Monkey Watch List 9-22-20

 This list is just a list to investigate. Currently I have no information on them. Just stumbled into doing research for another side gig I have.

Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A. (Spain Exchange BMAD, Symbol ITX)

Brink's (NYSE: BCO)

Carter's Inc. (NYSE: CRI)

Appien (APPN)

Zoom (ZOOM)

I will update as I find more stocks or eliminate stocks on the list.

Added on 9-22-20

Bandwith (BAND)

American River Bankshares (AMRB)

The Monkey Portfolio Lives

 Last time I checked in, I was making a highly speculative move in FLMN. Guess what, I've lost my ass in my initial investment...guess what. I'm not in a position to invest right now...but I'm mustering some capital to double down on my investment. I still think FLMN has room to explode. Again, it is a highly speculative move and I'm not putting a lot of money into the holding but I think it's worth the risk at this point.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the global economy to a grinding halt. I sense opportunity.

I've been inactive in investing for the last eight years. Mostly due to personal reasons and not having the funds to invest. Without getting into details. the scope of my job changed and I looked for other ways to earn income. I've taken on two side gigs...both have potential to make decent income but for now I have two new income streams. Most of it will go to pay down debt incurred over the last eight years. Some of it will go to my new found will to invest.

One of my jobs will make the first payoff at the end of September. My goal by that time is to have at least to stocks researched and ready for purchase.

I've already done preliminary research by running a few stock screens, subscribed to a newsletter and downloaded some free resources. Based on these sources, I'm building my watch list to decide what is worth researching further and what I can immediately eliminate.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to post a few things:

• whittled down watch list
• research on watch list
• investing philosophy 
• investing strategy
• exceptions to investing strategy
• brokers I use
• all topics relevant to decisions I make

The purpose I do this if for education. Everyone's situation is different so I make a standard disclaimer: Do your own due diligence. Only you know your situation. My buys are based on my financial situation and are the best for me at the time I make my decisions. 

I also believe in full disclosure, I will reveal all my positions and if I'm buying, selling, holding, accumulating etc...

So for full disclosure...I only own two stocks: XOM and FLMN...

ExxonMobil (XOM): is a hold for me....my recommendation for others is run away...hold if you own but don't add to your position....if you don't own, don't buy...I own but am not adding to my position.

Falcon Mineral Corp (FLMN) is highly speculative. I'm adding a very small position to what I already hold. My recommendation is don't buy if you don't a position. Hold your position if you own. 

Now for my Way To Early Watch List: JD.com, Zoom, Appian and HubSpot.

 

Stock Buy - Osprey Energy Acquisition Group (OSPR)

Updated 7-31-19

A few notes on this investment. The price currently sits at $7.91 and is not unexpected.

I haven't had a chance to review the latest filings to see if my investment thesis has changed. Some investment advice for free: it's not very wise to not read keep up with your investments on at least a quarterly basis. I don't watch the stock ticker daily.

Osprey has undergone a couple of changes since I last posted.

First, the acquisition of Royal Resources LP was completed. In conjunction with the closing of the deal, Osprey changed its name to Falcon Mineral Corp and is trading on the NASDAQ as FLMN.

I will post more updates once I spend some time reading the latest filings.

Original Article - 6-22-18

I've wanted to get back in the investment game again. It's not really a game. I carefully consider the risks involved and the potential returns.

After careful consideration I decided to invest in Osprey Energy Acquisition Group.

OSPR is a blank check company that acquired mineral rights to leases is the Eagle Ford shale fields.

Make no mistake, this is a high risk investment. Currently, outside of the IPO and some warrant placements, the cash flow is nil, nada, zero.

What I'm buying is future earnings and cash flow that is currently untapped in the ground and the management team has the ability to create cash out of the ground. I'm also buying on the management teams past history of unlocking value from high risk situations.

There is a higher than usual risk of losing capital in this investment. My investment thesis rests on the potential of converting natural resources into cash.

When I write about investing, I never reveal a dollar amount I invest. I refer to positions. A full position refers to the amount I consider the most I'm willing to invest in most stocks I buy. Based on my investment thesis, I may buy a higher or lower amount of a full position.

For OSPR, I'm debating on how much to buy. I'm purchsaing my first batch in a week. I'm leaning to buying an initial half of what I consider a full position. My ultimate goal to buy a minimum of a full position and possibly over by a third.

