Tuesday, May 08, 2012

April 21st 2011 Portfolio

Another Monthly Tracking Portfolio hit it's one year anniversary a couple weeks ago.  The April 21st 2011 portfolio was another loser, down about 16% while the Russell 3000 was up 3%.  In my view, MFI continues not to really work.  Here are the 50 stocks in descending order:


Stock Initial Price End Price Percent Change
CRME                4.46             0.49 -89%
CECO              21.19             7.00 -67%
SCEI                4.12             1.61 -61%
AMED              33.66           14.68 -56%
PWER                7.69             3.81 -50%
UIS              32.50           17.66 -46%
MPAA              13.81             7.64 -45%
VNDA                7.66             4.41 -42%
IDCC              45.45           27.19 -40%
ASTX                2.64             1.59 -40%
CPLA              49.57           30.19 -39%
TNAV              10.24             6.59 -36%
GTAT                9.65             6.27 -35%
OSK              34.95           22.83 -35%
AFAM              36.14           24.08 -33%
CHKE              17.96           12.40 -31%
UNTD                5.79             4.08 -30%
GNI              90.89           64.81 -29%
SNDK              48.99           35.89 -27%
VECO              48.90           36.00 -26%
PETS              14.07           11.07 -21%
STRA            115.42           91.78 -20%
ARO              25.90           20.69 -20%
GME              26.37           21.09 -20%
TSRA              18.40           15.40 -16%
APOL              39.80           33.75 -15%
IPXL              26.46           22.45 -15%
HRB              16.84           14.48 -14%
LPS              27.85           24.81 -11%
DLX              25.71           22.98 -11%
TER              17.81           16.03 -10%
USMO              13.82           12.85 -7%
EME              30.00           28.69 -4%
PRSC              14.03           13.43 -4%
PPD              65.94           66.50 1%
RIGL                7.82             8.01 2%
VPHM              19.72           20.27 3%
DELL              15.27           15.82 4%
MFW              24.04           26.00 8%
MRX              34.75           37.66 8%
PDLI                5.70             6.40 12%
CMTL              27.07           30.78 14%
RTN              46.95           53.68 14%
MSFT              24.84           30.65 23%
CNU                5.05             6.38 26%
POZN                5.78             7.45 29%
NSR              26.40           35.21 33%
LO              94.67         130.57 38%
AGX                9.52           13.85 45%

Not sure what else to say but yuck.

 Overall the picture isn't purty either:

 
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 -16.0% 3.2%
5/27/2011 -8.0% 3.4%
6/24/2011 -4.8% 8.4%
7/29/2011 -4.2% 6.9%
8/26/2011 9.1% 17.9%
9/30/2011 19.3% 22.8%
10/28/2011 1.1% 7.6%
11/25/2011 15.2% 19.4%
12/29/2011 6.9% 9.3%
1/27/2012 -1.5% 4.1%
2/24/2012 -4.3% 0.1%
3/23/2012 -7.5% -2.0%
4/27/2012 -3.0% -2.5%
Grand Total 4.7% 5.3%

What is particularly distressing is that the past 16 portfolios have all "lost" and the open 12 portfolios are losing as well.  That is a long losing streak and does make you really wonder whether the MFI works still?  And it isn't just me, Steve Alexander is struggling as well.  His open recommendations are down 6%  (my open is up 1.5% and Russell is 7.9%, so about same pct) and overall since he started is down 1.6% per stock.

Here is where you'd be with $100,000 initial investment in the first 12 months of 2006:


Category Value
Total        111,480
Total New        102,615
Total Dividend        219,414
Total Russell 3K        121,745

Again, the dividend approach (2.6% or greater) has been the "best". But in the "what have you done for me lately" heading, open divvy stocks are up on average 1.7%, so very close to the overall MFI open average.

As you can tell, I am not exactly a fan right now.  Good luck to everyone who has stuck with it.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update, Marsh.

    Fundamentally, the MFI approach makes so much sense to me. This long trend of underwhelming performance is truly disappointing.

    Please keep us updated.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am totally disillusioned by MFI when I find out that GNI is on the official list. I guess the computer doesn't take into account that it's a trust that's going to dissolve in 2015. It's treated as a perpetuity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MFI is mechanical and thus doesn't consider additional facts about stocks like GNI or some of these bio techs that get a one time royalty payment. You think a person could "weed" those out and out-perform. But Steve at Magic Formula Investing is trying to do that and is also struggling.

    ReplyDelete