report time and the report is ugly, negative 1.01% ugly; iow, 2011, an incredible up and then a unforgettable down year, is in some figuring sense less than worthwhile given that i am an absolute return speculator and am uninterested in beating the vast majority of whomever out there in the great unknown.
i committed two sins and made one mistake. the sins must be dealt with, and the mistake shall be self-corrected by time.
(i) sin #1: i did not allocate 100% all-in to the one, true, elemental, and eternal gold
had i done a 100% gold allocation, a sure gain would have been easy-peasy per tradition
1999 Dec 31st USD 288/oz
2000 Dec 29th USD 274/oz -6%
2001 Dec 31st USD 279/oz +3%
2002 Dec 31st USD 348/oz +25%
2003 Dec 31st USD 416/oz +20%
2004 Dec 31st USD 438/oz +5%
2005 Dec 30th USD 519/oz +18%
2006 Dec 29th USD 638/oz +24%
2007 Dec 31st USD 833/oz +31%
2008 Dec 31st USD 889/oz +7%
2009 Dec 31st USD 1,095/oz +23%
2010 Dec 31st USD 1,421/oz +30%
2011 Dec 31st USD 1,567/oz +10%
(ii) sin #2: i veered to collect gold derivatives (miners), aggregated some hedges to gold (platinum), and luckily traded in and fortunately out of gold-enhancer (silver) - worse than a waste of valuable time
(iii) mistake: did not take the money and run as i do at times, especially when i feel god-like. i was distracted in august by vacation on the troubled continent
... did not have eyes on the details ...
... and got rather too ...
... because of too much of this and that ...
cheers, tj
p.s. in every sense gold saved me from a worse fate than that which struck enough, and salvation was partially mine
i am now at
-4% cash (hkd/usd)
47% metals (au @ 65% w/ 34/66 physical:paper, pt @ 30% w/43/57 physical:paper, ag @ 4% - mostly paper)
19% equity (mining @ 2%, energy @ 3%, other @ 3% other, and p.e. @ 11%)
38% rentals
now we fight the good fight for 2012. tout ou rien.
 |
