Looking For The Silver Lining

Silver Lining

I figure I cannot go wrong with Jennifer Lawrence in my title!  Bradley Cooper can be for my readers who prefer guys.  They both have very blue eyes.

It is a Friday evening and I have had my third straight awful week in the markets.  My mother told me there would be stretches like this.  So I am sitting outside this evening, by my fire pit for the first time this season.  I have a little Jazz mix from Pandora going, a cold beer and a nice fire.  Life isn't so bad.

I am now trailing the benchmark for the year, I am up 7.2% versus 10% for the benchmark.  Pretty much all my stocks have been hit, though GTAT is the poster stock - down 37% in September.

I did sell RIOM today, along with BBEP, FSC, TPVG, KLIC, TLM and GPS earlier this week.  In addition, I was called out on TSL today. So the silver lining may be that I have a lot of cash right now.  Perhaps the most ever in my history as an investor.  I intend to start putting that to work in four slugs starting October 1st.  I also still have some more selling to do as I continue to clear the decks for my new strategy.  Take a deep breath, I sure hope it works.

Current Portfolio

Here are all my holdings after the initial purge:

Stock	Avg Cost	Current Price	Dividends	Gain per Share	Pct Gain	Pct of Portfolio
GNW	10.08	13.19	-	3.11	30.9%	9.1%
GTAT	9.15	11.16	1.08	3.09	33.7%	7.7%
AOD	8.04	8.80	0.87	1.63	20.3%	6.3%
TNH	146.54	141.64	2.22	(2.68)	-1.8%	4.9%
BAC-WTA	6.05	7.61	-	1.56	25.7%	4.5%
ATVI	17.39	21.82	1.08	5.51	31.7%	4.3%
CSQ	8.76	12.07	2.10	5.41	61.8%	4.2%
NTC	12.02	12.38	0.45	0.81	6.8%	4.2%
TGONF	10.27	11.35	0.49	1.57	15.3%	3.9%
CSCO	23.68	25.20	0.08	1.60	6.8%	3.7%
TCMCF	13.89	14.05	-	0.16	1.2%	3.4%
NADL	9.15	6.93	0.29	(1.93)	-21.1%	3.2%
RPXC	16.51	14.52	-	(1.99)	-12.1%	3.1%
SNDK	70.20	101.12	0.53	31.45	44.8%	2.9%
AVG	18.32	17.23	-	(1.09)	-6.0%	2.8%
KLAC	61.35	80.77	1.40	20.82	33.9%	2.6%
AGX	15.60	35.57	0.75	20.72	132.8%	2.6%
SYNA	48.01	78.66	-	30.65	63.8%	2.4%
HIG-WT	21.24	29.34	-	8.10	38.2%	2.4%
TIME	22.89	23.77	-	0.88	3.8%	2.4%
EXETF	7.82	7.69	-	(0.13)	-1.7%	2.3%
WNR	39.80	43.79	0.77	4.76	12.0%	2.2%
BRCD	9.34	10.30	-	0.96	10.3%	2.2%
CBI	58.25	61.23	-	2.99	5.1%	2.1%
ITRN	21.32	21.20	0.19	0.07	0.3%	2.0%
RCII	28.78	29.23	0.23	0.68	2.4%	1.5%
NSR	25.82	25.59	-	(0.23)	-0.9%	1.5%
CA	29.54	28.48	0.50	(0.56)	-1.9%	1.4%
O	21.21	42.12	15.81	36.72	173.1%	1.3%
OIBAX	5.01	6.06	1.98	3.04	60.6%	1.3%

Some of them seem to be getting so so cheap (like NADL and TNH). I did add to both a little bit this week.

I think as an investor, you need to have a strategy and be disciplined. I would suggest that I have strayed from that this year and have frittered away to much as a speculator.  My new plan will take me away from that.  And while it may not be immediate, I fully believe that it will also produce very satisfactory returns.

It was heart-warming to see I have many readers who like to read my meandering blog posts.  It seems many of you are more in the background, which is ok. But it is ok to join and create the discussion. So I encourage that.

It is getting dark by the fire, so I will put up my blog for the night.