My preferred entry price is $12.50 per stub. My goal is a minimum of a double but that would be a major disappointment. I believe that the initial investment will return ten times my investment.

Again, this is a highly speculative investment with high risk, high reward potential.

Don't buy on my writing. Do your own due diligence.

Updated Watch List 04-11-18

I've been waiting for the Saudi Aramco IPO. It was supposed to happen in the first quarter 2018. We are eleven days into the second quarter.

So what is the next best way to get a piece of the Saudi action? You know, wet your beak a little? Invest in companies with ties to the House of Al Saud.

A Little Background on Me

 I work in the O&G business...Oil & Gas. One of the best pieces of investment advice I can give is "invest in what you know." So I look for opportunities in my industry. I don't often find to much.

But it doesn't hurt to keep a watch list in my industry.

What Do I Know?

One of the reasons I'm interested in the Saudi Aramco IPO is because not only am I in the O&G business but I've been involved in Saudi ventures. 

Disclaimer: I don't own stock in any Saudi companies, subsidiaries or have any insider knowledge of any Saudi moves. What I know is from public info and nothing proprietary from my experience in the business.

It's no secret that the Saudis want to diversify. They are starting to realize that they cannot sustain drilling and selling oil. There is more money to be made in diversifying into all aspects of the petrochemical business.

SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) is opening a massive project in Corpus Christi, Tx. 

Saudi Aramco just announced a big investment in TechnipFMC which is a public company. Honeywell UOP is also discussed in the article but they are not a publicly traded company. The article is worth the read.

Up In Smoke

John Boehner is joining the board of Acreage Holdings. Unfortunately they are not a public company either but it's worth looking for investment opportunities in the growing marijuana field.

Stock Watch - Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy LVMH

8-17-17
One way to get investment ideas is to see where the money flows to from consumers. Being married, I started watching my wife's favorite brands that a single man wouldn't notice.

One of her favorite stores is Sephora. While at a Sephora location in a huge high end Texas mall, I noticed the amount of women that packed the store. So I decided to do a little digging.

Sephora is part of a larger company based in France - the LVMH group. My jaw dropped when I saw the businesses owned by LVMH. The stock ticker symbol derives from three of it's business lines: Louis Vuitton, Moet and Hennessy. Recognize those brands? Pretty high end.

It goes deeper. LVMH owns over 70 business. Or Houses as they like to call them. The Houses are divided up into six business sectors: Wine & Spirits, Fashion & Leather Goods, Perfumes & Cosmetics, Watches & Jewelry, Selective Retail and Other Activities.

This is just the surface. I'll post all my LVMH rantings, research, commentary and ultimately if I think it is worth ownership.

Investor Education - The Most Important Metrics for REIT Investing

One thing that is important when you do you own investment selections is to understand what you are buying and how to investigate the underlying business.

There is always risk to investing. An investor cannot simple remove risk. What an investor can do is lower the risk factor by education. Armed with information, an investor can make a prudent investment for his risk tolerance.

All that stated, anytime I find a news article or website with what I feel is of important investment educational value, I will post the link under the heading Investor Education.

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are great income generating investments. However, REITs are not for every investor. How does one determine if REITs are proper for one's individual portfolio? Learning what an REIT is and how it works as well as how to evaluate an REIT is the key.

Linked article is The Most Important Metrics for REIT Investing by Brian Bollinger of Simple Safe Dividends. Click on the hyperlinks for more info on Bollinger and his newsletter.

Happy investing! As always, I present my research for educational purposes only. Please due your own due diligence before you invest. Mentions of my personal transactions are for full disclosure and education purposes and are not recommendations on my part for anyone else.

Starting From Scratch

Greetings all from Monkeyland.

I'm starting my portfolio over. A few years ago, I sold off all my holdings to buy a house. That was fantastic decision as I later sold the house for a sizable gain.

I've decided that now is the time to restart my investment portfolio.

You have to start from somewhere, so today I begin by assembling my watch list.

I signed up to receive an email from Daily Trade Alert. I try to scan it and read for ideas.

A while back, I talked to a coworker about the cannabis industry as a growth play. Lo and Behold, an article with seven cannabis stocks popped up on Daily Trade Alert recently.

The link is These 7 Cannabis Stocks Are Legal Monopolies.

