Following the dip a couple weeks back, I sold off proceeds from put holdings and a couple other stocks I had sold into weakness (had to do what I had to do) and went on a buying spree again. I've posted here the 2 week returns for all holdings in the portfolio now. Probably 1 or two were purchased during last week; not Monday specifically, but to high degree of accuracy, this is representative of the portfolio (ex-QQQQ put and QQQQ sold call holdings, which are somewhat depressing these reported returns since the QQQQs have moved up strongly). Anyway, if you follow this blog and haven't heard of any of these stocks, I've posted research and analysis on most of them and still believe they're market outperformers or I wouldn't be holding them. Of course, do your own research!

As you can see, both the median and mean returns more than quadrupled the indices. I hung in there with General Cable and BluePhoenix after taking a beating and am very pleased with the international telecom purchases. I'm still big international from this portfolio to 401K and IRAs. The big killer was Zagg, in which I only went in with a thousand bucks, but it had an abnormal drop of 40% today due to some hard to interpret SEC filing. I'm expecting it to bounce back next week. This was one of those that was anticipated to either not do much at all, or turn into a 5 bagger this year. Will have to wait and see. Their product's really something though, buzz appeal on these IPod protective covers...




Following the post on the cyclical plays for biotech stocks that yielded surprising findings, I bought into the XBI Biotech ETF for the fall. I like it better than BBH since it's more evenly weighted across over 30 stocks as opposed to virtually being an Amgen/Genentech fund. I ended up buying through the Self-directed IRA since I'm fully invested with stocks/puts in the conventional account, so it doesn't appear in this post's holdings list. Following the Biotech cyclicality post, I actually got a fair amount of kudos and an invite to be published in a prominent journal. So, that may take some time in September if I'm going to open it up to peer review, do more statistical analysis and pretty it up. But, bottom line is, I'm putting my money where my mouth is with XBI.

http://everydayfinance.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-to-profit-from-cyclical-nature-of.html


In addition, I've posted some recent speculative plays, with just a couple hundred bucks at risk that could yield thousands (like the AQNT buyout I missed by a day!).

http://everydayfinance.blogspot.com/2007/05/one-that-got-away-painful-lesson-on.html


I have an interesting battle brewing with my credit card company over a late fee I was jammed with even though they surreptitiously moved up my payment due date from its historical timing with no notice. I got nowhere with customer service, so now I have to write a harshly worded letter. Depending on their response, I will share my commentary and all the gory details of the outcome. Either way, when you hear this, you'll be entertained. Based on this method from a prior post, between my wife and I, we actually made $75 this month, so I'm not losing sleep over a late fee of half that amount, but it's the "principalities" (old movie quote, forgot which one).

http://everydayfinance.blogspot.com/2007/07/easist-tax-free-1000-i-make-every-year.html

I found out today that the $25 Prosper Signup/Referral Fee program has been extended to the end of the year, so I'll cut back on the shameless plugs. From a value standpoint, the referral program has done a heck of a lot more for me than the ad-links on the blog, but I'm not really doing it for the money, let's be real. I'd be working for less than minimum wage with the amount of time I put into this on nights and weekends. But anyway, it's good to see the program continue. Getting a $25 referral here and there certainly keeps me motivated to keep things going. Performance in the Prosper.com portfolio has been great; will have to post some tips and tricks to snagging good loans and avoiding defaults. One thing I can say now is that I no longer rely so heavily on Groups. I had been missing a good portion of borrowers who are good bets and didn't go with groups for whatever reason (group-leader fees, lack of awareness, etc.).

Lastly, I'll be posting some other international research on markets you probably didn't even know you could get into. Just need to tidy up some loose ends. Stay tuned in Sept!

Dan