Mechanical Investing for May

Yup, the market’s giving me a beating. Lost another 4.3% for the month, now running a -1.6% year-to-date. Since the Dow is off -4.5% for the year, I’m still beating a standard index fund, so no complaints. Markets just do this. 😛

Holding for another month:

Ticker Bought Now Months Return  
AC $47.05 $44.53 1 -5.4% Alliance Capital Management
FDG $91.85 $90.32 2 -1.7% Fording Canadian Coal Trust. Oddly enough, this stock started as a loss but it’s improving.
NUE $57.77 $51.14 1 -11.5% Nucor Corp. Ow, ow, ow. Screen says hold it another month.
VLO $67.28 $67.30 2 +0.0% Valero, oil & gas. Was a 16% gain last month, gave it back.

Selling these:

Ticker Bought Sold Months Return  
AAPL $26.345 $36.39 6 +38.0% Apple Computer, adjusted for the 2:1 split. Best stock of 2005 so far, sold off profits twice to keep the portfolio balanced. Total return was 43.8% over 6 months, or an annual rate of 140.7%. But it’s lost 11.2% this month so *poof* now it’s gone.
APA $63.76 $56.36 1 -11.6% Apache Corp. Well. Now that didn’t do me any good, did it?
CMC $24.965 $25.99 4 +4.1% Commercial Metals Company. Up 36% last month, almost all the gains were erased this month.
KBH $61.585 $57.44 2 -6.7% KB Homes, homebuilder, adjusted for split this month.
KMG $76.20 $77.62 2 +1.9% Kerr-McGee, oil & gas exploration.
LDG $34.19 $36.72 1 +7.4% Long Drugs. Huh. A winner this month.
VPI $33.02 $29.13 1 -11.8% Vintage Petroleum, Inc. It would have been faster to burn the money, I think.
XTO $35.32 $30.11 1 -14.8% XTO Energy. I should file a burglary in progress with the police.

New stocks for this month:

Ticker Bought Sold Months Return  
AET $75.60 $N/A 0 N/A% Aetna. Looks like I’m moving out of oil and homebuilders and into healthcare.
AYE $24.58 $N/A 0 N/A% Allegheny Energy Inc.
BMHC $55.40 $N/A 0 N/A% Building Materials Holding Corp.
CAI $64.13 $N/A 0 N/A% CACI International Inc. IT and communications.
ESRX $89.67 $N/A 0 N/A% Express Scripts Inc., an “independent pharmacy benefit manager.” Benefitting from prescription drug benefits, I suppose.
ITRI $37.25 $N/A 0 N/A% Itron Inc. Wouldn’t want unincorporated itrons, of course. Looks like they make those electricity meters on the back of your house.
SPF $73.05 $N/A 0 N/A% Standard Pacific Corp
SPY $116.31 $N/A 0 N/A% S&P 500 Index fund. I had some cash left over. When I rebalance next month, I’ll sell this and move it back into a stock.
URI $18.87 $N/A 0 N/A% United Rentals, Inc. I don’t know what they rent. Used industrial equipment, it appears.

New options for this month:

Ticker Bought Sold Weeks Return
No new options until October.

Next trade will be June 6th.

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