Welcome

445%. That’s the return on my Jubak Picks portfolio since its inception almost 15 years ago.

The secret? There is no secret. No magic formula. Just hard work. An understanding of long-term trends. And a long view that lets you stay focused when others are panicking.

That’s what I try to offer on Jubak Picks in five (or so) posts a day, five days a week. (Or at least every day that the stock market is open.)

This blog dates back only to July 15, 2009. But the story really begins in May 1997 when I started Jubak’s Journal on MSN Money. From Day 1 I’ve tracked every buy and sell, noting, of course, the success of the moves that worked out and owning up to the failure of those that didn’t.

There’s been more success than failure over all those years. My longest-running portfolio, Jubak Picks, was up 314% since inception as of September 30, 2010. (For comparison the Standard and Poor’s 500 Stock Index was up just 54.2% during that same period.)

After twelve years with MSN Money, I’m excited at being on my own. The move gives me a chance to bring you, my readers, more and better ideas for profitable investing. Each week the folks at the MoneyShow.com and MSN Money will publish seven of my posts from this blog on their sites. That’s already an increase in your weekly dose of Jubak from the days when I wrote Jubak’s Journal twice a week. But you’ll also find another 18 or so posts a week on my JubakPicks.com blog that don’t appear on either of those two sites. (Although they have appeared as much as three days ago and as little as a few minutes ago, if they’re really important) on my new subscription site at http://jubakam.com/)

Here I’m aiming for five posts a day five days a week. I won’t always get to those numbers. Some posts just take longer to research and write and sometimes, like everyone else, I run out of gas and need to take a break. But my goal isn’t some arbitrary number of posts, anyway. The goal is to bring you the best market intelligence that I can on a schedule that keeps you at least one step ahead of the market.

What’s my definition of market intelligence? I’ve always aimed for a mix of analysis that lets you understand how things work — money flows, new technologies, company strategies, economic trends—and specific stock picks that let you make money from that analysis. When I make a buy or a sell I want you to understand the logic and facts behind it so you can say, Yes, that makes sense for me, or No, I disagree because…

Some things aren’t going to be any different than they were when I worked for MSN Money. The strategies behind the portfolios you’ll find here are the same as those I’ve used in the past. I’ve started with three portfolios that are familiar to anyone who has followed my stock picking during the past twelve years. The first, my 12-18 month moderately active Jubak’s Picks, has been around since 1997. The second, the long-term buy and holdish Jubak Picks 50 that I launched in my book, The Jubak Picks, has, in contrast, been around only since December 2008. The third, my Dividend Income portfolio, is relaunch of a portfolio I began for income investors in December 2005.

I’ll run these portfolios on JubakPicks.com in the same way that I always have, and I hope that I can duplicate the returns that I scored in my first 12 years with Jubak’s Picks on MSN Money. As always, every word and every pick will be mine and mine alone. I haven’t farmed out anything to a junior researcher. No artificial additives here. Just 100% Jubak.

But some things will be new. Why else start my own blog? Shifting from a column to a blog lets me comment on the market and pick stocks throughout the day and it lets me write every day instead of just twice a week. I’ve added email alerts so, if you sign up, you‘ll know when I’ve made a buy or sell and when I’ve updated my comments on a stock. You’ll find a new end-of-the-day blog post that sums up the action and peeks ahead at tomorrow’s market. I’ve beefed up my recommendations on books that I think my readers will like – see Stuff Jim Recommends –and I plan to include more books as well as new areas such as film and food.

And that was just the beginning. In December 2009, with what I call V2, I added the Dividend Income portfolio, easier access to target prices in Jubak’s Picks, and a set of links to what I think are the best of my recent posts. In January 2010 I added Jim’s Watch List so users can more easily follow stocks that I’ve mentioned but haven’t bought yet. And I’m always looking for ways to make the performance of my portfolios even more transparent to you my readers. So I hope you’ll come along on this voyage. I’ll try to make the journey an interesting and profitable one.

Jim

PS:  I love hearing from my readers, so please feel free to send any ideas or suggestions to me here.  And of course you can always comment publicly on the blog.