May 20
See the end of the post for the current make up of my portfolio and the last four weeks of trades.
For the last number of months I have been increasingly uncomfortable about being fully invested. Throughout the amazing rally that we’ve had since the beginning of 2012 I have been haunted by the idea that the rally is a liquidity induced euphoria . In particular, I am given humility by this chart. Read more
Apr 23
See the end of the post for the current make up of my portfolio and the last four weeks of trades.
Four weeks ago I wrote:
I think an important pillar of my strategy to take advantage of the concentration that I can have. I don’t have anyone pressuring me to be diversified or questioning my risk level or anyone to answer to if something goes wrong. So I don’t hesitate to have a large percentage of my portfolio tied to the names I think will perform the best.
With that said, the names that I am currently of the heaviest weight are, of course, Pacific Ethanol, which remains my largest position by far
Today Pacific Ethanol represents a 2% position for me. Read more
Oct 26
In my post from earlier today I mentioned that I had made some portfolio changes over the past fews weeks and would be sharing them in a series of short posts. In this one I want to talk about what I did and then undid because of the debt ceiling.
In my last monthly update, posted on the 12th, I wrote about how I was reducing exposure to stocks in response to the uncertainty about the debt ceiling.
In my accounts I go into the weekend with more than 25% cash (I’m a little under that in the practice account I show here, at around 23% including my remaining Novus position, as I didn’t quite keep up with the selling I was doing elsewhere). I should perhaps be at an even higher level, but many of the stocks I own are so obscure and out of the mainstream that I feel some confidence that they will be spared some of the carnage that will occur if the debt ceiling is not raised out of indifference alone. The stocks I trimmed the most were the one’s that have proven most volatile to market swings.
By Tuesday of the next week, October 15th, I had moved to a little over 35% cash in my accounts. I received a few comments that this was a silly move, that the US government wouldn’t be stupid enough to let its interest payments lapse. They turned out to be right. Nevertheless, I stand by my decision; I work hard to grow my portfolio and putting that hard work at risk on the assumption that the people in positions of power will do the sensible thing is, in my mind, an unnecessary risk. Remember Dick Fuld? Read more
Aug 18
See the end of the post for the current make up of my portfolio and the last four weeks of trades.
In a previous post about Walker & Dunlop I described the consequence of being on vacation while the company announced poor results, which was that I was not able to take advantage of a clear selling situation. The same was the case for Dex Media.
In the past I used the term “good enough investing” to describe what I’m trying to do with my portfolio. I work a full time job, have a life and need a break now and then, and all that means I just can’t be on top of everything. I try my best but I have found it necessary to employ techniques to mitigate this. In particular, I sell stocks when things aren’t working out.
While I’ve had my share of winners over the past month and a half (AIQ, NVS, NCT, NRF, IQNT to name a few), I’ve also had my share of losers (NKO, EXE, VTNC, and the above mentioned duo) with the result being that my portfolio has done not much of anything. While I remain hopeful that both Niko Resources and Extendicare eventually pan out, the fact is that thus far they haven’t. Read more
Reminiscences of a Stockblogger 