Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Portfolio A1 Beats SPX by 15.5% in First Year, Helped by Commodity Theme

With two of the five focus positions in agriculture and energy, the commodities theme has been good to Portfolio A1. W&T Offshore (WTI), the oil and gas exploration and production company, is now up 15.4% in the two weeks it has been in the portfolio. Last week’s biggest winner was Terra Industries (TRA), which posted a 10% gain for the week, moving up with the red-hot nitrogen fertilizer space.

After one full year of performance (since the February 16, 2007 inception), Portfolio A1 officially goes in the books with a return of +8.23%, compared to a -7.25% move in the benchmark S&P 500 index over the same period, a net performance gain of 15.48% by the portfolio over the benchmark.

In terms of risk-adjusted return, the graphic to the right shows that Portfolio A1 has had an average beta of 1.48 and an impressive annualized alpha of 23.58% during the first year that the portfolio has been up and running.

In many respects, this portfolio was established to provided focused approach to "fishing for whales." That approach has been largely successful if a little inconsistent during the first year, landing such strong momentum stocks as of MOS, DRYS, TEX, PBR, RIO and others. Part of what makes finding so many big winners possible is a very high annual turnover. At 674%, this is clearly a trading portfolio, not a buy and hold approach. Losses are generally cut quickly and a new hook goes over the transom almost every week. I look forward to seeing how the portfolio fares in the second year, as we begin that year with what looks to be an extremely challenging investment environment.

2 comments:

nodoodahs said...

"Hook?" "Transom?"

I was sitting in my basement
I'd just rolled myself a taste
of something green and gold and glorious
to get me through the day

Then my friend yelled through the transom
"grab your coat and get your hat, son
there's a nut down on the corner
giving dollar bills away!"
...

fiseigh said...

g5h08k8x55 f3j37b6y95 o9i82a1v49 i2g70e5t29 v0z06f5z39 l8z72q2z13

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