I thought I would revist my stock market exploits. In May I wrote about how well I had done by investing in mining / resource stocks in the previous 12 months, growing $100,000 to $373,800. I sold my shares, looking for other opportunities. I wrote that I hoped it wouldn’t prove to be a case of “a fool and his money are soon parted”.

For the many who can’t be bothered reading my previous post, let me remind you that I initially had $100,000 to invest, which I split it into four $25,000 chunks and bought:

  • Compass Resources CMR at $0.54 per share
  • BHP Billiton BHP at $16.30 per share
  • Oxiana OXR at $0.83 per share
  • Kagara Zinc KZL at $1.19 per share

I sold all of my shares in May for:

  • Compass Resources CMR at $3.60 per share
  • BHP Billiton BHP at $28.65 per share
  • Oxiana OXR at $2.95 per share
  • Kagara Zinc KZL at $3.54 per share

Today these shares closed at:

  • Compass Resources CMR at $4.20 per share
  • BHP Billiton BHP at $25.05 per share
  • Oxiana OXR at $2.69 per share
  • Kagara Zinc KZL at $4.92 per share

If I had held my shares for another 3.5 months, my $100,000 would have grown to $417,249. The shares I sold increased in value by 11.6% in 3.5 months. That’s an annualised gain of about 40 percent.

So although this fool and his money have not been parted - I’ve been too cautious to do anything with the money - this fool would have done better if he had not sold his shares at the first hint of trouble.