Last month, I happily reported a 6.1% gain for the month. This month, I gave it all back and then some. Dang it. Total for the year I’m running a -0.6% loss. Not much, I know, but compared to the overall market, I’m still beating it. Barely. I also mentioned I felt I was a little heavy on homebuilders; I should have listed to that little voice since home building stocks lost 10% this month. This month, I’m a little heavy on oil stocks, but I’m not nearly as concerned about that. The only stock I skipped was Unocal (UCL) since the buyout this morning by Chevron gave UCL a good boost before I bought it.
I’m also completely out of options until the fall. Overall, I just about broke even; a -0.6% loss. Still, until this last month, options were generating a nice return.
Holding for another month:
| Ticker | Bought | Now | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | $26.345 | $40.57 | 5 | +54.0% | Apple Computer, adjusted for the 2:1 split. Again I sold off some to keep the portfolio balanced; this one’s still on the screens but it’s starting to fade. |
| CMC | $24.965 | $34.08 | 3 | +36.5% | Commercial Metals Company. |
| FDG | $91.85 | $89.68 | 1 | -2.3% | Fording Canadian Coal Trust. |
| KBH | $123.17 | $118.16 | 1 | -4.1% | KB Homes, homebuilder. |
| KMG | $76.20 | $79.47 | 1 | +4.3% | Kerr-McGee, oil & gas exploration. |
| VLO | $67.28 | $77.96 | 1 | +15.9% | Valero, oil & gas. |
Selling these:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMCO | $12.74 | $13.24 | 1 | +3.9% | Columbus McKinnon Corp., cranes and hoists and stuff. |
| HOV | $54.20 | $50.79 | 1 | -6.3% | Hovnanian Enterprises, homebuilder. |
| NVR | $630.50 | $795.40 | 5 | +26.2% | NVR Inc. |
| RYL | $63.18 | $62.59 | 1 | -0.9% | The Ryland Group, yet another homebuilder. Was a +9.2% gain last month. 😦 |
| SPF | $79.24 | $73.79 | 1 | -6.9% | Standard Pacific, another homebuilder. |
| TOL | $76.90 | $79.88 | 2 | +3.9% | Toll Brothers, Inc., homebuilder. Was a 14.2% gain last month. |
| .ADQGH | $3.10 | $0.20 | 3 | -93.5% | ADSK (July 05 40). Total loss. |
| .CQRFI | $2.80 | $0.00 | 3 | -100% | CREE (June 05 45). I didn’t actually sell it since the commissions cost more than it was worth. 😦 |
New stocks for this month:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC | $47.05 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Alliance Capital Management |
| APA | $63.76 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Apache Corp. Held this last September for a nice gain, now it’s back. |
| LDG | $34.19 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Long Drugs. Wouldn’t you know I sold it a month ago and missed most of the big gains. 😦 |
| NUE | $57.77 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Nucor Corp. Lost some money on this last November, then sold it and missed out on some big gains. 😦 |
| XTO | $35.32 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | XTO Energy. |
| VPI | $33.02 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Vintage Petroleum, Inc. |
New options for this month:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Weeks | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No new options until October. | ||||
Next trade will be May 2nd.
Discover more from Chasing the Wind
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
