I realized not long ago that I really didn't understand Google's business and I really had no idea what their earnings potential was or what the value of their stock "should be". I freaked out when the value of the stock started getting close to where I bought it at and figured maybe I should get out. It only took a few articles which claimed that Google's growth was going to be less than exciting to convince me to sell the stock.

I bought 4.6343 shares of Google on March 18th at a total cost of $2,000. Today, I sold all of my shares (@ $468.89 per share) and walked away with $2,163.02. Not terribly exciting gains, but far better than taking a loss.

Since I held this stock for less than a year, my profits are subject to the "short term capital gains tax", which is basically a tax penalty for selling the stock as a "trade" rather than an "investment". Currently, I think the short term capital gains tax is something like 35%. (It actually used to be worse, but Bush lowered it--ya know, to help out middle class people who are struggling to make ends meet.)

So, in the end, I'm going to walk away with a profit of just $105.96. Again, not very exciting. However, I did manage to get a 5% return in less than six months. In order to do the same with a savings account or a CD, it would have to be paying out at something like 10% APR. I also beat the return of the S&P 500, which had a negative return over the same period.