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:

Chairmen Letters to Shareholders (Mar 09, 2014) Its that time of year again --the close of fiscal years means an overload of annual reports including Letters to Shareholders. Two annual letters that I read each year are those from Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) and Fairfax Financial (Prem...

Investment Performance January 2014 (-2.94%) (Feb 23, 2014) January 2014 Investment Report: January Highlights: January was a bad way to start out the year, but our portfolio performed slightly better thank our benchmark (-2.94% vs -3.17%). We made our regular monthly investments in our Roth IRAs, and some...

Investment Performance December 2013 (+2.20%) (Jan 10, 2014) December 2013 Investment Report: December Highlights: December was another subpar for us as our portfolio performed poorly compared to our benchmark (+2.20% vs +2.58%). We made our regular monthly investments in our Roth IRAs, and some dividends & dividend reinvestments....

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A personal finance weblog of my journey to reach my goal of $2 million + the value of my primary residence.
Current Net Worth: $1,938,393

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