Chasing the Wind

News. Faith. Nonsense.


Mechanical Investing for March 2006

February was looking good until 3 stocks took a 15% nosedive within 2 days. Bah. Why don’t they ever nosedive upwards? Still, things are looking good so far this year even with that bump.

  • Last 4 weeks: -3.60%
  • Last 3 months: +3.2%
  • Year to date: +3.8% (Dow is +3.7% ytd from 10,718)
  • Last 12 months:+1.3%

Holding for another month:

Ticker Bought Now Months Return  
CRDN $46.15 $59.08 3 +28.0% Ceradyne, Inc.
FHN $38.75 $39.95 4 +3.1% First Horizon National Corp
IM $19.77 $19.89 2 +0.6% Ingram Micro Inc.
UNTD $14.69 $12.37 2 -15.8% United Online Inc. Ouch. I can’t fathom why the screens say to keep this one.
WM $38.54 $43.39 5 +12.6% Washington Mutual

Selling these:

Ticker Bought Sold Months Return  
ATI $51.88 $52.77 1 +1.7% Allegheny Technologies Inc.
CLF $81.4799 $87.74 4 +7.7% Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc.
GT $18.10 $14.46 2 -20.1% Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Ouch.
ILMN $20.82 $25.19 1 +21.0% Illumina Inc. Ah, that was a nice month.
LMS $25.76 $26.39 2 +2.4% Lamson & Sessions Co.
MRK $34.18 $35.49 1 +3.8% Merck & Co. Inc. Hey, look, I used to own a pharmaceutical company.
RYI $19.89 $26.26 7 +32.0% Ryerson Tull Inc. I held this one a long time.
SPY $128.58 $129.86 1 +1.0% SPDRs.
TKR $36.40 $29.10 1 -20.1% Timken Co. Ouch, make it stop.

New stocks for this month:

Ticker Bought Sold Months Return  
AH $58.86 $N/A 0 N/A% Armor Holdings. Hot dogs, maybe?
BAC $45.98 $N/A 0 N/A% Bank of America Corp. Hey, I own a bank.
FDG $41.01 $N/A 0 N/A% Fording Canadian Coal Trust. Dang it, I sold this last June for $29.45.
OATS $17.75 $N/A 0 N/A% Wild Oats Markets, Inc. Finally, after all these years, I’m sowing my wild oats.
PBR $89.57 $N/A 0 N/A% Petroleo Brasileiro. Dang it, I sold this one, too, last year, for $69.16.
TEN $23.33 $N/A 0 N/A% Tenneco, Inc.
TLAB $15.15 $N/A 0 N/A% Tellabs, Inc.

Options Sold:

.MDREI $3.50 $8.5 3 +142.9% MDR May 2006 45.00 Call. When options work, they work really, really good. 🙂

The next trade will be April 3rd.



2 responses to “Mechanical Investing for March 2006”

  1. Wooohoooo!! April 3rd is a good day.

    Not to a pain in the you know what, but have you ever calculated your returns after taking into account short term capital gains and the trade costs versus an index fund?

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  2. About 2/3rds of the funds are in an IRA and there are no short term capital gains.

    Right now the S&P 500 is beating my returns, but I’m beating the Nasdaq 100 and the Dow. If I average all 3 index funds, my returns are about the same. Hindsight says I should have put the whole thing into a SPDR, but my goal is to beat the index funds.

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About Me

Michael, a sinner saved by grace, sharing what the good Lord has shared with me.

Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, said, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

If you’re not living for the glory of God, then what you’re doing is meaningless, no matter what it is. Living for God gives life meaning, and enjoying a “chasing after the wind” is a gift from God. I’m doing what I can to enjoy this gift daily.

Got questions? I’m not surprised. If you have any questions about Chasing the Wind, you can email me at chasingthewind@outlook.com.

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