The seven stock mentioned in the linked article:

Happy hunting as this is my first official watch list additions.  I'll keep this updated as I investigate each potential holding.

Stock Holdings Update and Current Purchases

I've been evaluating my portfolio and my current holdings and amounts.  As stated previously, I sold off the majority of my stocks to help fund the purchase of a new home.

I have a certain dollar amount which I call a full position.  Sometimes I overweight on a stock if I feel particularly confidant that it has potential.  Other times I underweight a position if is more speculative and risky.  A lot of investing involves investing money amounts that you are comfortable with.  If you put amounts that are keeping you awake at night.  You then need to rethink your philosophy and how much you put in.

For the record, my current portfolio contains the following holdings:

• Arctic Cat (ACAT) - currently acquiring shares for a full position.
• Ameresco (AMRC) - currently acquiring shares for a full position.
• Activision Blizzard (ATVI) - holding full position
• Dolby (DLB) - holding full position
• Momenta Pharmaceuticals (MNTA) - holding a third of a position.  Currently evaluating whether to continue to acquire shares.
• National Oilwell (NOV) - overweight 17% above a full position due to dividend reinvestment.
• Seaspan (SSW) - overweight 5% due to dividend reinvestment.

In my stock search, LinkedIn has move to the top of my list.  Next week's stock order will include my last purchase of ACAT to complete a full position.  It also included my first purchase of LNKD.  

LNKD will be an addition to my Thundercougarfalcon Fund.  That fund was started two years ago to track my own selections outside the newsletters.  Unfortunately, I neglected my own stock research so currently the fund holds one stock.  I wanted to add three to four stocks a year to it.  If I had followed through, I'd probably have a 8-10 stock personal fund.

Next post, I hope to have my reasons and some research on why I'm buying LinkedIn.

New Watch List for 2012

So what?  The year is starting the sixth month.  I'm sticking with the old adage that it's never to late to invest.  Since I purchased the house, I've neglected my portfolio.  Now is the time to start rebuilding it.

Today I was pleasantly surprised when I took a peak at my brokerage account.  I have a little more than I thought I did.  That's always nice.

I decided to start a new watch list.  It's been so long that I actually updated my old watch list that I decided it is better to start from scratch.

The new watch list consists of:

Regis (RGS)

Retail Opportunity Investment Corp (ROIC)

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP)

Builders FirstSource (BLDR)

From the Motley Fool article, 3 Unappreciated Stocks To Buy Hand Over Fist in 2012, , the three stocks mentioned are:

Regis (RGS) - Owns hair salons including Super Cuts.  

Article Notes:

1. Old ownership wasted shareholder capital  on bad deals and bloated middle management.

2.  Starboard Capital won a proxy fight and installed three members on the board. 

3.  Due to Starboard challenge, CEO-elect and COO resigned.  Middle management cut and company looking to sell non-core business such as beauty schools and hair restoration business.

4. North American operations is a cash cow.  Cuts of management, sell of non-core assets and other moves could leave it with plenty of cash.

Retail Opportunity  Investment Corp (ROIC) - a REIT that prefers property in affluent areas with a high traffic retail anchor store.  Also buys depressed commercial real estate and low prices.

Article Notes:

1.  CEO Stuart Tanz experienced with REITs.  Ran Kimco Realty that earned investors over 800% in ten years.

2. $600 market cap, 4% dividend, payout of 70-80% of funds.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) - owns a wide variety of assets such as "timberland, railroads, ports, power transmission assets and coal terminals."

Article notes:

1.  Looks to invest in high quality assets with steady income streams.

2. Lists acquisition of two Chilean toll roads and Australian Prime Infrastructure as examples of types of assets BIP invests in.

3.  Also states that company has goal of capital appreciation of 12-15% a year along with a payout growth of 3-7%.

From one of my newsletter subscriptions:

Builders FirstSource (BLDR) - supplies raw materials to home builders mostly in the South and East United States.   Basically anything a builder needs, from materials to contractor services,  BLDR will sell or install it.  Insiders are buying on the open market. 

In my opinion, this is a very risky stock.  With prices ranging recently from $3-4, it almost looks either like a garbage stock or undervalued.  Only more research will tell which direction I will go.

Note on subscription watch list stocks:  I don't feel obligated to not divulge watch list stocks from newsletters.  The stocks are mentioned as ones to keep an eye on and for further research for subscribers.  The stocks are not recommendations and are not tracked with sell, hold or buy and updates like the formal recommendations are.  A stock may only be mentioned once in a newsletter and never heard from again.  Thus, I feel free to discuss those stocks on my blog.

Finally I ran a stock screen on the Wall Street Journal website: WSJ Stock Screen 6-9-2012 (pdf file).

Investing Update

Long time since my last investing check in.  Obviously much has changes since then.

First off, I sold off the vast majority of my holdings and at a profit.  Then second move stems from the first. With the proceeds from my investments I purchased my new home.

Now that I'm settled in my home and the necessities bought, I can once again focus on rebuilding my portfolio.

I've often read that one should have investment goals and a philosphy. It doesn't have to be complex, wordy or fancy. A simple statement to give one general direction to a goal. A philosophy of what type of investments will help someone keep focused and avoid buying unfamiliar securities.

In short, my goal is to make money. More long term, I want to invest to supplement my retirement or pay off my home house at retirement.

Philosophy-wise, I prefer small to mid cap stocks. They can be more volatile and risky but rewards can be higher.  I also look to mix in a few microcaps to try to juice my returns.

The Current Plan

I use two newsletters for stock ideas. Each newsletter provides four stock ideas. I can't afford to buy stocks a month so I evaluate one or two stocks with for best return.  Since both are subscription newsletters, I often delay announcing my buys. I don't think it is fair to newsletter subscribers, writers and me to give away the information immediately.

Aside from the newsletter buys, I plan on doing stock screen searches and other sources to build a watch list for research for future buys. Since those will be my independent research, I will post those as without delays.

The final goal is educating myself. Along the way I will make mistakes. I hope to learn from those mistakes and make better investing decisions. On the flip side, I hope just as much to learn from what I do right.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Portfolio Move - Adding Positions and a Candidate

I subscribe to one the Motley Fool newsletters so I can't claim the pick are my own.  As it is a subscription service, much of the data or analysis is not for public consumption.  I pay for the service and The Motley Fool issues stock and financial advice in return.  Given those circumstances, I will disclose very little other than say where my source for the stocks I'm purchasing are from.

I'm rating an immediate buy for Ameresco (NYSE: AMRC).  Ameresco is an energy services company.  I'll post a better description in a few days.  I don't want to publish results from the newsletter.  Instead I'll do my own synopsis. It's currently priced around $15 per stub.  There is a lot of potential for returns and it's a recent IPO.  More details coming soon.

Chinese web portal Sina is slow accumulation stock.  I plan on purchasing slowly over a period of time until I have a what I consider a full position in my portfolio.   

Watch List stocks: TTM Technologies (TTMI), Titanium Metals (TIE), Vodafone (VOD)

Vodafone will be an official candidate for the ThunderCougarFalconBird Fund pending research and due diligence.  I plan on presenting my research on this blog and making a decision on whether or not to add VOD to the Fund.

Finally, due to stock appreciation, I already own more than a full position in Dolby.  As of this post, I'm up 35% on my original investment.  Sometimes the best investment is a stock you already own.  So I'm considering adding to my Dolby holdings.

Brazilian Growth

I've been obsessed with Brazil and its economy. Finance media regards Brazil as an "emerging" market. I tend to disagree with that assessment. I'm starting to view Brazil as a stable and growing market versus an emerging market. Right now I'd rather money in Brazil than Greece or Ireland. Brazil striving to become a world class economy. Greece is struggling to stay afloat. China is a hot economy trying not to overheat.

Brazil obviously isn't without risk. When I describe it as stable, that term is still relative. Poverty and crime still are a major problem. No matter what you think, those issues affect the economy.

I have no clue about government regulation and oversight of financial markets.

Then there are risks inherent in investing such as human nature and greed, bad management and taking on to much debt and flat out business failure.

However as a growing economy Brazil represents a unique opportunity to profit in a country's growth and future. Over the next year or two I plan on investing in a three or four Brazilian companies as well as a broad market fund.

These investments will be gradual and in addition to my usual investing objectives. I view the Brazil opportunity as chance to augment my portfolio but not my primary investing concentration.

The iShares Brazil fund I talked about in my last post will probably be my first investment. While a broad index fund is a good way to get money on the table, individual stocks can increase profit potential. Keep in mind that individual stocks also increases risk.

