These are all my new trades for 2009 (through December 31, 2009). These positions amount to only a 2.2% return. My total portfolio (trailing twelve month internal rate of return) is an improved 4.3% (relative to the S&P 500’s 25.5%).
Clearly, these are not the interim results that I was hoping for. However, of these trades, I only consider one to be a mistake. The CYN short on 12/18 turned out poorly as the Federal Reserve gave the bank a freebie the next business day, which increased CYN’s book value, sending the stock higher. The SDS trade appears to be the biggest loser, but I still remain steadfast that the market is overvalued. Although I no longer believe that SDS is the best tool for shorting the market, I am happy with this position. Winners HAL and ADX can be attributed to keeping a level head in a market whipsaw. Seriously, how many other people do you know added a core position to their portfolio on March 5, 2009? (The market bottomed two business days later).
Here are my new trades for 2009. The record of my entire portfolio can be found on the Performance page.
