Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +7,973.97 (+0.96%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$256,041.91 (+43.85%). Our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +12.53% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ Only 88 days left in the year! Mother Little Helper closed today, up +43.85% year to date. The current return has surpassed my initial projection of 42% by year end. The important thing to keep in mind is that we are in a position where we can lose 50% of our gains and still be making a significant profit and still be beating the current S&P 500 return by a wide margin. I feel like we have achieved our goal of showing that a Do-It-Yourself approach to investing can be successful, bu

Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +834.63 (+0.10%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$235,648.83 (+40.36%). Our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +11.96% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ This Weeks Calendar: Tomorrow I'll be listening to the 4th quarter earnings call from Copart Inc. the salvage cars and insurance auction site. Copart has been a solid performer for the portfolio with more growth in store. The pre-release earnings came out just now. Earnings per share were $0.30 vs $0.29 expected Revenue was $378.6 million, up 13.8% vs analysts expectation of $357.2 million Shares are up 4.5% or about $34/share in after hours trading The portfolio is up today, so I thou

Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +7,567.85 (+0.93%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$234,654.81 (+40.19%). Our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +11.84% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ The portfolio is up significantly today, so I thought I'd talk about some of the companies that are at the top of the leader board. We had 18 companies that gained more than 1% today. Netease, Nvidia, Stamps.com, Lam Research, Cognex, IPG Photonics, Omeros. Today we saw impressive gains from Chinese game maker Netease, up over 8% today. After reporting less than spectacular numbers last quarter, investors look like they are taking a longer term view of the company as they buy back s

Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +2,962.08 (+0.37%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$224,534.21 (+38.45%). According to CNN Money our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +11.59% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ The portfolio was up today +0.37% on some big gains from a broad group of companies. Often our rallies occur around an industry but today included Dynavax (healthcare), Xilinx (semiconductors), Copart (automotive), Stamps.com (stamps), Thor (RV's), Citrix Systems (enterprise software), and Applied Materials, a company that makes the equipment that makes computer chips. That last one is really encouraging. When the chip equipment makers are doing well, the whol

Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +15,252.15 (+1.93%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$222,184.26 (+38.05%). According to CNN Money our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +11.13% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ The Mother's Little Helper Portfolio is at an all time high. Hurricane Irma fortunately didn't do as much damage as was anticipated, but those impacted will continue to need our help until they get their homes and businesses back. Today is also day 13. That's right it's been 13 days in a row since North Korea has launched a missile. Distinguished Gentlemen Today I wanted to bring your attention to something other than the stock market, natural disasters and g

Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +606.63 (+0.08%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$206,729.25 (+35.41%). According to CNN Money our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +10.11% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ After the presidential election the markets began betting on a corporate tax break or total tax reform. Investments have been rotating, a little slower lately, but still rotating in and out of stocks that are estimated to receive the greatest benefit from a tax break. 15%, 20%, 25%, enough already, I would argue it doesn’t matter if the focus is on efficiency. Let's be really disruptive and extend a massive tax break to all businesses, without changing the rate

Mother's Little Helper portfolio was UP today +2,454.75 (+0.31%). Overall GAIN YTD: +$206,343.58 (+35.34%). According to CNN Money our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +10.13% Year To Date. http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/ I'm Certain I'm Uncertain In a previous post I discussed how average investors are taking volatility out of the market and wreaking havoc on professional fund managers. My premise is that professionals thrive on volatility and use it to their advantage. I was asked if I still put aluminum foil on my windows and maintain a subscription to Conspiracy Theory Weekly. Sometimes it's lonely on this end of the keyboard. Regardless I maintain my conviction that volat