Chasing the Wind

Just supposing the owner of your company is Doody, Wong, and Wiener… why would you name your company Wongdoody?

Curious minds want to know what happened to the Wiener.

When I die, I’d like to be buried in a solemn, dignified way. Like in a coffin shaped like a giant shoe.

Let’s say a giant shoe isn’t your thing. “But Michael,” you say, “my sole is at rest. What other coffins are available.”

I’m glad you asked. At Fantasy Coffins, you can also be buried in a beer bottle, a chicken, a fish, or an automobile.

All in all, a -2.9% loss for the month. Not bad considering the market’s performance so far this year.

Holding for another month:

Ticker	Bought	Now	Return
AAPL	$52.69	$77.33	+46.8%	Apple Computer. I sold a little of this to pay for my Lasik this month.
ALOY	$7.71	$6.96	-9.7%	Media and Marketing for Generation Y. The screen says to hold it, but I don’t know why after a 10% loss.
CMC	$24.965	$28.45	+14.0%	Commercial Metals Company. This stock split this month so I adjusted the purchase price.
LDG	$25.58	$26.12	+2.1%	Long Drug Stores Corp. Still holding, though it’s gone flat this month.
NAFC	$28.34	$41.75	+47.3%	Nash Finch Company. I’ve held this since August and it’s paid dividends twice on top of the great gains so far.
NVR	$630.50	$791.01	+25.5%	NVR Inc. Looking good still.
.ADQGH	$3.10	$0.70	-77.4%	ADSK (July 05 40), will sell in April. Hopefully it’ll be worth something by then.
.CAIFN	$4.10	$0.65	-84.1%	CAI (June 05 70), will sell in March. It’ll come back, won’t it?
.CQRFI	$2.80	$0.10	-96.4%	CREE (June 05 45), will sell in April. Unless the commission costs more than it’s worth.
.TXUGN	$2.85	$3.90	+36.8.8%	TXU Energy (July 05 70), will sell in March. Was a -22.8% loss last month, so it turned around dramatically.

Selling these:

Ticker	Bought	Sold	Return
AKS	$9.46	$14.79	+56.3%	AK Steel Holdings. Can’t be unhappy with that, now, can we?
CPRT	$25.92	$22.80	-12.0%	Copart, Inc, vehicle salvage. I suspected last month “this has something to do with tax changes and I won’t hold it long.” Looks like I shouldn’t have bought it at all.
IM	$18.84	$18.32	-2.8%	Ingram Micro. Had an 8% gain for a while but gave it all back.
PCCC	$9.80	$8.04	-18.0%	PC Connection, Inc. Ow! Ow! Ow! Make it stop!
THO	$36.50	$34.49	-5.50%	Thor Industries, recration vehicles. Yuck.
WLT	$33.45	$34.01	+1.7%	Walter Industries. Uncle Walter was growing too slow for me to keep him.
.BGUFF	$3.70	$7.70	+108.1%	BMHC (June 05 30). I like it when options double.
.SWNFJ	$4.10	$5.10	+24.4%	SWN (June 05 50). This was a double at one time, but still a good return for 3 months.

New stocks for this month:

New options for this month:

Next trade will be February 28.

• If I can possibly help it, I will never buy a minivan. I rented a Chevy Shoebox (so named for the comfort factor) since I was the driver for 5 guys.
• From Ewing, NJ, I-95 intersects US Highway 1 whether you head north or south.
• If the directions to the manufacturing plant read, “Take I-95 east”, you have to flip a coin since I-95 only goes north or south. No matter since you’ll run into US Highway 1 no matter which way you go.
• Except if you go the wrong way, you’re 45 minutes late to the meeting.
• I don’t think people in that part of the country go out for dinner. The restaurant was a 40 minutes drive.
• And yes, I went the right direction on I-95 this time.
• At 3°F, when crossing the parking lot to fetch the minivan, your boogers freeze.

The only real hiccup was that when the 5 of us showed up, the hotel (I won’t name names, but the initials of the hotel were “Courtyard by Marriott in Ewing, NJ”) only had rooms for 4 of us. Apparently they don’t believe that “Guaranteed Late Arrival” actually means you can arrive late and get a room. Now I don’t know what that phrase means.

I’ll be back from my trip later today. I hope y’all were good while I was gone. In the meantime, here is something scarier than disemboweled plush toys or a Cheetoh shaped like the Loch Ness monster:
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