Your Patience Will Be Rewarded

One show I used to love watching with my son was "Good Eats".  I know that seems like a strange father and son show, but Alton Brown (the host) was very funny and explained the science behind cooking that we both found interesting.  We actually have bought tickets to see him in Hartford this winter and splurged a bit for some VIP passes that will allow us to go backstage after the show and meet him.

One of his catch phrases was "Your patience will be rewarded".  Basically saying if you took your time and did things the right way you would be a great meal at the end.

The same is true for investing.  Markets at the end of the day are biased to go up.  And if you buy stocks that are relatively cheap and good companies, sometimes you just need to wait, be patient.  It isn't always easy.  Especially when you look at the markets daily, you just feel the urge to "do something".  But I would argue that more often than not (assuming you have done your homework) the best thing to do is nothing.  I remember a Warren Buffett quote in one of his annual letters to investors that the investors would have been best off if he had done nothing, just spent all year going to the movies and playing golf.

That is not to say that investing should be buy and forget, but if done properly, you might really just need to make adjustments once a quarter.  I know that seems like blasphemy from someone writing a daily blog about investing.  But look at some of my positions that have done the best: MFI tranches and GNW. If anything, I have hurt myself by over-thinking, selling 40% of my GNW position on May 16th.  You know how much that cost me? About $19,000 (with my multiplier).

Here are all my current holdings in descending order of value:

Stock	Avg Cost	Current Price	Dividends	Gain per Share	Pct Gain	Pct of Portfolio
GTAT	5.23	8.57	-	3.34	63.7%	8.6%
GNW	7.10	15.59	-	8.49	119.4%	6.7%
HIMX	8.94	13.12	-	4.18	46.8%	5.7%
GA	8.68	11.26	0.37	2.96	34.1%	5.3%
KLIC	11.25	13.17	-	1.92	17.1%	4.6%
INTC	22.25	25.32	1.20	4.26	19.1%	4.6%
CSCO	17.34	21.57	0.96	5.19	29.9%	4.5%
BBEP	16.13	20.10	0.73	4.71	29.2%	4.5%
AOD	3.96	4.18	0.21	0.43	10.9%	4.3%
ATHM	28.80	29.25	-	0.45	1.6%	4.2%
CSQ	8.59	11.01	1.51	3.93	45.8%	3.5%
SBS	9.54	11.33	-	1.79	18.8%	3.4%
TGONF	10.27	9.98	0.19	(0.11)	-1.1%	3.4%
NUS	41.94	138.66	1.20	97.92	233.5%	3.2%
CS	28.75	30.44	-	1.69	5.9%	2.6%
RPXC	16.54	16.88	-	0.34	2.1%	2.6%
CF	185.70	231.12	1.38	46.80	25.2%	2.5%
TC-PT	15.39	12.46	1.02	(1.91)	-12.4%	2.4%
HIG-WT	21.24	27.94	-	6.70	31.6%	2.2%
AGX	15.60	26.70	0.75	11.85	76.0%	1.9%
BAC-WTA	5.35	6.49	-	1.14	21.3%	1.9%
RDA	9.74	17.97	0.10	8.34	85.6%	1.8%
STRZA	16.06	28.62	-	12.56	78.2%	1.7%
TC	2.19	2.10	-	(0.09)	-4.1%	1.5%
SYNA	48.01	50.32	-	2.31	4.8%	1.5%
ATVI	17.71	18.15	-	0.44	2.5%	1.5%
AVG	17.22	16.16	-	(1.06)	-6.2%	1.3%
FLR	66.06	79.02	0.32	13.28	20.1%	1.3%
CA	25.07	33.07	1.00	8.99	35.9%	1.3%
AAPL	450.60	570.09	8.75	128.24	28.5%	1.2%
OIBAX	4.98	6.08	1.90	2.99	60.0%	1.2%
NVDA	13.85	15.78	0.24	2.17	15.6%	1.1%
O	20.37	37.84	14.76	32.23	158.2%	1.1%
CYOU	29.24	31.03	-	1.79	6.1%	1.0%

Looking down the list, you can see how HIMX and GA have become quite a bit larger.