but this statement indicates that I had nothing in my Tradeking account:

Luckily, Tradeking did not go MFGlobal on me, and provided me a statement on December 30, 2010 indicating the following portfolio:

Tradeking records, luckily, become more convenient to present for the latest twelve months. So here are all my Tradeking transactions for the previous twelve months:

Here is my Tradeking portfolio as of today:

If you have read this far, then you should be happy that explaining the details of the other three accounts under my control is a lot easier because the other three accounts are with Scottrade. For my spouse's Roth IRA, the above chart shows a total of seven deposits and one withdrawal. Here is the proof:

Here is my spouse's Roth IRA portfolio as of today:

For my spouse's traditional IRA, the above chart shows just one deposit and zero withdrawals. Here is the proof:

Here is my spouse's Traditional IRA portfolio as of today:

For my child's Coverdell Education Savings Account, the above chart shows three deposits and zero withdrawals. Here is the proof:

Here is my child's Coverdell Education Savings Account as of today:

I now compile the above four brokerage accounts into one chart below:

Congratulations! You have reached the end of this excruciating verification of my claim to a five-year-plus streak of 20.5%. Here is a picture of me putting it all together: