No complaints this month on the Mechanical Investing side. Nothing spectacular, nothing traumatic, but I’m falling a little behind the market as a whole.
- Last 4 weeks: +1.5%
- Last 3 months: +1.3%
- Year to date: +1.3% (Dow is +4.7% ytd from 10,718)
- Last 12 months:+1.8%
Holding for another month:
| Ticker | Bought | Now | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AH | $58.86 | $59.95 | 1 | +1.9% | Armor Holdings. Hot dogs, maybe? |
| BAC | $45.98 | $46.01 | 1 | 0.00% | Bank of America Corp. Hey, I own a bank. |
| FDG | $41.01 | $37.79 | 1 | -7.9% | Fording Canadian Coal Trust. |
| IM | $19.77 | $20.00 | 3 | +1.2% | Ingram Micro Inc. |
| SPY | $128.58 | $130.59 | 2 | +1.6% | SPDRs. |
| TEN | $23.33 | $21.48 | 1 | -7.9% | Tenneco, Inc. |
| UNTD | $14.69 | $12.99 | 3 | -11.6% | United Online Inc. Ouch. I can’t fathom why the screens say to keep this one. |
Selling these:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRDN | $46.15 | $49.74 | 4 | +7.8% | Ceradyne, Inc. Still a nice return, but was +28% a month ago. |
| FHN | $38.75 | $41.84 | 5 | +8.0% | First Horizon National Corp. |
| OATS | $17.75 | $19.01 | 1 | 7.1% | Wild Oats Markets, Inc. Look, I’m done sowing my wild oats. |
| PBR | $89.57 | $89.50 | 1 | 0.00% | Petroleo Brasileiro. |
| TLAB | $15.15 | $15.92 | 1 | +5.1% | Tellabs, Inc. |
| WM | $38.54 | $42.76 | 6 | +10.9% | Washington Mutual. Aw, I liked this one. |
New stocks for this month:
| Ticker | Bought | Sold | Months | Return | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMA | $59.03 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Comerica Inc. Look, I own another bank. |
| CMC | $54.51 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Commercial Metals Company. |
| EMKR | $10.18 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Emcore Corp. From the “Screamers” mechanical list. |
| HCC | $34.24 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | HCC Insurance Holdings. |
| HOC | $76.45 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | Holly Corp. Sold this last December at 58.35. I’m noticing a pattern of doing this. |
| JDSU | $4.11 | $N/A | 0 | N/A% | JDS Uniphase. I think I sold this last in, oh, 1999, for like $160. It’s fallen a long way. |
The next trade will be May 1st.
Chasing the Wind 
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