So far I have four candidate companies from the the Motley Fool article "Follow Landers Into Brazil." The article features four companies I will use as jumping off points for research: Petrobras, Itua UniBanco, Vale and Banco Bradesco.

The choices I make will become part of the official ThunderCougarFalconBird Fund.

Also on my previous post, I indicated interest in an iShares high yield bond fund. It may or may not be what I was looking for. After reading the prospectus I'm not entirely clear if it is a junk bond fund. It probably is but of course the literature won't refer to it as such. Thus the term "high yield" because junk bond investors require a higher interest for the risk.

All Is Quiet

Right now I'm on the grand voyage of looking for a home. As such, my investing has slowed down as I prepare for purchase of the house.

I finally closed out my portfolio portion of shipping company Seaspan. Other than that I've let the research go to the way side for now. Not smart but house buying and summer fun have gotten in the way.

Until now I've dealt exclusively in buying stocks long. No shorts, options, mutual, ETFs or bonds have entered the portfolio.

I'm about to add a new product to my fund. I'm going to research a Brazil broad market fund. I'm also going to attempt to dabble a small part of my portfolio in a junk bond fund.

My portfolio is humming along very well despite the gloom and doom of the mass media. I adhere to the Motley Fool philosophy is you can make money regardless of the market. The key is to find well run companies, return cash to investors and have a history of good shareholder relations. It helps that management owns a good size of stock to align their wealth with mine.

So why the change? It's not really a change. My overall investing thesis remains. I decided to branch of for exposure to different risk. Most my exposure to foreign markets is through the international portion of my 401. I decided country specific gets me more targeted returns but it comes at a higher risk. As for junk bonds, it's just a risk I'm willing to take for some higher yields as well as capital appreciation since it is a traded fund.

For disclosure purposes the funds I'm researching are the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund (EWF) and iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG). Actually I'm not sure High Yield is junk bonds but it's worth a look.

I should have a decision sometime next week.

ThunderCougarFalconBird Fund Buys and Amended Rules

The new Thundercougarfalconbird Fund continues to acquire the first asset of Seaspan (SSW) which I explained in previous post. SSW is going to be a gradual accumulation until I feel I decide the risk outweighs the return. I'm looking to buy twice the amount of SSW than I do other spots. One reason is that I feel it has plenty of growth left in the stock price. Another is it pays a hive dividend distributing most profit not used to expand or run the business. I'm also allocating an amount toward my Roth fund.

I'm in the process of vetting new stocks for my next purchases. I'm currently looking to add another small cap but and finding one mega oil company to look tempting.

One final note on my portfolio candidates. I've stated that I base most my selection for my personal portfolio on newsletters I subscribe to. With the Thundercougarfalconbird Fund, I want to limit my exposure to those picks on my scorecard. I plan on using no more than four per year in the Thundercougarfalcon Fund's performance. Other stock ideas that I get from newsletters that are not official recommendations will be counted. The newsletters only introduce watch list stock with minimal research. Due to the research I'd put in, I feel I can rightly include these stock.

Name Change: Thundercougarfalconbird Fund

Inspired by a Futurama episode, I renamed my new investment portfolio the Thundercougarfalconbird Fund.

Originally I named the fund after my alma mater, state and Liberty sounded cool.

I like the new name better.

Cougar Texas Liberty Fund

Cougar Texas Liberty Fund

This is my new investing idea. I plan on building a portfolio of stocks outside my current account to see how I can do at picking my own stocks. Currently, most the stocks I buy are based on recommendations from subscription services. In the last seven years, I’ve learned a lot about stocks and now I would like to put my money where my mouth is. While there is a lot I know, there is even much more that I don’t know. My goal is to succeed in stock selection but also to learn from any failure and not repeat the same mistakes.

I’m still debating how to track my stock selections. The issue is to track them separately from my subscription based selections or lump them in together. I think I’ll have to decide on criteria for which subscription based stocks go into the fund tracker. If a stock is just mentioned on a subscription watch list, it will go into the fund tracker due to the amount of analysis I put into it. Official subscription recommendations probably won’t go on my fund tracker. I’ll have to think it through so more because I think there might be an occasional selection that does belong on the fund tracker.

Investing Philosophy
Since this is really just my personal stock selections and not a real fund, there are no limits or amounts I have to invest. The bottom line is for me to increase my investments and maximize profits and minimize losses. I’ll choose to invest in whatever financial instrument I feel best furthers my financial goals.

