Mechanical Investing was good this month; in fact, I’m holding almost everything for another month, so turnover is light. I’m still following the SOS_Ancer and H52 screens primarily, and they’re working out well this year.
I’m going to try to change the format a little; the software I was using to calculate returns is a little wonky, so I’m going to calculate them manually.
Holding for another month:
| Ticker | Bought | Now | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AKS | $9.46 | $13.42 | +41.9% | AK Steel Holdings. Most of these gains came in the last 2 days when Nissan mentioned their steel shortage problems. |
| AAPL | $52.69 | $67.79 | +28.7% | Apple Computer is doing well, both with Ipods and Macs. |
| CCK | $9.58 | $12.20 | +27.3% | Crown Holdings Inc. Still holding after 3 months. |
| LDG | $25.58 | $27.12 | +6.0% | Long Drug Stores Corp was down over 10% at one point, but it’s recovered nicely. I’m still holding for another month. |
| MACR | $27.25 | $27.61 | +1.3% | Macromedia, Inc. |
| NAFC | $28.34 | $36.27 | +27.9% | 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 | $686.99 | +9.0% | NVR Inc, builds homes and makes mortgages. Normally stocks split when they get expensive, so I don’t know why this one hasn’t split. |
| .LSSEH | $5.40 | $1.25 | -76.9% | Lone Star Technologies (May 05 40). Oh well, they can’t all be winners. Selling this in January. |
| .UICCH | $1.35 | $2.75 | +103.7% | United Industrial Corp (March 05 40). Last month this had lost 55.6%, now it’s gained it all back and then some. Options are volatile. 😛 I’ll sell this next month. |
| .BGUFF | $3.70 | $4.60 | +24.3% | BMHC (June 05 30) to be sold in February. |
| .SWNFJ | $4.10 | $7.90 | +92.7% | SWN (June 05 50). So far, so good! 🙂 I’ll sell this one in February. |
Selling these:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRCD | $6.71 | $6.99 | +4.2% | Brocade Communications Systems Inc |
| FDS | $48.77 | $52.01 | +6.6% | Factset Research Systems Inc |
| IWOV | $9.19 | $9.62 | +4.7% | Interwoven, Inc. I wov this stock! 😛 |
| PKOH | $19.69 | $21.86 | +11.0% | Park Ohio Holdings; I sold this back in August for a +55.8% return. and repurchased 2 months later. Now it’s sold again. It’s still on some other screens, so I might end up buying it again later. |
| VLO | $42.45 | $46.46 | +9.4% | Valero Energy Corp. That’s twice I’ve bought/sold this. I saw a “Valero Marketing” sticker on a Diamond Shamrock gas pump this weekend. |
New stocks for this month:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BZH | $123.34 | $N/A | N/A% | Beazer Homes. Again. |
| GLBL | $8.46 | $N/A | N/A% | Global Industries. No idea what they do. Something global, I think. |
| IM | $18.84 | $N/A | N/A% | Ingram Micro. |
| ISSX | $24.30 | $N/A | N/A% | Internet Security Systems, Inc. |
| OSG | $64.39 | $N/A | N/A% | Overseas Shipholding Group. |
Options are doing well; I’ll start selling them off next month and listing the returns. They’re so volatile and either win big or lose big, but I’m still amused when I see see an annual return of 9228.3% for an option. 😛 Here are the new options this month:
New options for this month:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .CAIFN | $4.10 | $N/A | N/A% | CAI (June 05 70), will sell in March. |
| .TXUGN | $2.85 | $N/A | N/A% | TXU Energy (July 05 70), will sell in March. |
That’s all the trades for this year. Next trade will be January 3 (or 4th, if the 3rd is a holiday).
Chasing the Wind 
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