It's that time of the year when we recap last years "15 for 2015" stock picks to determine their Total Return for the Year. Most indexes were down this year except for the NASDAQ.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 17,425. (Down 2.23% for the year 2015)
S & P 500 - Down 0.73% for the year
NASDAQ Index - Up 5.73% for the year
Russell 2000 Index - Down 5.71% for the year 2015

This year was a battle. Big winners and big losers dotted the landscape. If you were heavy in the oil or commodity stocks it was a disastrous year for you as Deflation was the watch word for the year.

This year I am evaluating the picks for Total Return. That is whatever the stock percentage was for the year ,(up or down), then adding the dividend paid as a plus to the gain/loss percentage. Here are the results below for 2015:

1. Walt Disney (Symbol DIS)            Up 12.91%
2. Delta Airlines (Symbol DAL)         Up 4.12%
3. Constellation Brands (Symbol  STZ)      Up 45.97%
4. Johnson and Johnson (Symbol JNJ)      Up 1.15%
5. Discover Financial Services (Symbol DFS)   Down (-16.03%)
6. Tractor Supply (Symbol TSCO)        UP 9.42 %
7. Hershey Foods (Symbol HSY)          Down (-11.50%)
8. Oshkosh Corp. (Symbol OSK)     Down (-17.80%)
9. Celgene (Symbol CELG)               Up 7.06%
10. Yahoo (Symbol YHOO)                 Down  (-34.15)%
11. Monster Beverage (Symbol MNST)      UP 37.48%
12. Dow Chemical (Symbol DOW)   Up 16.44%
13. Edward Lifesciences (Symbol EW)  - Up 24.01%
14. Foot Locker ( Symbol FL) -  Up 17.40%
15. Southwest Airlines (Symbol LUV) - Up 2.45%

Overall result will equal parts purchased of all 15 stocks:   UP + 6.595%

You were a big winner in the two beverage stocks. Constellation Brands and Monster Beverage were the two biggest winners. (45.97% and 37.48%)

The biggest loser far and away was Yahoo, who could not figure out what to do with their assets to make them work right. (-34.15%)

You can see that being too diversified in 15 different stocks actually brought down our success percentage. In 2016 , I will pick a smaller number of stocks to try to assist to bring the percentage gain up. 

Paying a dividend did not necessarily help a stock's performance this year. 5 of the stocks paying dividends actually were negative as far as capital gain %.

All and all considering the year results for the Dow averages, not a bad year for the Freewilly's Stockpicker Blog picks. 

I would tread lightly at the beginning of the new year here and expect the volatility to continue in 2016.  Next blog I will present my picks for 2016.

Thanks and have a great 2016 investment year.

Freewilly