Introducing 'The Big Spend Portfolio': My Own Custom ETF

As an entrepreneur, I am constantly thinking in terms of opportunities. A little over a year ago my mother, who lives in Florida, had a car accident. She had a visiting nurse come in for a few weeks and I thought what a great business this would be. With an aging population, especially in Florida, there would be a tremendous demand for such services. Other services such as a personal shopper popped into my head. When I came back to Boston, that idea would fade and would be replaced with others.

Since reading a report “Five Key trends in Chinese economy: Merrill Lynch,” about a month ago, I have been constantly thinking about creating another basket of stocks based on the industrialization of the emerging markets. My current basket, BBO (Big-Build Out), a basket of 12 stocks critical to the industrialization of BRIC, leverages the infrastructure boom as the emerging markets build railways, airports, highways, etc. This is actually #2 on the Merrill Lynch list. I have investing in this theme for the last three years.

Their #1 trend has captured my attention: “Income growth has been accelerating slowly but steadily, providing solid support for retail sales growth in China. Consumer credit will become popular.” This was the inspiration behind the article, “Capitalize On the Global Consumption Boom.” A line from a TV commercial a few weeks ago really got my juices flowing. It said, “From Africa to Asia the next billion cell phone users will be here by 2010.” The final confirmation was when Nokia announced that it sees their share of the cell phone market increasing. Those data points led to the formation of The Big Spend Portfolio [TBS] .

The portfolio is focused on consumer electronics and cell phone manufacturers. Over time it will expand to include other areas. Currently there are five stocks in the portfolio. I think ultimately I would like to increase it to eight. I been purchasing these stocks over the past 5 weeks. Although, I purchased them separately I plan to trade them as a group - just as I trade the BBO. Thus, TBS is essentially a custom ETF. I will begin tracking this on a weekly basis in the portfolio updates and will use this past Friday 5/25 as the start date.

So far the group has treated me well. Hopefully it will continue. Here is the roster, purchase dates and returns as of 5/29:

4/26 - Apple (AAPL):14.4%
5/8 - Master Card (MA): 5.5%
5/9 - Research in Motion (RIMM):8.4%
5/14 - Nokia (NOK):1.9%
5/21 - Sony (SNE):-1.1%