With the advent of digital broadcasting via the Internet, you can find a growing number of investment-related programs. However, they vary widely in quality and content. Here are two excellent broadcasts available in MP3 format.
The Wise Investor Program hosted by Randy Beeman of the Wise Investor Group (affiliated with Ferris Baker Watts) airs on WMAL (630 AM) each Sunday in the D.C. area. This program, started by Ric Malone, has been broadcast for 17 years. It follows a value oriented approach to building a portfolio. You can download the program from the WMAL website the day after the regular broadcast.
Your Money with Chuck Jaffe is another excellent investment program. He broadcasts and records a daily one-hour radio program. He interviews a wide range of interesting guests who discuss stocks, mutual funds, and personal financial planning. MarkeyWatch posts an edited 30-minute version of the radio show. From both technical and content perspectives, this is high quality broadcast. You can also use Apple iTunes to download the MarketWatch version. The full one-hour program can be found on Chuck Jaffe’s website, http://www.yourmoneyradio.net.
If you download the free Apple iTunes software, you will discover hundreds of interesting podcasts on a wide range of topics (besides investing). Install iTunes on your PC and get an MP3 player. Your walking, exercising, and driving around town will take on a new dimension.
While the iTunes program was designed for the iPod, you still can use it to download and organize podcasts for use with any MP3 players. (Both Mac and PC versions of iTunes are available.) It won’t automatically sync with a non-iPod player but the work around is easy, just manually drop and drag the files to your MP3 player. It you have an iPod, it is seemless.
Our lowest PAR, highest P/E stock is FDS
One of the activities in portfolio management is to look for “outliers” in a portfolio. That is part of the continuous process of improving a portfolio. Comparing the projected average return, P/E ratio, projected sales growth, projected revenue growth, and quality metrics for each stock in a portfolio, can help spot outliers. To borrow an airborne term, at least one stock will be standing in the door, ready to jump. Outliers make good candidates for sale when a better opportunity comes along.
The dashboard for our portfolio shows the projected average return for each stocks. Factset Research Data (FDS) is the outlier, with the lowest projected average return (6%) of all our stocks except ChevronTexaco. Looking at the portfolio summary, FDS has a current current P/E of 34 making it the highest P/E stock in the portfolio.
FDS has been one of our winners, +12.3% YTD. However, its run-up in price has reduced its projected average return (PAR) to about 6%. (See updated stock selection guide.) Value Line rates its financial strength B++ and earnings predictability 100. Morningstar rates it “three stars” meaning it is fairly priced.
So the dilemma is do we “let the winner run” or “take profits.” It is probably a hold at this point. If the PAR falls any lower, however, it will be candidate for replacement.
This is a response to a question by one of my young adult children. She was looking for a place to put some safe money (i.e., funds that she might need in the next 1-3 years) and wanted to obtain a better rate of interest than that offered by her bank.
Vanguard money market funds are a good place to park money that you may need in the next 1-3 years. At your tax bracket, I would not worry about finding a tax-free fund. Tax free money market funds don’t become advantageous until you reach the 28% tax bracket or higher. You can ask Vanguard for a check book for your money market account and redeem shares by check. However, the check has to be $250 or more.
Here are three suggestions. The fund are listed with the safest funds first. The spread between the Treasury-based fund and the prime rate fund is very small. It comes out to about a $25 per year difference on $10,000. So you might want to stay with safety (either Treasury or Federal). That way if the world goes nuts, your funds will be secure. (more…)
For the quarter ending March 30, the Moose Pond portfolio increased in value by 2.9%. In comparison, the S&P 500 increased 0.18% for the same period. See the portfolio performance report for the quarter.
The top five advancers for the quarter were SYK (+20.8%), IFIN (+16.9%), GYI (+13.6%).,CAH (+13.4%), and JKHY (+12.7%). The laggards were AMGN (-18.2%), JNJ (-8.4%), INTC (-5.0%), CBH (-5.0), and BRO (-3.9).
Other than normal dividend reinvestment activity, we bought WAG and added to our position in JNJ. We bought more Vanguard total stock market index (an exchange traded fund) as a holding place for funds available to invest. We sold UTSI and IFIN. (IFIN was acquired by another company.)
For the month of January, the Moose Pond portfolio is up 3.6% (in comparison with 1.4% for the S&P 500). We may be back on track. As of today, Feb 2, the portfolio return is up 4.5%, compared with 1.95% for the S&P 500. That is good news!
This month we sold UTStarcom (UTSI) for a loss of $717 and Investors Financial (IFIN) for gain $199. We are 6.8% in cash. We will be using some of that cash to round out our holdings of Walgreens (WAG) and will park the rest in the Vanguard Total Market Index (VTI).
Getty Images really took off this month, up 15%. They did better than the analysts expected. We are back in the black for that stock.
We have two stocks that have doubled since we bought them. Lowes (LOW), one of our first stocks, is up 248% for an annualized return of 22.4%. Factset Research Service (FDS) is up 123% for an annualized return of 32.3%. We need a few more stocks like them.
You can see the entire portfolio at Manifest Investing.
In 2006 we had a total return of 6.1%. The value of a unit increased from $13.097 to $13.894. While our return was positive, it lagged behind most of the major market indices. For the first time, we are slightly behind the S&P 500 for a five year period (5.9% vs. 6.2%). Portfolio turnover was about 10%. You can find the annual report for Moose Pond Investors here.
More information about the performance of individual stocks in 2006 can be found in the diversification report and performance report.