Posts tagged ‘yrc worldwide’

Jul 22

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.

Dec 16

6 Comments

Week 76: A Few New Directions

Portfolio Performance

Update: New Positions and My Method

I added starter positions in a few new names in the last three weeks. A couple of these (RPX Corp and Mitek) I have already written about. The other four positions that I started were in YRC Worldwide, AIG, Alon Energy Partner and Nexen.

Apart from Nexen, which was a special situation, the other stock positions are small, and were initiated because I thought the stocks warranted further review. This is my process. I like to add stocks that look promising, which incentivizes me to look at them closer. This technique might not be for everyone, but it works for me.

It’s difficult to explain why the process works for me. When I have some money on the line I tend to churn the idea in the back of my mind, and over time my opinion on the position becomes clarified. I begin to like it more or not at all. If I don’t take a position, I tend to forget about the stock altogether, and my analysis ends without any real conclusion.

Of course in the mean time I do have money on the line, so there is the chance for real gains or losses. But usually these aren’t significant, and anyways, I only do this with names that I have done some initial digging on and have deemed have som promise. I may lose a few dollar or make a few dollars on these positions over time, but any losses I would chalk up to the cost of doing business.

I have since taken a closer look at three of the six. Read more