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.