Investment Performance January 2011 (+2.06%)

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.

January Highlights:

Our monthly performance barely beat our benchmark (+2.06% vs +2.05%).
This marks the 2nd time in 11 months that we have beaten our benchmark, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI).

In January we made several investments in Fairfax Financial. We continue to accumulate the stock as I love the business and the management team and don't think its overvalued.

I started a very small position in Bankers Trust (BTC) a small cap bank that has very compelling valuations on my brother's the recommendation. The stock was trading at something like 30% book value so we will see if it pays off. I'll continue to accumulate if it continues to look attractive.
We also purchased more China Fire as the stock fell further I suspect on worries of accounting fraud.
We also made our regular monthly investments in our IRAs and Conocco Philips DRIP, and had some dividend reinvestments.
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%, Dec +8.01%, Jan 2011 +2.06%.....

January 2011 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...

Comments (7)

Hi 2 Million,
what is the meaning of BOM and EOM in your report? trying to see how you calculate.

Posted by Will | February 17, 2011 2:29 AM

Will,
BOM = Beginning of Month
EOM = End of Month
I basically use the last trade prices from Yahoo Finance. BOM is really the last trade from the month before, and EOM is the last trade at the end of the month Im reporting. Hope that helps.

Posted by 2million | February 17, 2011 7:49 AM

Hello,

I am curious that you use the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI) as your benchmark instead of the S& P 500. Can you explain why you use this particular benchmark?

Thanks!

Posted by Jeffery Lane | February 17, 2011 6:21 PM

Jeff,
I picked VTI because it was easy to track and something I thought would be a more broad metric(more inclusive of the entire market and small caps than the S&P 500).

Posted by 2million | February 18, 2011 8:53 AM

2M,
You mentioned in the past that you were going to liquidate your smaller investments of $500 or less and redelpoy the money into something you had stronger convictions. Given the size of your portfolio now, are you considering moving that minimum threshold up? Seems to me the smaller amounts are getting lost and not really helping you very much. Might be time to do some Spring cleaning?

Posted by Golfer65 | February 20, 2011 10:36 AM

Golfer65,
You got me - I have been going in the exact opposite of my initial intent lately - I have several smaller investments and not been really cleaning house. Need to give that some more thought - I have found it harder to sell out of my investments than I anticipated. The nice thing about the larger holdings is I can expand or shrink my position without committing with exiting completely. Its a mental thing for me I guess.

Posted by 2million | February 21, 2011 8:39 PM

I do not understand why your benchmark is VTI. What is the beta of your individual portfolio? If it is less (and you are taking less risk), VTI would not be an appropriate benchmark. Also, shouldn't this be done on a post-dividend basis. That is, if from your individual investments you receive a larger dividend percentage than VTI, should not that be reflected in the return?

Posted by Mike | February 26, 2011 12:30 PM