I'll take "Flash Crash" for 100 Alex
July 30th, 2011 at 12:35 amWith all the uncertainty in the market, last week I decided it was the time to put some money in my Roth IRA for this year and see if I could get something on the cheap. Yeah, I know, the market could crater, but if it does it probably won't matter where my money is. And with the mortgage paid, its not like I will be thrown out on the street if I make a bad bet. So this Monday $2500 was put in.
In my efforts to be a more economical investor I have stopped using market orders, and instead have started using limit purchase orders, and Tuesday I put in two of them. One for an industrial company I heard good things about, and one for a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). 100 shares each, which took all but $20 of my free cash. For each I put in for a price I felt was really, really low, but plausable if the market had a major hissy fit.
Today I got home and found to my surprise one of the two executed today. Apparently there was a mini "flash crash" in the REIT market, and my selected stock just got low enough for one minute to execute my purchase order. Its back up to almost where it ended yesterday, so I got the stock at a 6% discount. And at this lower price my effective dividend rate is over 17% (assuming no decreases in dividends, which could happen of course). And long term, it could still go lower, so this euphoria may be short lived. Still... 17% return in a Roth with no tax hit, can you say Yahtzee?!!