Jiesen tries to take over the world

[billyjoe]

Jiesen,
You don't work for Amylin , do you ? My psychic powers are picking up something about "inside information" or something like that , I'm usually pretty accurate , but the 2,357 mile distance is blurring the messages.

billyjoe

[jiesen]

Jiesen,
You don't work for Amylin , do you ? My psychic powers are picking up something about "inside information" or something like that , I'm usually pretty accurate , but the 2,357 mile distance is blurring the messages.

billyjoe

No, I don't. And I don't have any inside info, either. I used to work on an Amylin contract while at a contract lab a few years ago, though, and still have a few friends working there, which is why I'm more familiar with what they're doing than your average investor.

[billyjoe]

Jiesen,
That's a pretty good endorsement. Usually the more familiar a person is with a business and their employees , the less likely they'd be to invest. Another one to keep an eye on. Thanks. Any lab equipment manufacturers looking good to you these days?

billyjoe

[jiesen]

Jiesen,
That's a pretty good endorsement. Usually the more familiar a person is with a business and their employees , the less likely they'd be to invest. Another one to keep an eye on. Thanks. Any lab equipment manufacturers looking good to you these days?

billyjoe

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BIO&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=a,wat,bdx

I've always liked Bio-rad, but never bought it. :regrets:

[jiesen]

of all the companies making money off of my lab activities, though, I'd have to say Sigma-Aldrich tops the list:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SIAL&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

[jiesen]

just bought some more AFT at .83, still under a 1% position. The news was rough, but still doesn't merit this kind of drop.

[jiesen]

just sold those shares for 0.94. didn't expect it to hit that quick, but had a limit order in place just in case. I might stalk it again in the low .80's but doubt it will come back far enough for me.

[jiesen]

bought an additional 1% position in GFCI today (total is still under 2%)

[spikefader]

[jiesen]

holy crap, look at LJPC go!

[jiesen]

bought an additional 1% position in GFCI today (total is still under 2%)

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051219/20051219005440.html?.v=1

see? Grifco's CEO also thought it was undervalued at 0.2! Now I'm up over 50% (on that purchase) in a week.

[jiesen]

just sold those shares for 0.94. didn't expect it to hit that quick, but had a limit order in place just in case. I might stalk it again in the low .80's but doubt it will come back far enough for me.

man, what was I thinking letting those $0.83 AFT shares go at 0.94? Coulda had another $0.40 out of it. Doh!

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AFT&t=5d

[jiesen]

OK, I'm gonna try to use this thread to (aside from taking over the world) disclose my equity trades to you guys, seeing how everyone else seems to be doing it...

I appreciate any comments, jabs or whatever else smack-talk you may have to say about my moves. It all helps me out- since I'm here trying to learn how to be a better investor, and the more information the better...

I'm selling the market today (<1% of port) by closing out an underperforming mutual fund.

To give perspective, here's an *approximate* breakdown of my positions:
25% cash&bonds
25% mutual funds
25% $$MM stocks
25% other stocks
other stocks include:
10% each in LJPC and XING
>1% each in MRK MSFT DRUG.OB SSRI
<1% each in MSPD CNXT
that's it.

I include in my $$MM stocks RRGB and WSB in addition to the stocks $$MM currently holds... Also, I have increased (at least doubled) positions in PRX BEL OFG GGI and NUS

A year later, and it's time to reflect on my portfolio again, to see how it's been working out (or not). This year has not been very spectacular for me. Though I'm not up at all, I'm not down much either (down perhaps 5% overall). Both of my major holdings this year (XING and LJPC) took major hits, and I all but closed out my XING near its low at around $6. I've continued to buy LJPC(D) automatically (as I do bonds and mutual funds) through my retirement plan (guess where I work) so while it's down over 50% for the year, most of what I've bought this year is still worth 15% more than I paid for it (I get a 15% discount to market). While the returns from these two positions alone would be enough to make me cry, these poor returns were nearly balanced out by decent returns from the rest of my portfolio: $$MM stocks returned around 15-20%, mutual funds ranged from about 6-12% and cash/bonds paid 2-4%. So, my portfolio ended up looking much like it did last year, with:

(approximately)
25% cash&bonds
25% mutual funds
25% $$MM stocks
25% other stocks
other stocks include:
15% in LJPC
1-2% each in XING MSFT AMLN GFCI.PK SSRI
<1% in DRUG.OB MSPD AFT

Also, in the 25% $$MM stocks, I still count my overweight positions in PRX BEL OFG and NUS (GGI was sold, as was RRGB) and still own a small position in WSB. I have also picked up small positions in ARLP and ACRG.OB (a $$MM top 5 stock) along the way, and still expect more than 100% out of each of those.

[Websman]

I gave up on mutual funds when I found out that I could do much better on my own. I guess I'm a control freak.

[jiesen]

I found some pretty good reading, in case anyone's bored. It's good to take your eye off the ball for a minute sometimes, and look at the bigger picture:

http://www.oid.com/public/html/excerpts/CenturyMgmt2004/CenturyMgmtExcerpt2004.pdf