Poetic Portfolios

I am venturing into the wreckage here, looking for the undamaged or slightly dinged. I’ve been down this road before. Drawn to their high yield, I was nibbling at Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) last summer when the credit crisis was just beginning. After the first round of dilution to meet a margin call, I determined the yield was just not going to be there and sold. Lucky me, I only lost 50% on that “investment.” More painful has been my investment in First Marblehead (NYSE: FMD), a company totally blindsided by the credit crisis. I have yet to introduce the portolio where these investments occurred, but trust me when I say that I approach my look at CapitalSource (NYSE: CSE) with great trepidation. (more…)

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…)