Snow Day

Schloss 9

Snow Day Here In New England

I have been working from home today as we have had a steady snowfall today.  It seems to be slowing down, but I would say we got 7 to 9 inches. A little hard to tell as it is windy.

But not so bad, got a cup of Hot Chocolate, a nice fire going and am sitting in my easy chair looking at the snow on the trees,  Quite picturesque.

I did just use the snow blower on the driveway, I am now defrosting.

For one of my biggest holdings crashing, it doesn't feel like a bad day for me in the market.  I am up 45 basis points, which is under-performing by about 20 points.  I did sell my AGII for a decent gain at $44.43 (I bought at $43.55), but was a decnt sized holding so I am happy.  I did re-buy FGL today at $20.08. Perhaps a mite early ($19.90 right now), but I plan for this to be a long term holding.  A dime or two won't really matter. I think I might know the CRO there from my first job out of college in 1983 (another colleague of mine out of college is CFO at GNW)... as you get older, some people you have known actually "make it".

RIOM is up nicely today (over 5%).  I do think it was the right time to add a precious metal play and I am comfortable with RIOM (note my former play, NSU, is up over 20% since I sold my August 15th tranche).

I think I have decided it is time to part ways with CSCO.  I just am not crazy about their prospects. I first bought them in April 2011 at $16.97. I more than doubled my position a year later at about the same price.  So I am sitting on a nice 35 to 40% gain. That sounds good, but it has actually under-performed the market by a few points. Even with the drop, it is my 5th largest position, about $94,000 with my factor.  So that will certainly free up some cash for other ideas.