Investment Performance November 2010 (-0.96%)

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.

NovemberHighlights:

Our monthly performance was significantly worse than our benchmark (0.51% vs -0.96%).
This marks 10 months in a row that our benchmark, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI), has beat our portfolio. Not a good track record. I guess the good news is that we have generally tracked very close to our benchmark, but tend to come up short.

We opted to make a small investment in Markel 7.5% Notes (debt). This is the first bond type investment we have bought outside savings bonds. I don't know much about bond investing, but figured we need to start getting more comfortable with it as I expect a significant portion of our investment portfolio will be invested in bonds at some point in the future. The Markel notes (MKV) were trading just below par which means our return will be just north of 7.5%. It appears to be an attractive investment as I like the business as a whole and the yield is an attractive alternative to me compared to our mortgage debt.
We sold off a portion of our LRAD investment as the stock has recently had a significant run. We basically recovered our original investment and will sell off the remaining shares if the stock makes another jump. Not a good investment strategy, but its been a fun little gamble.
We made one time additional investments in Bank Of America, China Fire & Safety, and Fairfax. We also made our automation contributions to our Roth IRAs (Windsor II, T Rowe Price Equity & Retirement 2025) and ConocoPhillips DRIP.
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%, Sept +8.48%, Oct 2.47%, Nov -0.96%.....

November 2010 Investment Report:

Related in Stocks:

Investment Performance March 2012 (+2.35%) (Apr 18, 2012) 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...

Investment Performance February 2012 (+4.68%) (Mar 21, 2012) 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...

How Well Has Our Investment Portfolio Performed? (Mar 02, 2012) I've now been closely tracking our investment portfolio on a monthly basis for over 3 years! Its been a lot of work and valuable for me personally as I can see the bigger picture each month. One realization that has...