Darkest December

So much is afoot these days that I thought I might throw up a post. First off, congrats to Jake and Kay for the birth of their baby son, David. He is a strapping lad who weighed in at an impressive nine pounds.

Last month I jumped into uncharted waters (for me anyway) by finally opened an investment account. I went with TD Ameritrade for no other reason than it was unrecommended by a friend and coworker who's opinion I respect in these matters. My timing could not have been worse, or better for those that subscribe to the school-of-hard-knocks approach to learning about investing. I purchased four ETFs about 24 hours before the markets took their huge early November plunge. For the sake of full disclosure I'll reveal the names of the funds I bought, but as I just said, I'm a novice. Only a moron would take this as a recommendation (my lawyers told me to say that).

I was lured in the seductive promise of emerging markets and started things off with two of BRIC countries--Brazil and China. I put about 40 percent of my October investment allowance in the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) ETF. Another 20 percent went into the iShares MSCI Free Brazil Index Fund (EWZ). The remaining 40 percent of my portfolio was split between two US-centered funds--the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) ETF that tracks the Nasdaq and the Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth ETF (VOT).

Suffice it to say that my first lessons were hard ones, mostly thanks to the subprime mortgage crisis and its effect on our skittish friends across the Taiwan Strait--not to mention my own unbridled greed. I've been inching my way back up from the abyss, battered but not broken. Have I had enough? Pulling out and Running? Not a chance. Lessons learned. Ouch. Updates to follow.