Some Changes in the Portfolio

Aaron and I are wrapping up all of the tax documents for fiscal 2009 before shipping them off to the accountants, listening to the new Goldfrapp album, and tweaking the investment portfolio a bit.

I liquidated a respectable portion of the LEAP stock options we bought on General Electric during the crash now that it is approaching $19 per share, or at least was during today’s trading session.  The time premium was no longer adequately reflecting the risk, in my opinion, especially relative to the deep-in-the-money options in the same series.

I also added some Campbell Soup shares to the blue chip reserve portfolio (this is the “dumb money” collection of high quality, dividend paying stocks we build as an insurance policy in the background of some of our operating businesses where we anticipate no more than 8% to 11% returns compounded, but that serve as a backup source of high quality liquidity and long-term compounding).  The company is silently and secretly using almost as much cash repurchasing shares as it is paying cash dividends.There are so many projects going on right now that I don’t know where to start … I feel like I’m running from fire to fire trying to figure out where to devote our energy.  I think the end of the 1st quarter will help us re-evaluate our progress for the year.  As I’ve been saying for six months, 2010 is going to be the year we transform the company, consolidate certain operations, and begin evaluating our options to get into the asset management business by launching a mutual fund or hedge fund at some point in the future.

Today just feels really … weird.  I can’t make myself jump in and get stuff done and I don’t want to do nothing.  This is why I need to focus on money management.  I could make myself read a few annual reports.  That’s how I know it is the industry we ultimately need to focus upon.  It’s what I think about when I sleep (literally … I woke up the other day and realized that in my dream I was actually analyzing a real stock report I had just read, valuing it.  I was working as I slept).

Related posts:

1. The Sugar Refiner Shares We Own Are Surprising Me (and More Portfolio Updates)
2. When It Comes to Portfolio Management, Your Investments Should Not Be Protean
3. Balanced Asset Allocation Model Portfolio
4. Passive Income Asset Allocation Model Portfolio
5. Tactical Asset Allocation and Your Portfolio
6. Finding a List of Stocks for Your Portfolio
7. Growth Asset Allocation Model Portfolio
8. The Talmud Asset Allocation Model Portfolio
9. The Basics of How to Analyze an Investment Portfolio of Individual Stocks or Other Securities
10. The Role of International Investments In Your Portfolio