Manager: Leif Eriksen
Covestor models: Performance with Protection and Global Growth Brands
I made a few changes to my portfolio and, most importantly, a resolution to avoid chasing performance in the current market. Investors rarely make money trying to figure out where the market is going in the short term. The great investor Ben Graham conveyed it best: In the short-term the stock market is a voting machine, while in the long-term it is a weighing machine.
Graham might have added that market voters, unlike those in the political realm, get to vote and then change their vote every minute of every day that the market is open. Complicating matters are traders – both professional and amateur – making bets on the direction of the market and individual stocks within the market. In today’s environment of global connectivity, computer-driven trading, and instantaneous information (both real and fabricated) “electronic casino” might be more appropriate analogy for the stock market in the short term.
In the long run, however, the market is still a weighing machine. With that in mind, I made a few new investments which should “weigh” more down the road.
New investments include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW). Additions to existing positions include Honda Motor Co (NYSE: HMC) and Loews Corporation (NYSE: L) (more on my rationale for L can be found here), all of which are well positioned in their respective markets and trade at reasonable (or even cheap) valuations. I shed some energy and gold positions to make room for these new positions.
Until next month, many happy returns.
