Mechanical Investing was good this month; in fact, I’m holding almost everything for another month, so turnover is light. I’m still following the SOS_Ancer and H52 screens primarily, and they’re working out well this year.

I’m going to try to change the format a little; the software I was using to calculate returns is a little wonky, so I’m going to calculate them manually.

Holding for another month:

Ticker	Bought	Now	Return
AKS	$9.46	$13.42	+41.9%	AK Steel Holdings. Most of these gains came in the last 2 days when Nissan mentioned their steel shortage problems.
AAPL	$52.69	$67.79	+28.7%	Apple Computer is doing well, both with Ipods and Macs.
CCK	$9.58	$12.20	+27.3%	Crown Holdings Inc. Still holding after 3 months.
LDG	$25.58	$27.12	+6.0%	Long Drug Stores Corp was down over 10% at one point, but it’s recovered nicely. I’m still holding for another month.
MACR	$27.25	$27.61	+1.3%	Macromedia, Inc.
NAFC	$28.34	$36.27	+27.9%	Nash Finch Company. I’ve held this since August and it’s paid dividends twice on top of the great gains so far.
NVR	$630.50	$686.99	+9.0%	NVR Inc, builds homes and makes mortgages. Normally stocks split when they get expensive, so I don’t know why this one hasn’t split.
.LSSEH	$5.40	$1.25	-76.9%	Lone Star Technologies (May 05 40). Oh well, they can’t all be winners. Selling this in January.
.UICCH	$1.35	$2.75	+103.7%	United Industrial Corp (March 05 40). Last month this had lost 55.6%, now it’s gained it all back and then some. Options are volatile. 😛 I’ll sell this next month.
.BGUFF	$3.70	$4.60	+24.3%	BMHC (June 05 30) to be sold in February.
.SWNFJ	$4.10	$7.90	+92.7%	SWN (June 05 50). So far, so good! 🙂 I’ll sell this one in February.

Selling these:

Ticker	Bought	Sold	Return
BRCD	$6.71	$6.99	+4.2%	Brocade Communications Systems Inc
FDS	$48.77	$52.01	+6.6%	Factset Research Systems Inc
IWOV	$9.19	$9.62	+4.7%	Interwoven, Inc. I wov this stock! 😛
PKOH	$19.69	$21.86	+11.0%	Park Ohio Holdings; I sold this back in August for a +55.8% return. and repurchased 2 months later. Now it’s sold again. It’s still on some other screens, so I might end up buying it again later.
VLO	$42.45	$46.46	+9.4%	Valero Energy Corp. That’s twice I’ve bought/sold this. I saw a “Valero Marketing” sticker on a Diamond Shamrock gas pump this weekend.

New stocks for this month:

Ticker	Bought	Sold	Return
BZH	$123.34	$N/A	N/A%	Beazer Homes. Again.
GLBL	$8.46	$N/A	N/A%	Global Industries. No idea what they do. Something global, I think.
IM	$18.84	$N/A	N/A%	Ingram Micro.
ISSX	$24.30	$N/A	N/A%	Internet Security Systems, Inc.
OSG	$64.39	$N/A	N/A%	Overseas Shipholding Group.

Options are doing well; I’ll start selling them off next month and listing the returns. They’re so volatile and either win big or lose big, but I’m still amused when I see see an annual return of 9228.3% for an option. 😛 Here are the new options this month:

New options for this month:

Ticker	Bought	Sold	Return
.CAIFN	$4.10	$N/A	N/A%	CAI (June 05 70), will sell in March.
.TXUGN	$2.85	$N/A	N/A%	TXU Energy (July 05 70), will sell in March.

That’s all the trades for this year. Next trade will be January 3 (or 4th, if the 3rd is a holiday).