Last year at about this time, I selected 4 stocks from the Dow 30 as my picks for 2011. It’s now time to see how they did. They were McDonal’s, Intel, IBM, and DuPont. Bought in 4 equal amounts, the cost basis were:

MCD – $49.8K (650 shares at $76.60)
INTC – $50.0K (2400 shares at $20.85)
IBM – $50.2K (340 shares at $147.48)
DD – $50.0K (1000 shares at $50.03)

All were purchased on 01/03/2011. Total cost basis: $200,039.

At the end of this year (12/30/2011), the market values were:

MCD – $65.2K ($100.33 a share)
INTC – $58.2K ($24.25 a share)
IBM – $62.5K ($183.88 a share)
DD – $45.8K ($45.78 a share)

Total value = $237.9K ($231.7K in equities & $6.1K in dividends). Total gain for 2011: 18.90%. By comparison, the Dow 30 was up 5.53% in 2011 and the S&P 500 was flat at -0.04% for 2011.

For 2012, I’m buying these 4 stocks from the Dow 30 in equal dollar amounts:

MRK, INTC, CVX, and WMT (Merck, Intel, Chevron and Walmart). The only remaining stock in that basket from last year is Intel, although both DuPont & IBM were close in making the cut again. Check back next new year’s to see how these stocks fare. If I can beat the market next year as well, awesome. Good luck investing!