Current Portfolio Composition

It's not a good sign when a new blog does not get updated for almost two months after the second post. The lack of momentum in this blog probably foreshadows a quick death, but I'm going to try to breathe some life into this blog over the next few weeks.

To start off, I'm going to disclose my current holdings so that readers may have a frame of reference as to the type of stocks that I am interested in. I haven't made many stock trades since 7/30, so readers aren't missing much from my hiatus. Throughout July and August, I was fully invested. Before a two week vacation in September, I lightened up some of my heavier positions to generate some cash. In hindsight, this proved to be the wrong thing to do but that's OK. It's always good to have some dry gunpowder for future bargains that arise.


MSFT - 24.30%
FAF - 8.81%
DELL - 8.08%
VGTSX - 7.39%
MMM - 6.78%
HD - 6.46%
AEA - 5.37%
OAKMX - 5.12%
BUD - 3.71%
PFE - 3.66%
COP - 2.45%
FDC - 1.66%
RCII - 1.50%
UNH - 1.42%
WU - 1.42%
GPS - 1.40%
ENH - 1.38%
USG - 1.35%
TYC - 1.22%
HDL - 1.09%
JBSS - 1.05%
ACUS - 1.01%
DISCA - 0.93%
DHOM - 0.86%
DRL - 0.83%
EWEB - 0.77%
-------------
Total - 100%
Cash equivalent to ~8% of investments.


Readers will notice that I run a somewhat concentrated portfolio, 80% of my money are in my top 10 positions. The majority of my money is concentrated in good companies selling at decent prices. Rounding out my portfolio are a bunch of starter positions in undervalued companies and a bunch of distressed Grahamian cigar-butt-type securities. Over the next 6 months, I want to reduce my number of holdings as keeping up with all these symbols has become unwieldy. I'm considering selling Rent-a-Center (RCII), First Data (FDC), Tyco (TYC), and Gap (GPS).

As for new investments, I am currently most interested in adding to my positions in Advance America Cash Centers (AEA), Western Union (WU), and US Gypsum (USG). USG is new position that I started last week. My next post will include a worst-case scenario analysis of USG and why it's undervalued even in the worst-case.