Mechanical Investing was turbulent this month; there were some big losers, but some equally big winners. Overall I was up 1.5% for the month, so I’m not going to complain.
Holding for another month:
| Ticker | Return | |
|---|---|---|
| CCK | +10.2% | Crown Holdings Inc. +18.6% in 2 months; I’ll keep holding it. |
| LDG | -3.5% | Long Drug Stores Corp. It’s up 5.5% in the last week though, so it’s looking good. |
| NAFC | -5.0% | Nash Finch Company. It’s given back some gains, but still up 7.2% since I bought it. |
| PKOH | +5.4% | Park Ohio Holdings; I sold this back in August for a +55.8% return. and repurchased 2 months later. |
| .LSSEH | -81.8% | Lone Star Technologies (May 05 40). Ouch. Options are volatile, that’s why I buy only tiny amounts. This one will be sold in January. |
| .UICCH | -55.6% | United Industrial Corp (March 05 40). Options are volatile. 😛 I won’t sell till 1st of January. |
Selling these:
| Ticker | Return | |
|---|---|---|
| ADSK | +8.0% | Autodesk Inc. Total +22.9% over 2 months. Wo0t! |
| APA | +1.0% | Apache Corp. oil & gas. +15.3% over 2 months, but it looks like it’s gone flat now. |
| CLF | -9.2% | Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Gave a lot of gains back, but still +13.0 over 2 months. |
| NFX | -6.0% | Newfield Exploration Co. No more, I give up. |
| NUE | -12.3% | Nucor Corp. Ouch ouch ouch. |
| RIMM | +24.7% | Research in Motion. Held this for 3 months; it lost 1.7% in the first month, but final over 3 months was +51.9%. Wo0t! |
| STTX | -10.0% | Steel Technologies Inc. No mas, no mas. |
| TIBX | +9.1% | Tibco Software Inc. That’ll do nicely. |
New stocks for this month:
| Ticker | Return | |
|---|---|---|
| AAPL | N/A% | I’ve always wanted to own Apple Computer. Ipods are big. |
| AKS | N/A% | AK Steel Holdings |
| BRCD | N/A% | Brocade Communications Systems Inc |
| FDS | N/A% | Factset Research Systems Inc |
| IWOV | N/A% | Interwoven, Inc. I wov this stock! 😛 |
| MACR | N/A% | Macromedia, Inc. |
| NVR | N/A% | NVR Inc, builds homes and makes mortgages. |
| VLO | N/A% | Valero Energy Corp |
In addition, I’m picking up a couple more options; I buy these calls 10% out of the money as far in advance as I can get them and sell them 3 months before they expire:
New options for this month:
| Ticker | Return | |
|---|---|---|
| .BGUFF | N/A% | BMHC (June 05 30) |
| .SWNFJ | N/A% | SWN (June 05 50) |
Overall for the volatile month of October I was up 1.5%. Next trade will be November 29.
Chasing the Wind 
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