Despite the previous wide open statement, I have a preference in the type of stocks I like to buy. I prefer small cap stocks with the potential of a high return. I look for companies and businesses that show potential to explode due to a unique idea, niche market with room for plenty of growth or a small business with the ability to shake up and reinvent a traditional industry.

Two examples of my preferred stocks are Netflix and Buffalo Wild Wings. Netflix reinvented DVD rentals from the traditional brick and mortar store with its DVD by mail rentals. Netflix is now starting to branch out in other movie delivery systems. Buffalo Wild Wings does nothing unique. I can drive around town and find dozens of buffalo wing places. BWW combined the wings eating experience with the sports watching environment. With a controlled expansion, they are building the brand while using cash flow instead of heavy debt to build new restaurants.

Another type of stock I’m starting to gravitate toward is dividend paying stocks with potential for medium growth in stock price. To help spread and lower the risk, I will also add some solid steady paying dividend stocks like ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson and Pepsi.

I’ll also add ETFs, mutual funds, bonds and other type of investment vehicles as I deem appropriate. I may even one day expand to options if I can ever get my head around them.

Sell Notification, Purchase Notification

Sell Notice - Netflix NTFX
I sold approximately 40% of my Netflix (NFLX) shares. The main reason is Netflix ballooned to 30% of my entire portfolio. It's a nice problem to have but a problem none the less. Netflix has been my top money maker especially due to an increase of my holdings when it bottom in the teens a few years ago. This is the second time I've shaved back my Netflix on the size in a year.

With the price reaching into the $100-110 range, I decided it was time to kill to birds with one stone. As I stated before, I'm cutting back primarily because NFLX ran up to inflate my holds (a good thing). However I had some valuations concerns and decided to take some of the gains off the table and look for new ideas to invest in. I have no doubt Netflix will continue to perform well but I'm just cutting my exposure while looking to put that capital gains right back to work.

One of the philosophies of the Monkey Portfolio is to reinvest in all manners. I reinvest dividends. I also reinvest shares sold to buy in other business. Last year after I sold my first installment of NFLX I put it to work in MSM Direct and Dolby Labs. Dolby has continued to beat the market.

Once again, that philosophy applies. The net gain from Netflix will be used to either expand current holdings or invested in new companies. A full position is a position in my portfolio that I consider the max I'll own of a stock. I do make exceptions and own more or less. Anyway, I've gained enough from the Netflix sale to fund three complete positions and a third of another.

Purchase Notification - Seaspan Corporation (SSW)
I give my reasons in my results of review of my holdings. I continue to keep buy until I reach my predetermined amount. Also I'm making it my first holding in my new IRA account.

Even though they are separate accounts, I'm counting them as one toward my new Texas Liberty Cougar Fund. More on the Texas Liberty Cougar Fund on the next post.

Review Complete

After a review of my stocks portfolio and investment newsletters that I subscribed, I've decided to sell one stock. I'm selling two other stocks for portfolio maintenance purposes.

I subscribe to the Motley Fools Stock Advisor and Hidden Gems newsletters. I don't reveal to much of the information contained in those newsletters. They are subscription services and people pay for the information. I have no desire to lower the value of the information by revealing it on a blog. When I make moves based on the newsletters I give only vague information. I see no reason to hide what I buy or sell on recommendations if I keep it vague.

Also please remember that this blog is for informational purposes for me and whoever reads it. I in no way recommend you follow my moves. I do so with money I can afford to lose if things go haywire. Everybody's financial situation is different. Please consult with a financial advisor and/or do your own due diligence. What may be all right for me may not be a great idea for you.

That gets the disclaimers out of the way.

Sells
My first sell is Double Take Software. They are up for acquisition and there is no longer any potential upside. Even if they weren't up for sale, the business has been stagnant and they've tried entering markets already occupied by the big boys Google and Microsoft.

The other two sales are mainly clean up issues. One is a small position I had in LoJack (LOJN). I bought it as a small cap looking for a decent return. It isn't going up or down. I have better ideas to invest in. I no longer have the desire to keep up with it either so it's time to say bye.

