Sold 30% of GA Position

As regular readers will recall, I parked some cash in GA in December thinking that I could collect a dividend and that their downside was limited. Well today, GA came under a bear attack (Giant's Dubious Proposal - Unmasking Questionable Behavior). Suggesting that all their dealings are not above board. While it was generally innuendo, I am skittish on Chinese stocks and decided to sell the portion I held as discretionary (slightly more than 30% of total position). I sold at 10.69, which was a 2.2% loss.  The remainder I held as it is in two of my mfi tranches, which are to be held for a year.

So that is my fourth sale in past two weeks, along with ATHM, HIMX and TC. I am really starting to build a large cash position. I did look briefly at HA today (Hawaiian Airlines). They went up 5% after I started looking, so I will wait to see if any pullbacks. I also looked a little bit at FL (Foot locker), which seems like an attractive MFI stock. But I stood pat, it has been since 12/11 since I bought a position in anything. I guess I am waiting for an obvious opportunity. Hopefully I will know it when I see it.

I did buy MET today for my kids college funds. I place money in their accounts twice a year and look for stocks I am comfortable not selling for five plus years. MET is a quality company that should benefit from rising interest rates. I already had a decent position in LNC for my kids, but felt that MET has greater upside potential from here.

I have been following a seeking alpha guy (Ignore The Downgrade - Glu Is Still Poised To Triple) of late called "poised to triple". He had called the HIMX move well before I jumped in and he has had some other very good calls as well.  His advice is pretty pricey, but if I keep seeing him have success, I may pay to play.  One of his stocks, PXLW, just went up 22% today! which made me think of him.

Discretionary Metrics

With the start of a new year, I have done some work and created an approach to monitoring how my discretionary picks are doing.  It was too difficult to go all the way back, so I drew the line at current open discretionary picks plus any discretionary picks that I bought in 2013 and have sold since then.  As I intimated a couple weeks ago, this component of my portfolio has done very well.  Even the tortoise, CS, is doing pretty well.

Current Disrectionary Portfolio Stock Shares Avg Cost Current Price Dividends Received Pct Change R3K Change Diff BAC-WTA         6,000       5.35                 6.90                   -   29.0% 16.4% 12.6% CS         1,800     28.75               30.65                   -   6.6% 3.0% 3.6% GNW         7,000       6.82               15.39                   -   125.7% 40.2% 85.5% GTAT       21,000       5.23                 9.32                   -   78.1% 8.5% 69.6% HIG-WT         1,650     21.24               26.90                   -   26.7% 11.8% 14.8% KLIC         3,500     11.15               13.13                   -   17.8% 15.9% 1.9%                                                                                                                                                                         Total Open                   -   55.4% 14.5% 40.9% Closed 6.3% 3.2% 2.6% Combined 17.9% 5.9% 11.7%