Stockcoach's Corner

The week began on a sour note as shares in FCPO (one of my bigger holdings) lost more than 15 percent on a weak earnings report. However, thanks to nice moves today in WSCI, GV, and PCTI, my portfolio managed to squeak out a small gain for the week, increasing by $770 (0.1 percent), which compares favorably against the S&P 500 (down 0.3 percent), the NASDAQ (down 0.7 percent), and the Russell 2000 (down 0.9 percent).

I added a new stock to my portfolio: Rex Stores (RSC). The company is profitable and the stock is trading well below tangible book value. Motley Fool recently did a nice write up about the company. I also sold my shares in NGAS. I don't know if energy prices have peaked, but I do know that I am up about 80 percent on this stock in just a few months, and that no one ever went broke by taking a profit.

I've also decided to pull the plug on my "experimental portfolios". Quite frankly, my heart was never quite in it. My value based investment approach has yielded stellar returns and as they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. That doesn't mean that I will refrain from using other investment strategies in the future. As I've said before, there is a paucity of good value stocks out there, and those stocks that are undervalued by traditional valuation metrics (price to book, price to earnings, etc.) are not nearly as undervalued as they were several years ago.