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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (51230)	4/6/2013 1:28:55 PM
From: E_K_S	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78464

Portfolio Management - Looking for new ideas or rules that have worked pre/post 2009. Not sure how you do your portfolio management w/ add(s) and/or sell position "rules"? First is your portfolio exclusively a taxable account of tax deferred? Does that impact your portfolio management rules? In my case, it is a taxable portfolio 6x the size of my IRA/Roth combined accounts. Therefore I strive to be tax efficient in that account keeping capital gains inside the account as long as possible. Also, I must generate predictable income from this account as this is what I live on and pay the bills with. - A number of stocks that could have reached top 10 status ran up in price and I did not get to buy "full" top 10 position. 1) Do you normally start out a new Buy idea in size for it to be a top ten position? Or rather do you try to grow a new idea and adding shares over time to where it eventually becomes a top 10 position? 2) Your comment implies that as a stock increase in price, you have a set target where you book your gains. So, do you trim the portfolio based on (a) any one position exceeding a set % of the portfolio? and/or (b) peel off shares and/or close a position when a set % gain target is achieved? - A few stocks from top 10 either got sold on appreciation or dropped in value and dropped out. 1) Same question, Are their stead fast "set" portfolio management rules you use. If, so can you share a few of them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally I noticed you have owned both MSFT and GLW for a long time (many years). Are there general rules you apply for holding these "core" positions: income? value? potential appreciation? For me, I have owned GLW since my very large buy below $5.00/share in 2001. I have sold some shares above $20.00/share and added shares at $17.00/share, $13.00/share and most recently $11/50/share. In several of the cases, I have sold my high cost shares booking both gains and losses over time but still maintain a core position w/ a very low cost basis (around $7.00/share). I continue to like GLW as they keep reinventing themselves. The stock continues to be undervalued (I use the Graham No.) so I continue to hold my core position making small adds if/when I think they develop another great idea and/or product. For Microsoft, this was the case until a few years ago where I closed out that position. I did the same w/ ORCLE and that was one I should have held and added shares over the many years that I owned it. I missed that growth/value play. A big part of my decision to hold any position as a long term core position is their dividend history. I need to generate income from the portfolio, so there is a minimum return (3%) I need to get from just holding the shares. GLW's dividend is ok, MSFT was even a bit better. FWIW, most of my top 10 positions are long term "holds" that have grown over time. Each pays a good dividend and continue to be undervalued (when I evaluate based on their avg cost basis). I will add shares and/or peel off high priced shares from a core holding rarely closing out that position. It takes time for a new position to make it to my top 10 as it must grow into that space. Except for GSTpA and MHRpD, these were acquired for the income. I was able to build both of these names into position #3 (MHRpD @ avg cost $42.67/share) and position #4 (GSTpA @ avg cost $15.33/share) obtaining a very low cost basis for each. I have managed to sell off the high priced shares lowering my overall cost basis (providing a level of safety for the portfolio) while each are major contributors to the monthly income streams I need. EKS

To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (51230)	4/6/2013 11:27:59 PM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	Respond to of 78464

Related to other posts. Maybe. What events could make me to look like an investment genius (conversely idiot): 1. MSFT captures significant part of mobile space or enough growth in enterprice/PC-client/etc. spaces 2. GLW captures significant part of auto glass space. 3. PMGLF finds oil. 4. Chinese MMO companies start growing again and/or are revalued by market and/or taken private. 5. Insurance companies get revalued to 1.5-2 x book These would make comparatively large impact on my portfolio performance. Perhaps I should be concerned that four out of five are rather binary outcome events (number 5 is not very binary) and three out of five are in technology area (1, 2, and 4). Although there might be some safety in valuation for all of these.

To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (51230)	4/12/2013 5:54:01 PM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78464

CF. Increasing my position as stock drops. Low p/e, high roe. Some other metrics I also find attractive -- p/book, profit margin. finance.yahoo.com

To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (51230)	5/6/2013 12:48:50 AM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	1 Recommendation Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 78464

My top (>2.5%) positions in no particular order: GLW, MSFT, MGDDY, DRAGF. Out: MHR-D - sold Fixed income: 15% Cash: 18% New positions: SPND, MHR Positions increased: AAPL, MGDDY, AAUKY, CF, RGA, JPM Positions reduced: MAUXF, UVIC Positions eliminated: MHR-D, GTAT Flip-flop: I decided to change the header of this post a bit, listing the percentage cutoff for biggest positions as well as listing fixed income and cash percentages in my portfolios. I decided to shift 15% of money into fixed income (mostly BKLN and Pimco Total Return) with stock market making new highs. This probably means that stock market will continue making new highs for another 5+ years. :) I sold MHR-D position after auditor change and filling delay. I bought some MHR common as option for successful audit completion. Sold GTAT after continued losses in their business while stock price somewhat recovered. Sold some MAUXF during the continued unavailability of the oil pipeline. Bought an initial position in SPND discussed on this thread. Added some stocks that seem to be still attractive in current market. I believe that MGDDY, CF, RGA are still cheap. JPM and AAPL are just somewhat cheap. AAUKY is currently difficult to value - I don't plan to add more. For a project I did recently, I have discovered that last year my number of trades have dropped about 30% from number of trades in 2011. I think this is a good direction. :)