April 24 2009 Tracking Portfolio

Once every month I create a tracking portfolio. I have been doing this since January 2006. The tracking portfolio takes the top 50 stocks greater than 100m and holds them for one year and then compares the portfolio results versus the Russell 3000. It was another "winning" month. Here are the 50 stocks:

Date	4/24/2009
under 10	(All)
	Data
Stock	Start Price	Final Price	Pct Change
QLTI	1.98	6.29	217.7%
VPHM	4.95	14.00	182.8%
BARE	6.70	18.50	176.1%
MSB	8.43	22.60	168.1%
deck	59.45	157.21	164.4%
ITWO	7.48	19.73	163.8%
TYPE	4.03	10.40	158.1%
CTCM	8.17	19.53	139.0%
HLF	20.35	48.45	138.1%
HPY	8.45	19.48	130.5%
GTLS	11.39	25.62	124.9%
IPHS	14.01	29.75	112.3%
TRA	22.71	45.76	101.5%
ARP	5.44	10.79	98.3%
ttt	8.81	16.64	88.9%
QCOR	4.55	8.21	80.4%
DLX	13.10	22.81	74.1%
MD	33.96	57.02	67.9%
EXBD	16.32	27.04	65.7%
SWIR	5.52	8.98	62.7%
MLHR	13.60	22.00	61.8%
DELL	11.05	17.50	58.4%
DIVX	5.15	8.14	58.1%
ACN	28.46	44.67	57.0%
PACR	4.57	7.16	56.7%
USMO	9.01	14.02	55.6%
KFY	11.45	17.68	54.4%
KBR	15.70	23.94	52.5%
NOV	30.63	46.26	51.0%
GHM	12.91	19.20	48.7%
EME	19.43	28.75	48.0%
PTIE	4.43	6.50	46.7%
NTRI	14.05	20.29	44.4%
FWLT	22.73	32.01	40.8%
HSII	22.46	30.57	36.1%
PFE	12.65	16.91	33.7%
FIX	10.51	13.90	32.3%
GNI	71.99	94.13	30.8%
PPD	33.17	43.22	30.3%
ENDP	17.83	22.96	28.8%
ELNK	6.93	8.72	25.8%
CHKE	16.50	20.39	23.6%
CF	70.75	85.10	20.3%
EGY	4.80	5.72	19.2%
SRDX	18.80	22.01	17.1%
INFI	5.97	6.62	10.9%
CRAI	21.99	24.28	10.4%
QXM	2.73	2.71	-0.7%
SOLR	6.58	5.65	-14.1%
MTXX	17.33	5.23	-69.8%
Grand Total	809.96	1,305.05	69.7%

The 69.7% increase beat the Russell 3000 which was up 45.8%. Here is how all the portfolios have fared (open and closed):

Average of Percent Change
Date	Total	IWV
1/6/2006	16.0%	10.9%
2/17/2006	21.2%	14.6%
3/29/2006	13.0%	9.6%
4/7/2006	10.3%	12.1%
5/12/2006	20.4%	18.6%
5/31/2006	29.2%	23.3%
6/30/2006	22.4%	20.0%
7/31/2006	19.7%	17.3%
8/31/2006	13.0%	13.3%
9/28/2006	12.7%	14.6%
10/27/2006	10.3%	12.0%
11/29/2006	-0.3%	4.8%
12/28/2006	-6.9%	3.4%
1/26/2007	-10.2%	-6.6%
2/27/2007	-3.7%	-1.0%
3/26/2007	-9.8%	-5.5%
4/27/2007	-10.9%	-5.0%
5/29/2007	-11.5%	-6.3%
7/3/2007	-30.0%	-15.6%
7/30/2007	-19.9%	-11.5%
8/30/2007	-12.5%	-8.7%
9/27/2007	-19.0%	-18.2%
11/2/2007	-40.4%	-34.3%
11/28/2007	-40.1%	-38.3%
12/28/2007	-36.3%	-40.0%
1/25/2008	-36.4%	-35.9%
2/26/2008	-51.7%	-41.5%
3/24/2008	-40.9%	-36.8%
4/25/2008	-25.6%	-31.0%
5/28/2008	-22.2%	-33.6%
7/2/2008	-11.7%	-25.3%
7/29/2008	-10.5%	-20.9%
8/29/2008	-13.8%	-17.9%
9/26/2008	-4.3%	-10.0%
10/31/2008	18.7%	13.9%
11/26/2008	50.9%	27.7%
12/26/2008	48.9%	32.3%
1/23/2009	59.3%	36.4%
2/27/2009	92.8%	55.6%
3/27/2009	85.8%	48.1%
4/24/2009	69.7%	45.8%
5/29/2009	46.4%	36.6%
6/29/2009	38.9%	35.6%
7/29/2009	34.7%	28.2%
8/28/2009	20.8%	21.2%
9/25/2009	16.8%	18.8%
10/30/2009	22.0%	20.6%
11/27/2009	17.6%	14.6%
12/31/2009	12.1%	11.0%
1/22/2010	11.3%	13.1%
2/26/2010	12.6%	11.5%
3/25/2010	5.9%	5.1%
Grand Total	7.3%	4.0%
Closed	3.5%	-0.2%
Open	23.3%	21.1%

Finally, I like to use an actual dollar investment as a benchmark as averages don't really tell the full story (up 50% one year and down 50% the next is difference than +25% and down 25%). If you had placed $100,000 evenly over the first 12 months, you would have $113,289 vs $103,817. That works out to an Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.2% (really illustrates that the 7.3% above is misleading).