Category: My Watchlist

My list of stocks I am watching.

My Watch List: VTI – Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF

Total Stock Market

The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (Ticker: VTI) has been added to my Watch List.

VTI tracks about 95% of the top U.S. common stocks, totalling over 1,200 different US stocks. The stocks VTI tracks cover all U.S. markets: NYSE, AMEX, Nasdaq and OTCBB stocks.

Advantages of VTI

VTI is very diversified and when you buy the VTI ETF, you’re buying a small piece of over 1,200 different stocks in the US stock markets. VTI offers a long term, low volatility play for investing. When the markets go up, VTI will go up.

Disadvantages of VTI

Being very diversified, you may miss out on gains from investing in invidual stocks. VTI holding are very spread out, which means your total return on VTI will be about the market average. You shouldn’t expect to sigificantly “beat the market” with VTI. When the markets go down, VTI will also go down.

Related Links

Stocks I’m Watching

Watchlist: NFLX, SIRI, GOOG, YHOO, AMZN

I was watching PBS and saw an interview with the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings. Hastings innovates through the use of technology. Netflix is very innovative – having introduced online dvd rental – and Reed Hastings has plans for the future of movie distribution through TVs hooked up to the internet. We see the beginnings with on demand, but in a few years we will see greater integration, features, delivery, and choice for what you want to see when you want to see it. Netflix is poised to lead that new market, as it leads the online DVD rental market now.

Netflix added 1.5 million subscribers in 2005 for a total of 4.1 million. Rival Blockbuster, late to the game, is suffering from lack of new subscribers, virtually stagnating at 1 million. Netflix service starts at $9.99 per month. Current market cap is $1.5 billion. They’re sitting on $180 million in cash, and interestingly they have virtually no debt. Current price is 26.98. I would like to get in on a dip around the support area of 25. My target sell price is 30 – 32.

NFLX - Netflix - 3 months chart