Up Bright And early

Not My Knee

Early Bird Gets The....

Got up early today to start my new regimen of Physical Therapy.  One thing you learn from busting out your knee is that it has happened to a lot of other people. I have had numerous people from work come by my office and describe their knee injury and recovery.  One lady was just 7 months post surgery and used same doctor as me!  While everyone had a story, they also had happy endings (of course they were all younger than me!).

I have actively been adding to my dividend portfolio of late.  My Taking Stock series convinced me that some of the dividend stocks I owned were cheap (relatively). Also, I do like the "safety net" of dividends as they will be reinvested, which makes me not mind a market swoon as much.  I have bought/added AOD, FSC, PM and BBEP. I have five stocks/securities that now pay monthly dividends/distributions.  With my factor, it is over $3,000 a month.  It is real money and in a weird way, I enjoy the income stream as much or more than captial gains.  I may also add in upcoming weeks to NTC (the Ct Municipal tax-free fund).

Speaking of dividends, I did get the most recent NAV report from TGONF.  The NAV is now $16.39 (http://www.tetragoninv.com/investor/reports/monthly.aspx). Note the stock is trading at $10.71. Then they bumped up their quarterly dividend a penny from 14 cents to 15 cents.  So that is nice as well (5.6% yield).  I would like to buy a few more shares, but it is so ill-liquid - even in Europe.

I did place a sell order in for MBUU at $18.40.  While I like the company, I do not want too many LMNS (clearly too early in the day); I need to follow the mantra, "if a new one comes in, and old one must go out".  I think the majority of my recent flurry of activity will be dying down.  I did get my annual bonus this week - so I did want to put some funds to work.  I view MBUU and LMNS as short/intermediate term buys, and when they are both sold, I will have a pretty solid war chest for future bargains.

Schloss 14

higher p/e stocks right now. And with my purchase of

As time goes by and I am successful in investing and I put in new money, I am starting to have some fairly substantial amounts in individual positions.  That is why it is critical for me (and should be critical to you) to focus on investing, to be intelligent and to be an adult.  This is not "mad money". This is not a "casino". This is our future standard of living.  It is ok (in my view) to take a measured risk (with eyes wide open) from time to time.  But it is more important to have both feet firmly on the ground in the vast majority of positions.  Time is on your side (as the Rolling Stones sang), in my opinion that is the biggest advantage investors have over the traders.  Buy good stocks and good values and "your patience will be rewarded" (sorry AB).

Lumenis is My Newest Stock

I have been quite active today.  First I bought LMNS this morning.  This is the seventh time I have bought an IPO post IPO. So far, my approach has been quite successful, I am up about $23,000 (with my factor). I did buy a large position (my 6th largest holding) with an average price of 12.94.  I also put in a sell order (at 18.40) on my MBUU purchase. Probably makes sense not to have too many of these post IPO things going simultaneously.

I also bought BBEP (about a 20% increase in share count). They announced earnings this morning and sold off 8% (I got in at 19.46). While the quarter was so-so, my reading was that they expect adjusted ebidta to be between 500 and 510 million in 2014.  For 2012 that figure was $276 million and for 2013 it was $ 370 million. I love that trajectory, so I increased my stake.

So this past week I have really bulked up my dividend portfolio with buys/adds of AOD, PM, FSC and now BBEP. Of course I sold SBS.

So far, it is a sub par day for me today, though I am hopeful I have planted some seeds to reap profits down the road.

Back From Doctor

Just saw my US Orthopedic doctor this morning.  He said it was good I did not have surgery immediately in Switzerland.  I guess there are two portions of my knee injured and he wants the first part to heal before performing surgery on the ACL. He also highly recommends that patients not fly for a month post surgery due to blood clots.  So I could have ended up spending a long time in Switzerland away from my family and home. So I think I will be okay, with some rehab, surgery and physical therapy.

Stocks Moving Up

• GTAT is up almost 5%. Gotta love this article by MF (Looking Ahead, GT Advanced Technologies Looks Incredibly Cheap).
• KLIC is up 3.4%, maybe it was good I added on Monday!
• RIOM and CS are my big losers.
• Overall, up early 75 basis points!

Tax Time!

I pulled together everything (well almost everything) for my upcoming income tax filing.  One of the "big" items was all my short and long term capital gains and all the associated transactions.  I think my stupidest trade of 2013 was selling JPM for a 42% gain in March - when I could have waited just two more months and made it a long term gain.  That cost me $4,800 (with my factor) in higher taxes.

It was a very good year - Uncle Sam will be happy.  With my factors, I had $96,000 of short term gains (a quarter of that from the JPM trade mentioned above) and $260,000 of long term gains (2014 is off to a fast start on the ST side with sales of NUS and HIMX - already $81,000 short term).

