My Financial Journey

Here are my best performing stocks for 2016. As with my portfolio in general no real fireworks this year. No individual stock doubled this year and in general my bigger winners were smaller positions in my portfolio so their impact wasn’t felt as much. As with most stocks I own I feel really good about this bunch of winners and expect most of them to make the big winner list in the future. 3D systems has made the biggest winners or losers list every single year since I purchased it in 2012. Up huge in 2012(+90.40%) and 2013(+172.91%), down huge in 2014(-63.79%) and 2015(-73.63%), and now on the winners list in 2016(+52.93%). Unfortunately for me that adds up to -61% returns for me on 3D Systems 🙁

Shopify +66.15%
3D Systems Corp + 52.93%
BOFI Holding +35.63%
Texas Roadhouse +34.85%
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners +32.36%
Arista Networks + 24.32%
Berkshire Hathaway +23.48%

My worst performers this year include some of my largest positions and favorite stocks and also explains why my stock portfolio so greatly under performed the market in 2016. Under Armour led the way with nearly a 40% drop in value in 2016. I consider Under Armour a great company and a company that will one day surpass Nike in size which would mean outsized gains for me and my portfolio. Stratasys and Proto Labs are part of the 3D printer craze and with 3D Systems are probably companies who have an uncertain future, but for now I will let things play out. Chipotle has fallen on hard times after a Norovirus scare at a couple of their location. Yes they have been hurt in the short term and have some hurdles to overcome, but it is a great company with food that people love and will rebound in the years to come. Tesla is currently nearly my largest stock holding with it and Netflix flipping back and forth. Overall I feel that Tesla over the next 10 years will make me quite wealthy and make the world a better place in the process and is one company I have invested more in than any other company by far. The next few years should be exciting for that position.

Under Armour -39.35%
Stratasys -29.55%
Chipotle Mexican Grill -21.32%
Proto Labs – 19.37%
The Boston Beer Company -15.88%
Tesla -10.97%

Continuing on my tradition from previous year’s I have calculated my cumulative investment returns from 2006 until now against the SP500.

As I mentioned in recent posts 2016 was a very underwhelming year for my investments and it is reflected in these statistics as well. My NestEgg is now underperforming the SP500 index over the 11 years that I have been investing. Returning a little over 1/2 percent less per year than the SP500 index. My stock returns are still besting the SP500 by a few percentage points which means my 401k has really been lackluster which kind of surprises me as I wouldn’t have expected to have significantly lower returns in there using basically series of Vanguard funds over the years and if I look at my performance that is not reflected so I am kind of at a loss right now.

Vanguard 401k Returns