I am not a financial advisor but an individual investor trying to navigate my way through a difficult market. I have never worked for a financial institution and never will. In these posts, I am acting as an unpaid financial journalist and an occasional political commentator. I am also aggregating financial news stories that I view as important and providing readers of these posts with links to those articles, sort of a filtered, somewhat intelligent, free search engine. Any discussion made by me of particular securities is not a recommendation to buy or to sell. Trade at your own risk. Consult with your financial advisor prior to making any purchase or sale. I will try to identify my sales too but it may take a few minutes after I implement them to create a post explaining my reasons. The sale may before or after the post. Before buying or selling any stock, even one recommended by a trusted financial advisor, please research it and make up your own mind which is what I always try to do. Research would include reading reports, reviewing financial records, earnings estimates, sec filings and prior earnings releases and news. In this post, and all others by me, I am merely describing my reasons for purchasing or selling securities, and the potential pitfalls that I identified prior to purchase or the reasons for a sale. The securities mentioned in this and all posts written by me may not be suitable for others based on their unique financial position and risk profile. By way of example, it is unlikely that I will ever need the funds contained in my retirement accounts. Always read the prospectus before buying a Trust Certificate, bond, preferred stock or other bond or bond like investments. Information contained in my posts has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. It is always important to follow the investment process. the investment process/links to further information on canadian energy or royalty trustsInvestment Process Part II: Bonds and Bond Like Investments NOT A RESEARCH SERVICE/Add of PWE Last Week These posts by me do not constitute investment advice, nor shall they be construed as a guarantee of future results, or as an offer of any transaction in securities. All content in these posts is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only, and it is a form of entertainment for me. Anyone interested in a topic may want to review all discussions contained in the blog about it by using a relevant search term in the box at the top. Opinions are subject to change and they certainly evolve over time as information is assessed and analyzed for compatibility with prior opinions, the only process for a serious investor, and a topic of frequent discussion in this post.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Afternoon Trades/Bought 100 SWZ/Sold Dkk Ex Interest Today/Sold 50 METPRA-Trim/Sold WR/Sold GPOR
1. GPOR: It is unfortunately becoming more common that I look at my portfolio in the morning and ask what is that, or worse, who bought that one, as if someone besides me was doing the buying and selling. I see where I discussed buying 50 shares of GPOR in this blog at $4.2. I sold those shares this afternoon at 7.09.
I decided that a 50% or so gain was enough, and I just did not want to keep following this small oil company.
2. METPRA: I am not sure why anyone was selling this equity floating rate preferred stock in the single digits. I decided this afternoon that I could not ignore the tremendous run of METPRA entirely, so I sold 50 of my 250 shares at $16.51 this afternoon. I may sell another 50 if METPRA goes over $20, and then keep the remaining shares as long as I am comfortable with Met Life's ability to pay preferred dividends. I am comfortable now. This is a non-cumulative perpetual preferred, which is always undesirable to me, although I did like the guarantee and the float provision provided I could buy this security at a substantial discount to par value. I do not consider $16.5 to be a substantial discount to a $25 par value, although others may disagree with me on that point. I thought that $7 was a substantial discount.
3. Sold Westar (WR): I had some shares in my Roth IRA of Westar, an electric utility based in Kansas, which I sold today at $18.57. This utility just went ex dividend a few days ago. I bought the shares in February at $16.9. / Bought WR/
4. Sold DKK: DKK was ex interest today and I sold my shares this afternoon at $21.17. I have been trading the Trust Certificates containing the same Aon junior bond, noting the trades that have happened in this blog since I started it back in October. I had started trading them earlier, to take advantage of what was then widely disparate pricing for functionally equivalent securities, which has mostly disappeared since I started to talk about it. DKK was just purchased in mid April at around $17. Bought 50 DKK in Roth I still own in my regular IRA 100 KTN. I have a 200 share position in KVW, and some KTN bought opportunistically, in my taxable account. From my perspective, it is hard to ignore a 30%+ pop with the dividend in those shares in less than three months, especially when I own two other TCs with the same bond it it.
5. Bought 100 SWZ: SWZ is the symbol for the closed end fund, Swiss Helvetia. I currently own 200 shares that under water in my taxable account, and I added the shares bought today in my Roth IRA at $10.23. This fund owns mostly stocks based in Switzerland, such as Nestle, Novartis and Roche, and sells at a discount to NAV. SWZ.com - Swiss Helvetia Fund I bought it in my IRA for two reasons. It is about to go ex dividend and I did not want to buy the dividend in my taxable account. The dividend has no tax consequences in my IRA. Also, I may trade those shares for a profit if I can do so at some point after the ex date to help alleviate in my mind's eye the mistake of keeping the 200 shares of SWZ in 2008. Keeping closed end funds was my biggest mistake in 2008.
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