Investment Performance August 2010 (-4.87%)

This is an ongoing monthly update on how our equity investments are performing. Please see this background on the investment tool I developed and how I am using it to track our performance against a benchmark to measure our progress or lack thereof.

August Highlights:

Our monthly performance was slightly worse than our benchmark (-4.87% vs -4.71%).
This marks 7 months in a row that our benchmark, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI) has beat our portfolio. Not a good recent track record. Its becoming clear that we have gotten a bit off track from our index investment strategy.
I finally sold off our position in CMS Energy. Its a long term holding that I decided several years ago (after the energy trading scandal) that I didn't want to hold it long term. I was concerned about the management team as a result of the scandal and the long term prospects given service area is primarily Michigan. However the utility has been undervalued in my view (due to the scandal) and I have been waiting for the valuation to improve before I sold it. With the stock at around an 8 year high I think its a good time to liquidate.
We picked up a few more shares of Genworth to lower our cost basis, bought a very small initial position in China Fire & Safety Group, and added a small amount to our Fairfax Financial position.
Our recent monthly returns were: Jan 09 -4.98%, Feb -9.94%, Mar +8.45%, Apr +10.88%, May +4.65%, Jun +0.89%, Jul +9.94%, Aug +4.36%, Sept 3.15%, Oct -2.34%, Nov +5.83%, Dec +1.85%, Jan '10 -2.34%, Feb +2.25%, Mar +5.88%, Apr +2.54%, May -8.13%, June -5.64%, July 6.17%. Aug -4.87%.....

August 2010 Investment Report:

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