Home
Previous
Next

December, 2009: 22

Disclaimer - IMPORTANT - Read this first!

Investor's Journal is a diary focused strictly on investments and personal finance issues, primarily from a contrarian and retiree point of view. Follow along with an average guy's failures and successes as he learns, by trial and error, the fine art of value investing.

Since the last entry as well, another Classic Value (CV) pick, ESV, purchased on 12/15/08, has been held over a year. It will be sold at the market price early tomorrow, 12/23/09. It will then be removed from the CV open positions portfolio, and its closed position info recorded, based on the 12/15/08 to 12/23/09 per share performance. Through the close of trading today, after subtracting a commission (while not counting any dividends), ESV had been up 25.34% in the past 12(+) months.

My top-five current low price to book value stocks are: CRDN; ELMG; KND; NWPX; and PDS.

My favorite among them is EMS Technologies, Inc. (ELMG) (recent price $13.77). It meets Benjamin Graham's bargain stock safety and value criteria.

EMS Technologies, Inc. will be added to our nest egg at its market price early tomorrow, 12/23/09.

At the end of the quarter and year, I like to do a summary review here of how things have gone with our different portfolios, hypothetical and actual. This year, however, my wife and I shall be on the road or in WI, several states away from home, until after the first week of January, and so unable to access the stats. I need or put new entries online just at the end of the year.

Accordingly, I'll give a short preview now and add a more detailed analysis of how things have gone, since the last quarterly report (effective 9/30/09), once we have returned. Of course, that will mean the stats will be a little off, since not right as of the last trading day of 2009, but a few days afterward. However, it is better than not having the review at all and likely will be relatively close to the end of quarter and year results.

As of right now, therefore, with an average hold period of 0.8745 year, the Classic Value (CV) open positions are up at an annualized rate of 53.8%, but the closed CV positions, by far the more numerous (by about 4 to 1), have had an average hold of .9926 year and an annualized performance rate of just 1.61%.

Our actual account 5-Star Stocks portfolio has an open position average hold (8 assets) of 0.4366 and an annualized performance of 129.3%. There was just one closed position among the 5-Star Stocks. It was held 0.30 year and had an annualized performance of 193.7%

Our actual Low Price to Book Value portfolio also has an open position average hold period of 0.30 (14 equity purchases) and an annualized performance of 18.27%. However, there was one closed position. It sold at a loss after 0.08 year and has an annualized performance record of negative 24.5%

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index has fallen slightly since the hypothetical CV portfolio was begun on 10/4/04, 5.2 years ago, for an annualized loss of 0.3%.

Our total portfolio was down 17.7% at the end of 2008 relative to its level at the end of 2007. It remains down from 12/31/07, almost two years ago, but now by only about 6%. The record since last year is better. Our total nest egg is up 14.2% so far this year, since the close of trading the last business day of 2008. However, we have increased our equities as a percentage of our total assets, so they are up 30.9% from their level on 12/31/08.

As usual, we have placed emphasis on increasing our equity total book value by at least 12.5% again in 2009. So far, this target has been exceeded, and total equity book value is now about 18% above its level the end of last year.

So, fingers crossed, but overall it looks to have been a good year relative to our 2008 financial status.

Home | Previous | Next