The other position I'm cutting lose is ActivIdentity Corp (ACTI). I honestly have no earthly idea what they do. I bought the stock by mistake. I intended to buy Activision (ATVI) but entered the wrong ticker symbol. I held the small stake after I bought it just to see what it did. Since I don't follow the company or know what it does, it's time to move on from that accidental buy.

A Single Buy
Finally, I have one buy to announce. I'm opening a position in Seaspan (SSW). Seaspan owns and operates container ships and leases them long term. They concentrate their business in shipping from Asia to the U.S. They currently own and operate 42 ships with the goal of adding 21 and leasing 5 more by 2014. The company pays out a high portion of profit as dividends to stock holders.

I believe SSW is a high risk investment. The company's success relies on an improving world economy. Should the economy and taste for Asian manufactured goods slip then SSW will probably take some major losses. However, the potential rewards help offset the risk. With an undervalued stock and high dividend payout, stock holders will be compensated for the risk if the economy starts keeps on improving.

I'll be watching as close as I can the ships it has on order. I think ship orders is a decent indication of the health of the company. If the SSW trims back or puts future orders on hold chances are they see or have trouble brewing.

It's Been A Long Time

Other obligations have kept me from keeping up this part of my blogs and website.

Also I haven't been a very active investor in a while. I plan on buying a house in the near future. As a result, most my extra money goes into a savings account toward a down payment.

My portfolio ran on cruise control the last several months.

I decided to return to actively managing my stock portfolio.

A quick inventory of my investment account shows some I need to clean up the pile. Also, it's nice to know I've picked some quality stocks that keep me in the black. Of course some stocks are losers or stagnant. I will trim those off the list shortly.

On the flip side, my three stocks of the several I own keep my money well into the black. Those three stocks are Netflix, Buffalo Wild Wings and Chinese's travel site Ctrip.com.

I'll post my stock moves in a future post (maybe today). I first must continue with accessing my portfolio, reading my investment newsletters and other sources before I make any final decisions.

I've also started a stock project. I used two stock screens to assemble a list of potential small cap stocks and will add a few more from my investment sources. I will then whittle it down and research stocks, if any, that remain.

I'm also open to a few ETFs that invest in markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China as well as emerging markets.

That's all for this brief update but I'm back in the saddle. Again.

All's Quiet on the Monkee Portfolio Front

I haven't posted lately because I've been very inactive with my portfolio lately.

My latest move was a sale of Umpqua Holdings Corporation (UMPQ). I don't have the exact numbers yet but it was around a 50% loss. I sold on a recommendation from one of the Motley Fool newsletters I subscribed to.

In short, the recommendation was based on the regional bank's exposure to commercial real estate. The Fool believed that UMPQ was sufficiently capitalized to weather the mortgage bubble and conservatively lent money to home owners. They feel, however, that isn't the case with the banks commercial real estate portfolio. While they don't think it will break the bank, they don't feel the risk outweighs the benefits anymore. Better to cut losses now and look for other places to invest with what remains.

One thing the Fool preaches is to learn from all your investments. Especially to learn from the mistakes so you won't repeat them. The Fool made the call to invest in UMPQ in 2007 before the housing bubble bursting. Even after it hit they recommended to hold. Did they make a mistake in recommending the stock? Obviously yes or else I wouldn't be looking at a 50% loss. However, small or regional banks can pay off big. Unfortunately no one saw the damage coming in the economy. I saw a housing bubble but I had no idea it would affect the economy like this. So I really can't fault the Fool for the losses. The don't guarantee success.

One other recommendation is to diversify over different stocks and sectors. Buy the best. No one will be perfect in the market but you can minimize your exposure. My portfolio contains eighteen stocks after the UMPQ sale. Of the remaining stocks, eight are in the black. Three of the winners are up significantly. BWLD is up over 150%, NFLX over 200% and CTRP over 150%. My point is even with a significant loss in UMPQ I still am in the black. Those three stocks have more the held up my portfolio through the rough economy.

In the future I expect some losses due to the inherent risk in investing. However, if I make my selections and vet them well, I expect my returns to outweigh my losses over the long haul.

One last note on my inactivity. I transferred jobs within my company. So there was a lack of overtime in my new assignment lately. My investing policy is to use only extra cash. Usually that means overtime money goes to savings and investments. Lately though it's just been paying bills and car repairs. If I didn't have the car repairs I'd probably be more active. I have some extra cash this month so I'll be making some buys soon. When I do I will post my selections.