It was kind of a sour day in the market for me.  I was down 54 basis points.  All my transactions yesterday were for the good (except KLIC). My purchases of PM and FGL both were up decently and SBS (which I sold) was down.

Up 11 of Past 12 Sessions

Streaking

Today was a big up day, helped a ton by GTAT being up $2.03.  During that stretch, I am up 10%.  That makes me up 5.1% on the year, versus about 70 basis points for Russell 3000.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I was quite active today.  I bought PM, and added AOD, FGL and KLIC.  Then I sold all my SBS.

The changes definitely bumped up my dividend expectations in my dividend portfolio. Going into the weekend, my annual expected dividends (with factor) = $51,558.  Now it is bumped to $53,249. Woo-hoo!

Schloss Golden Rule #13

Motley Fool had a bullish piece on GTAT today.
Of course, they are probably trying to sell their products (Why GT Advanced Technologies Inc. Still Has Room to Run).

Speaking of selling products, I have gotten a kick out of this one seeking alpha author.  I guess they get paid by page view.  So he has essentially the same write-up (boilerplate) that he publishes for every IPO.  I no longer read it, having been suckered about 4 times.  Here are a couple examples:

• Conclusion Of Quiet Period For Malibu Boats Provides Buying Opportunity
• Autohome Quiet Period Expiration Provides A Long Opportunity
• End Of Quiet Period For North Atlantic Drilling Provides Buying Opportunity For Aggressive Investors
• Expiration Of Continental Building Products Quiet Period Could Be A Built-In Long Opportunity
• New Home Company's Quiet Period Expiration Could Prove A Buying Opportunity For The Stock

I could go on for a long time.

Friendly Contest

Here is an update of the friendly contest I started at beginning of year:

Player	Stock	Start	Current	Dividends	Change
MFI Diary	GNW	15.53	15.35	-	-1.2%
	GTAT	8.72	14.14	-	62.2%
	SBS	11.34	9.32	-	-17.8%
	HIMX	14.72	13.58	-	-7.7%
	HIG-WT	27.53	25.93	-	-5.8%
	KLIC	13.30	11.50	-	-13.5%
	CF	233.04	242.79	1.00	4.6%
	BAC-WTA	6.47	7.20	-	11.3%
	RPXC	16.90	16.26	-	-3.8%
	ATVI	17.83	19.69	-	10.4%
	Total				3.9%
Player	Stock	Start	Current	Dividends	Change
Barron's	ABX	17.63	21.23	-	20.4%
	CNQ	33.10	37.05	-	11.9%
	DE	91.33	84.80	-	-7.1%
	GM	40.87	36.55	-	-10.6%
	INTC	25.96	24.63	0.23	-4.3%
	MET	53.92	50.87	0.28	-5.1%
	NSRGY	73.59	74.81	-	1.7%
	SPG	152.16	159.91	1.25	5.9%
	LCC	22.35	22.55	-	0.9%
	C	52.11	48.98	0.01	-6.0%
	Total				0.8%
Player	Stock	Start	Current	Dividends	Change
ML/BAC	ADM	43.40	40.16	0.24	-6.9%
	CAT	90.81	97.32	0.60	7.8%
	CTL	31.85	31.19	-	-2.1%
	C	52.11	48.98	0.01	-6.0%
	CSCO	22.43	22.12	0.17	-0.6%
	DVA	63.37	67.50	-	6.5%
	XOM	101.20	96.44	0.63	-4.1%
	GM	40.87	36.55	-	-10.6%
	NEE	85.62	91.78	-	7.2%
	NUE	53.38	49.70	-	-6.9%
	Total				-1.6%
Player	Stock	Start	Current	Dividends	Change
Eric Y	CA	33.65	32.67	0.25	-2.2%
	CLCT	17.15	18.87	0.33	11.9%
	CSCO	22.43	22.12	0.17	-0.6%
	LO	50.68	48.22	-	-4.9%
	MANT	29.93	28.11	-	-6.1%
	MSFT	37.41	37.69	0.28	1.5%
	PETS	16.63	13.17	0.17	-19.8%
	RGR	73.09	67.59	-	-7.5%
	USMO	14.28	14.52	-	1.7%
	VCI	34.25	34.02	-	-0.7%
	Total				-2.7%
Player	Stock	Start	Current	Dividends	Change
Cantor/Fitz	AAPL	561.02	527.55	3.05	-5.4%
	JNPR	22.57	27.58	-	22.2%
	DLR	49.12	54.14	-	10.2%
	FB	54.65	70.78	-	29.5%
	GOOG	1,120.71	1,212.51	-	8.2%
	DATA	68.93	98.73	-	43.2%
	SPLK	68.67	90.75	-	32.2%
	SVU	7.29	6.12	-	-16.0%
	TMO	111.35	123.37	-	10.8%
	VSTM	11.40	14.79	-	29.7%
	Total				16.5%