Personal
Portfolio
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January certainly was a
reversal of fortune for most portfolios. One thing rather
disconcerting is average NYSE trading volume for the month was 20% less
than January of 2011. Thin volume leads to more volatility.
Meanwhile, the teleprompter blathered on again about doing what it
takes to create jobs - unless of course it involves the Keystone
pipeline or any other fossil fuel. What an
embarrassment to the country.
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Personal Portfolio
Huntsman
remains one of my favorite stocks. Fenced 3/4 of an acre with the
proceeds from this one. I sold all my shares during the run-up
last year and have been slowly buying during the latter dips. At
these prices it still has an attractive dividend when compared to
treasuries.
Will it return to its prior highs? Maybe...but I think it would be prudent to take some profits along the way.
Annaly came out with their 4th quarter commentary, and it did not sound
rosy. 4th Quarter Commentary
Jefferies continues to improve and its detractors continue to eat crow.
HollyFrontier still looks like a bargain to me,
I picked up a little Calumet for the dividend, and I wanted
one more refiner, and one whose market differed from HFC.
My speculative investment is KIT Digital, which provides cloud-based
services as well as a host of others. In the 4th quarter of
2011, it appeared to have finally turned the corner and
delivered surprising results. I've already taken the profits out of
this once and am hanging on to the balance.
Late Entry: Amazon
Amazon
guided lower and the shares fell off sharply. Frankly, I think
this is a buying opportunity and picked up enough to fill up 2.75% of
the portfolio.
There were a number of written opinions all concerned with Amazon's spending too much money to build out and expand.
Really?
I thought the idea was to expand by building out in order to gain market share.
I got my shares in the $177 range and I think that at these levels, Amazon remains a bargain.
 | NEW MONTHLY FEATURE: THE PROPHET WATCH
What we have here is CNBC's prophet, seer, revelator - and major PITA. Detailed Opinion Here
Financial Analyst - NOT
Soothsayer - NOT
Bearer of Practical Financial Opinion - Occasional
Man's Worst Nightmare - Maybe......
Having to listen to annuity pitches interspersed with vitamin infomercials could be worse.
Let's keep track of just how well this PITA's 'predictions' pan out for the rest of the year. |
| 2012 |
Predicted |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Gold |
$2,000.00 |
1736.7 |
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| Recession |
60%
Chance |
Nope! |
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| TIPS
Current 5yr Yield |
Home
Run - Maybe |
-0.95% |
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Washoe fire - January, 2012. Allegedly
started by improper ash disposal.
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