Poetic Portfolios

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
-William Blake

Investors with many years to go before retirement should seek to maximize returns while limiting the risk of permanent loss of capital. The new Grain of Sand Portfolio simulates a 401k that has been converted to an IRA. The investor has gained control of enough capital to have some diversification. The goal is long-term returns with at least twenty years before retirement. (more…)

As 2009 has come to a close, it’s time to take a look at the Against the Sky Portfolio, check its performance, and test its asset allocation. Overall, I’m pleased with the performance of the portfolio, but in my search for value, I suspect that I’ve drifted from its original intent. (more…)

Earnings season is well under way, but before I turn to some of the my holdings and watchlist stocks, I thought I’d look back at the performance of the Against the Sky Portfolio and share some thoughts on the market. I recently updated my Performance page as Icarra seems to no longer be supported (Take a look here). (more…)

When the Against the Sky Portfolio was initially launched, I stated the principles of the portfolio and how investments would be allocated. Now is a good time to look at the current allocations of the portfolio and re-visit the principles as initially conceived.

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At the end of 2007, the NAV for the Two Roads Diverged Portfolio was $86.71. The portfolio trails the S&P 500 by 5.85% since inception in 2004. This is significant because the portfolio was beating the S&P 500 at the end of 2007.

Much of the declines are a result of the small cap concentration of this portfolio. The current portfolio and returns are noted in the table below.

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2008 was certainly a difficult year to start a portfolio. The Net Asset Value of the portfolio fell from $100 to $70.32, a decline of 29.7%. The Against the Sky Portfolio still outpaced the S&P 500 by 1.19%. However, this is due in large part to the deliberate pace of investment of the portfolio’s cash rather than any investment skill.

A chart of the portfolio’s performance is at icarra.

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I started this blog as a way to keep a journal of my thoughts about investing and to keep a record of my thoughts on individual companies. The Two Roads Diverged Portfolio is truly my investing testing ground.

If you look back at the beginning of this portfolio, a good portion of funds were invested in treasuries. These investments represented a rainy day fund. As I began to grow more comfortable with my analysis and investing, I began to invest these funds in stocks. Now it looks like this transition was a bit early.
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The first quarter of the Against the Sky Portfolio is now complete, so it’s time to review the progress of the portfolio. The major goals of the portfolio are 1) preservation of capital, 2) Diversification, 3) Income, and 4) Growth. One of the major challenges of this portfolio at the outset is carefully investing the cash at good value points.  Below is a table summarizing returns and the allocation of capital relative to the portfolio’s target allocation. (more…)

About a week ago, I wrote an article about stocks that I planned to buy. I purchased all of these companies except Jupitermedia. This portfolio is still largely held in cash. If the market takes off following the recent fed rate cuts, this portfolio will obviously lag the market. Despite this fact, I think it is important to be patient and to find good value. There should be a lot of value out there right now, but I will endeavor to perform careful analysis of each potential purchase. (more…)

With the S&P 500 down about 8.6% for the year, it seems like a good time to look for some bargains among the stocks that I have researched. Some of the cash within the Against the Sky Portfolio needs to be put to work. Below are some additions that will likely occur over the next week provided that prices do not rise about certain price targets. (more…)