I posted about a month ago that I made my first real-money investment by purchasing a single share of a company called BE Aerospace (BEAV) for $38.05. Since then, the stock has risen 14.35% to $43.51. If only I could set that as the bar for all future investments, then I would be all set!

I now have a portfolio consisting of nine stocks, listed below. As you see, I probably have 1/1000th of the average amount invested by a person in the stock market. Nevertheless, I am having a blast with it, and am saving every penny I can so that I can have more to invest. For example, I made an update a few days ago about selling some old games on eBay. As soon as I got that money, I put half into my emergency savings and half into this investment account.

Gain as of 7/19/07: 6.6%
Gain of S&P 500 for the same funds: 1.7%

For the moment, I wanted to look at Jones Soda (JSDA).

This was a stock pick for my company before they sold it near its high. As you can see, it had a huge run-up before dropping steadily for a few months mostly due to fears of it being overvalued.

However, the strong financials of the company remained. They faced some negative press that hurt the stock further, such as the fact that Starbucks would no longer carry them. Yet it was soon revealed that Starbucks only accounted for about 1% of their sales!

I have tried Jones Soda a few times and really do believe it has the ability to carve out a nice niche in the soda market. However, it currently comprises about 3.3% of my individual stock portfolio, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable with having more than 5% in a stock that is still so bruised and battered from the past few months.