I do have many good friends at AIG and am very sympathetic to hard-working people that were totally uninvolved with the events that drove them into the ground, yet they have lost a good chunk of their retirement savings. I am sure the same is true at Lehman, but I don't know people there.
I know a lot of people are debating what the Fed and the Treasury dept have done this past week, but I am not sure they had any choice. I am actually glad that they were decisive. I am unconvinced that they "bailed" out these firms in the general use of the term. You could argue that they got AIG at pennies on the dollar and will make money. And you could argue that if they buy blocks of these "subprime" mortgages at 30 cents on the dollar, they could make money as well. I am glad to see the govt driving hard bargains. I will admit that taxpayers will bear a heavy burden with Fannie and Freddie, but those were quasi-govt entities so there was immense pressure to step in. In fact, I'd like to see Paulson stay on as Sec of Treasury for the next administration, I am not sure many people could have done what he has done. It burns me to hear people suggest that he didn't step in with his "plan" until Goldman Sachs was threatened. I am sure he had been trying to push such a plan for several weeks, but there had to be absolute fear before he could get congress to agree.
I will say I do not understand the whole argument about short-selling. I'll leave that debate for smarter people. I did have one stock, GNW go from $15 at the start of the week, to under $5 on Thursday at the bottom andthey closed today at $15.25, up 66% today! Wish I had doubled down!
My MFI portfolio was up 4.4% today, I am sure that is a all-time record for me. Hard to be too excited as for the week I was down. I will be interested to watch the beaten down construction/infratstructure stocks I profiled last week. If the logjam of credit is loosened by the Paulson plan, they could really move. The market clearly thought so, here are how they moved Thursday & Friday:
KHD: +15%
PCR: +25%
KBR: +18%
FWLT: +13%
(IAR was up 44% if anyone had the courage to buy them). Some stocks, such as KG, were actually down.
Here is how my model portfolio is performing, over 7% better than benchmark, but Magic Diligence is up over 9%.
| Symbol | Date | Original | Current | Dividend | S&P O | S&P D | Stock Chg | S&P Chg | Diff |
| DTPI | 2/2/08 | 4.75 | 4.51 | - | 139.58 | 1.31 | -5.1% | -10.1% | 5.1% |
| AIRV | 2/13/08 | 5.08 | 5.67 | - | 136.37 | 1.31 | 11.6% | -8.0% | 19.6% |
| CITP | 2/16/08 | 9.98 | 12.50 | - | 135.14 | 1.31 | 25.3% | -7.2% | 32.4% |
| PRXI | 2/16/08 | 4.29 | 2.51 | - | 135.14 | 1.31 | -41.5% | -7.2% | -34.3% |
| CAST | 2/23/08 | 5.06 | 2.82 | - | 135.62 | 1.31 | -44.3% | -7.5% | -36.8% |
| GSB | 3/12/08 | 2.08 | 1.33 | - | 131.36 | 1.31 | -36.1% | -4.5% | -31.5% |
| IGC | 3/12/08 | 3.70 | 4.90 | - | 131.36 | 1.31 | 32.4% | -4.5% | 36.9% |
| LGTY | 3/12/08 | 6.70 | 6.30 | - | 131.36 | 1.31 | -6.0% | -4.5% | -1.5% |
| MRX | 3/12/08 | 19.45 | 18.71 | 0.08 | 131.36 | 0.67 | -3.4% | -5.0% | 1.6% |
| DEPO | 3/22/08 | 2.74 | 3.26 | - | 132.08 | 0.67 | 19.0% | -5.5% | 24.5% |
| NVTL | 3/22/08 | 8.98 | 6.62 | - | 132.08 | 0.67 | -26.3% | -5.5% | -20.8% |
| VRGY | 3/22/08 | 17.42 | 18.70 | - | 132.08 | 0.67 | 7.3% | -5.5% | 12.9% |
| DLX | 4/6/08 | 19.58 | 14.87 | 0.50 | 136.89 | 0.67 | -21.5% | -8.8% | -12.7% |
| NTRI | 4/6/08 | 14.94 | 22.48 | 0.18 | 136.89 | 0.67 | 51.6% | -8.8% | 60.5% |
| IUSA | 4/6/08 | 5.28 | 7.12 | - | 136.89 | 0.67 | 34.8% | -8.8% | 43.7% |
| LRCX | 4/11/08 | 41.08 | 33.44 | - | 133.38 | 0.67 | -18.6% | -6.4% | -12.2% |
| SLXP | 4/11/08 | 6.47 | 6.87 | - | 133.38 | 0.67 | 6.2% | -6.4% | 12.6% |
| CHRD | 4/19/08 | 5.03 | 5.37 | - | 138.48 | 0.67 | 6.8% | -9.9% | 16.6% |
| QXM | 4/26/08 | 6.26 | 3.49 | - | 139.60 | 0.67 | -44.2% | -10.6% | -33.6% |
| MDP | 5/9/08 | 33.79 | 30.08 | 0.43 | 138.90 | 0.67 | -9.7% | -10.2% | 0.5% |
| OMPI | 5/9/08 | 7.11 | 10.59 | - | 138.90 | 0.67 | 48.9% | -10.2% | 59.1% |
| PPD | 5/9/08 | 43.45 | 43.65 | - | 138.90 | 0.67 | 0.5% | -10.2% | 10.6% |
| ELNK | 5/25/08 | 9.21 | 8.06 | - | 137.64 | 0.67 | -12.5% | -9.3% | -3.1% |
| FTAR.ob | 5/25/08 | 4.37 | 3.50 | - | 137.64 | 0.67 | -19.9% | -9.3% | -10.6% |
| CHKE | 5/31/08 | 27.25 | 25.31 | 0.50 | 140.35 | 0.67 | -5.3% | -11.1% | 5.8% |
| APKT | 7/5/08 | 4.62 | 7.54 | - | 126.31 | - | 63.2% | -1.7% | 64.9% |
| CSKI | 7/5/08 | 11.06 | 10.74 | - | 126.31 | - | -2.9% | -1.7% | -1.2% |
| VALU | 7/5/08 | 32.00 | 42.71 | 0.40 | 126.31 | - | 34.7% | -1.7% | 36.5% |
| QCOR | 7/26/08 | 4.84 | 6.48 | - | 125.48 | - | 33.9% | -1.1% | 35.0% |
| MSTR | 8/1/08 | 60.56 | 58.95 | - | 126.16 | - | -2.7% | -1.6% | -1.0% |
| NVDA | 8/8/08 | 11.00 | 11.41 | - | 129.37 | - | 3.7% | -4.1% | 7.8% |
| SWIR | 8/8/08 | 12.41 | 10.47 | - | 129.37 | - | -15.6% | -4.1% | -11.6% |
| CF | 8/8/08 | 134.65 | 119.43 | - | 129.37 | - | -11.3% | -4.1% | -7.2% |
| SIGM | 8/8/08 | 15.93 | 17.41 | - | 129.37 | - | 9.3% | -4.1% | 13.3% |
| EGMI.OB | 9/5/08 | 0.69 | 0.62 | - | 124.42 | - | -10.3% | -0.2% | -10.0% |
| KHD | 9/15/08 | 21.68 | 20.99 | - | 126.09 | - | -3.2% | -1.6% | -1.6% |
| Totals | 1.4% | -6.1% | 7.5% | ||||||
| 57.1% of stocks beat the S&P 500 Benchmark | |||||||||
| S&P C | 124.12 | ||||||||
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