Posts from the ‘Portfolio’ Category

Oct 13

Week 119: Getting Back on Track

Portfolio Performance

See the end of the post for the current make up of my portfolio and the last four weeks of trades.

Recent Developments

I always write words like those in the title with some trepidation. I’m never really sure if things are back on track, or just bouncing on their way to oblivion.

Nevertheless, the tangible evidence is that my portfolio has recovered and made new highs in the last month. I had a blip to the downside in August, and when I look back on that blip, I can attribute it to a few bad decisions. There was Niko Resources, Walker and Dunlop and Dex Media obviously and to a lesser extent Vitran and AMBAC. All of these stocks had flaws that I should have recognized and gave greater consideration to, and none of these stocks deserved to be allocated outsized starter positions, yet in the case of Niko and Dex Media that is exactly what I did.

I’ve gone back to the drawing board since then. I’ve tried to be more careful with my stock selection, tried to spend more time thinking through each idea before adding a position, and tried to work with the attitude that an opportunity passed up is better than one taken and lost on. Read more

Aug 18

4 Comments

Week 111 Portfolio Update: When Things Aren’t Working…

Portfolio Performance

See the end of the post for the current make up of my portfolio and the last four weeks of trades.

Shake-up

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

Jul 22

2 Comments

Week 107: Back to Commodities

It’s a huge structural advantage not to have a lot of money. I think I could make you 50% a year on $1 million. No, I know I could. I guarantee that – Warren Buffett

I’m adding a simple year by year and quarterly performance table to the start of every portfolio update. I’ve had the on-line portfolio going for over 2 years now, and I find that the chart is less informative the longer the time horizon gets. The quote, which I have mentioned before, is more of a goal than a statement. Buffett says it’s possible, let’s try to prove him right.

I’ve already written about most of the new stocks that I added in the last month (Ainsworth Lumber, Tronox, Novus Energy,smaller positions in Lightstream Resources and Penn West, and lastly Niko Resources. In this post I will focus on some of the stocks I sold (including most of my large position in YRC Worldwide), and add some thoughts on oil and Canadian oil juniors.

I’m getting this update out a day late so all of the numbers are are of Friday July 19th.

Portfolio Performance

Portfolio Composition

The last four weeks of trades are available here.

Jun 24

1 Comment

Week 103: A Wet Update

I try to send out an update every month, but a confluence of events, including my vacation and the flooding of my hometown Calgary, has not allowed me to write about everything that I wanted to this week. Thus, I’m going to be posting this update in a series of posts over the next couple of days. I’ll start it off in this post with my performance over the last month.