Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Lot of Volatility of Late

My portfolio has really had a high beta recently. I know it is the relatively high proportion of Chinese stocks, which can really exaggerate moves up and down. I should have likely shown more discipline and not bought JGBO as I had stated several times that I was trying to slowly wind down my Chinese positions and move to more "conservative" stocks.

The problem is that some of those stocks still look so darn cheap. And if they get any sort of catalyst such as (China Digital TV Declares Special Cash Dividend to Shareholders) or (China Marine Engages BDO China Li Xin Da Hua as Independent Registered Accountants), they can really move. Of course they can give it back just as quickly (Baring Pulls Back on Harbin Electric Deal). Recall, the HRBN deal announced near the end of September in my eyes was what really lit off the furious rally on Chinese hybrid stocks.

JCG Gets a Suit(or)

Recall that I commented (Going Shopping) about a Barron's article on retail firms being LBO targets. Well, one of my five candidates got an offer yesterday (Deal Profile: J. Crew Agrees to $3 Billion Buyout). I was surprised to be right so quickly. It is noteworthy that on a generally poor day in the market, that 3 of my 4 other candidates were all in the green, and even the laggard, Gap, was flat. Here is how all the stocks have done since November 2nd:

Stock 2-Nov Today Change
JCG 31.23 43.99 41%
ARO 24.18 26.99 12%
KIRK 13.11 11.58 -12%
GPS 19.13 20.59 8%
BKE 29.25 38.22 31%
Total

16%

MFI Index - Year to Date

Now that I have created an index, there is no end to the fun. I have super-imposed it on my graphs and created a year-to-date 2010 index, which I show below (note it shows the index and how my portfolio have moved during the year. I would have been better off thus far to have simply been the index, although that is not true going back to 2006, a point I will show another day):


Trivia

I have been creating a list of words that have different meanings when pronounced differently like row (in a boat or having a fight) or present (getting a gift or giving a power point presentation). Can you name two words in the English language that are pronounced differently depending on whether they are capitalized?

A few on my list (drop a comment with answers or other words)

object
row
bow
tear
lead
direct
convict
present
subject
read
excuse
resume (cheating a bit)
use
wind
wound
does
number
alternate
close
invalid
minute
putting

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Not sure what you mean about capitalization, as in the list you give the pronunciation does not depend on capitalization.

Here are more non-homophone homographs for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronym_(linguistics)

-Steve

Marsh_Gerda said...

Thanks - the capitalization means the word is pronounced differently when it is a proper name versus not a proper name. An example (that doesn't work ) could be English/english. When capitalized it means from England. Lower case it means to put spin on a pool ball. If they were pronounced differently that would be an answer.

I will give answers on Friday.
MG

Mark said...

Wikopedia gives the example of march and March. They have different meaning depending on capitalization, however, they point out if used at the beginning of a sentence, the meaning could be impacted once again since both would be capitalized. I enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work.

Marsh_Gerda said...

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. The answers that I came up with are:

polish and Polish. When capitalized, the o is long.

The second is more subtle: August and august. When capitalized there is a greater accent on the first syllable.

Mark said...

From:
http://www.tangler.com/forum/riddles/topic/56596

In August, an august patriarch
Was reading an ad in Reading, Mass.
Long-suffering Job secured a job
To polish piles of Polish brass.