It has been too long since I updated my portfolio, so here goes:
New Buys:
3/12/2010 Seneca Foods Corp Cl A
5/10/2010 PPL Corp
5/10/2010 Sempra Energy
5/10/2010 Constellation Energy
New Sales:
5/10/2010 Magna Intl Inc Cl A
5/10/2010 Canadian National
Stocks removed for tax purposes:
10/15/2009 SABESP
1/5/2010 SABESP
5/10/2010 Shoe Carnival Inc
Rebalancing Buys:
11/4/2009 Valero Energy Corp
12/29/2009 Ensco International Inc
1/25/2010 Nam Tai Electronics
2/8/2010 SABESP
2/10/2010 National Western Life Ins
5/4/2010 Total ADR
5/4/2010 Archer Daniels Midland
5/6/2010 Noble Corporation
Rebalancing Sales:
10/19/2009 Conoco Phillips
10/22/2009 Noble Corporation
10/23/2009 Ensco International Inc
11/5/2009 Dorel Inds Inc Cl B
1/4/2010 National Presto Inds Inc
1/5/2010 Magna Intl Inc Cl A
1/8/2010 Alliant Energy Corp
1/8/2010 Canadian National
3/1/2010 Safety Ins Group Inc
3/12/2010 Shoe Carnival Inc
4/13/2010 Oracle Corporation
4/13/2010 Safeway Inc
4/13/2010 Northrop Grumman Corp
4/14/2010 Shoe Carnival Inc
4/14/2010 SABESP
4/14/2010 Ensco International Inc
5/3/2010 Dorel Inds Inc Cl B
5/6/2010 Magna Intl Inc Cl A
Thoughts
1) I try not to trade too much. For those that are new to my writings, rebalancing buys and sells are meant to bring the positions back to target weight after they have moved 20% away from the target weight. As it is, for seven months, I have not made a lot of trades.
2) I tried to take some cyclicality off of the table on 5/10. I end up with more utility exposure, but less of industrials and retail. Having the portfolio 20% or so in utilities is quite a statement. Utilities are designed for volatile conditions, when the degree of inflation is uncertain, because utilities have inflation passthrough on rates, while they are defensive in deflation.
3) Assurant and National Western are double weights. The rest of the portfolio is equal-weighted aside from that. Note that National Western is quite illiquid. Do not place market orders to buy or sell.
4) In terms of balance sheets, and industry factors, this is my most conservative portfolio ever.
5) I still don’t trust the financial sector aside from insurers here.
6) I had some runners-up in my analyses: EIX DPL VVC
7 ) I think my portfolio is cheaper and more defensive now.
8 ) I have roughly 20% in cash, which is my limit for bearishness.
Full disclosure (here is the whole portfolio): ADM AIZ ALL CB CEG COP CSC CVX D DIIB ESV GPC IBA LNT NE NOC NPK NTE NWLI ORCL PEP PPL PRE RGA SAFT SBS SCG SENEA SRE SWY TOT VLO
















Nam Tai Electronics!!! what a blast from the past. i used to trade that stock when i was in college! thanks for the memories…
Thanks for the update, as a follow on, you mention you are 20% cash, do you also have a fixed income allocation or are you 80% stocks 20% cash?
Nate, just cash.
For what little it’s worth, there has been a collapse in the forward electric power market, while coal prices have remained stable. Some dark spreads in PJM have gone negative. Many utilities have a merchant power -unregulated- component to their earnings, and they aren’t the safe alternatives they once were.
Thanks for the update David….
I’m curious…NWLI has exposure to Haiti…Do you think that will be a factor much?
NWLI has exposure everywhere — they sell policies outside the US to wealthy people in foreign countries that want to protect their net worth.
I don’t know about Haiti, but I am not worried about it.