March 24th 2011 Tracking Portfolio

As my readers know, I create a tracking portfolio of 50 stocks from the MFI screen greater than $100m market cap 12 times a year. I then track how they perform over a one year holding period against the Russell 3000. I also create two "sub-portfolios", (1) A dividend portfolio, which is comprised of stocks with a yield of 2.6% or greater per Yahoo Finance and (2) a new portfolio, which are stocks that are not in any of the other past 11 monthly tracking portfolios.

March 24th 2011 was another poor performer, down 4.4% versus the Russell 3000 being up 7.4%. That makes it the 15th straight portfolio to close as a loser. That streak may not end any time soon as the next 5 portfolios are all losing as well. Here are the 50 stocks listed in descending order. There was one Chinese stocks that hurt (NEP), but it is hard to blame entirely on it.

Stock	Initial Price	End Price	Percent Change	52 week low	Mkt Cap
CBST	24.66	43.84	77.8%	24.43	1,463
AGX	8.66	14.60	68.6%	8.45	118
VPHM	19.27	30.00	55.7%	14.62	1,506
NSR	25.09	37.00	47.5%	22.24	1,847
LO	89.44	131.20	46.7%	93.53	13,778
CMTL	25.82	33.02	27.9%	23.51	717
MSFT	25.13	32.01	27.4%	23.65	216,881
CNU	5.12	6.38	24.6%	3.76	310
PDLI	5.11	6.34	24.1%	5.15	786
MRX	30.51	37.76	23.8%	29.76	1,816
RIGL	7.03	8.32	18.3%	6.57	367
SNDK	44.69	49.40	10.5%	32.24	10,569
GME	21.59	23.62	9.4%	18.34	3,173
FRX	31.31	34.16	9.1%	28.47	8,957
DELL	15.14	16.48	8.8%	13.29	29,039
HRB	15.72	16.80	6.9%	12.54	5,027
RTN	49.44	52.16	5.5%	38.35	18,430
POZN	5.10	5.33	4.5%	2.15	152
MFW	25.03	26.00	3.9%	N/A	484
PRSC	15.21	15.50	1.9%	8.35	197
PPD	65.86	66.50	1.0%	51.46	643
CNXT	2.40	2.40	0.0%	N/A	196
USMO	13.64	13.48	-1.2%	12.51	322
APOL	43.36	42.41	-2.2%	37.08	6,207
IPXL	24.68	23.85	-3.4%	14.46	1,591
DLX	24.75	23.86	-3.6%	17.50	1,326
TSRA	17.78	17.07	-4.0%	11.13	900
TER	18.08	16.82	-7.0%	10.37	3,291
EME	31.35	27.52	-12.2%	18.25	2,098
ARO	24.19	21.15	-12.6%	9.16	2,192
UNTD	5.76	4.96	-13.9%	4.67	536
IDCC	43.71	35.98	-17.7%	34.61	1,986
PETS	14.41	11.81	-18.0%	8.51	344
LPS	31.66	24.76	-21.8%	12.91	2,868
CPLA	51.00	37.42	-26.6%	26.12	832
GTAT	10.85	7.92	-27.0%	6.40	1,355
VNDA	6.81	4.80	-29.5%	4.33	191
AFAM	36.29	24.88	-31.4%	12.50	335
CHKE	16.17	10.92	-32.5%	10.15	152
MPAA	14.07	9.38	-33.3%	6.33	170
NEP	4.68	3.11	-33.5%	1.85	138
LHCG	27.84	18.35	-34.1%	12.34	506
UIS	32.20	20.28	-37.0%	13.77	1,372
ASTX	2.78	1.74	-37.4%	1.51	168
OSK	35.85	22.07	-38.4%	14.07	3,253
VECO	50.01	30.35	-39.3%	20.35	1,961
TNAV	11.47	6.87	-40.1%	6.56	486
PWER	8.44	4.64	-45.0%	3.68	877
AMED	34.00	14.15	-58.4%	9.12	994
CECO	21.84	8.54	-60.9%	6.22	1,774

As you can see, it was pretty rough sledding. Here are all the portfolios since I started in January of 2006:

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	31.8%	22.8%
6/29/2009	21.3%	24.0%
7/29/2009	19.5%	15.9%
8/28/2009	7.4%	8.8%
9/25/2009	12.6%	12.4%
10/30/2009	22.7%	18.3%
11/27/2009	24.3%	13.6%
12/31/2009	23.7%	18.1%
1/22/2010	19.0%	20.6%
2/26/2010	18.6%	23.6%
3/25/2010	10.0%	15.4%
4/23/2010	7.1%	11.4%
5/28/2010	19.3%	25.4%
6/29/2010	16.7%	25.7%
7/29/2010	5.4%	20.1%
9/2/2010	7.3%	10.1%
9/24/2010	-4.3%	0.3%
10/29/2010	-2.9%	10.4%
11/26/2010	-8.5%	1.4%
1/3/2011	-11.4%	0.1%
1/28/2011	-7.6%	4.9%
2/25/2011	-5.5%	5.0%
3/24/2011	-4.4%	7.4%
4/21/2011	-9.4%	5.3%
5/27/2011	-3.4%	5.5%
6/24/2011	0.0%	10.6%
7/29/2011	3.1%	9.0%
8/26/2011	15.5%	20.3%
9/30/2011	27.0%	25.2%
10/28/2011	7.5%	9.7%
11/25/2011	23.1%	21.8%
12/29/2011	13.2%	11.5%
1/27/2012	4.9%	6.2%
2/24/2012	0.3%	2.1%
Grand Total	5.9%	5.3%

Here are the sub-portfolios:

Dividend (up 1.1%)

Stock	Initial Price	End Price	Percent Change
LO	89.44	131.20	47%
PDLI	5.11	6.34	24%
HRB	15.72	16.80	7%
RTN	49.44	52.16	6%
USMO	13.64	13.48	-1%
DLX	24.75	23.86	-4%
UNTD	5.76	4.96	-14%
PETS	14.41	11.81	-18%
CHKE	16.17	10.92	-32%

New (just one stock)

Stock	Initial Price	End Price	Percent Change
POZN	5.10	5.33	4.5%

As my readers know, I like to track actual cash investments over time rather than percentages. This is because up 25% then down 25% leaves you in a different spot than up 5% then down 5%. So I track my three portfolios (plus the Russell 3000 as if you invested 100,000 evenly over 1st 12 months. Here is where you'd stand:

Category	Value
Total	118,900
Total New	112,904
Total Dividend	233,003
Total Russell 3K	123,967

Finally, I have pulled the stocks for the March 23rd 2012 portfolio. There are quite a few "dividend" stocks:

Stock	Initial Price
JCOM	30.22
UNTD	4.96
USMO	13.48
STRA	97.70
SAI	13.32
RTN	52.16
PDLI	6.34
NOC	60.57
GNI	101.95
DLX	23.86
HRB	16.80

Here are the "new" stocks:

Stock	Initial Price
JCOM	30.22
VCI	23.75
NATR	16.20
ICON	17.61
EXEL	5.54