Since a few people asked for an update, here is a quick overview of what I’ve been doing this year.
I’ve decided to stay quite on the blog and in my trading. If you look at my past blog entries, you will see that I used to post quarterly results. I later realized that these short-term results are noise that only distract from what an investor should be focused on, which is long term results and finding cheap equities. So I’ve decided to stay quiet during the year and only post annual results.
One of the lessons I’ve learned over the past 4+ yrs of investing is that individuals with small capital are better suited for special situations. This means that you will have a higher turnover than a typical buy-and-hold porfolio. Although you will get much better returns. This is something that I’ve tried to learn and have been doing lot more of in 2014.
Here is what I’ve been busy doing in 2014:
Sold
– Goldgroup Mining: I sold out of these shares in early 2014. The shares have been a 6x since late 2013. I didn’t buy at the all-time lows but I doubled my investment in 2 months. I found other interesting opportunities, so I sold out of this one.
– Aurcana: I sold out of these shares with a small profit. This was a speculative buy for me. Luckly we were able to get out of this with a small profit.
– MBIA Call Options: We sold out of this after the rating update. The options were a double for us in less than 6 months. Right now the stock is cheap but we don’t know when they will get all the rating upgrades. Plus there are some other opportunities we are liking more.
Buys
– Kingsway Financials: This is a company that I’ve been following for over a year. I never got comfortable with this legacy business structure and where the company was going in the future. Although their 2013 Letter to Shareholders was great in allaying these concerns. I think the company has finally turned the corner and has put its bad historical business to rest. There is still some legacy run-off business but their new acquisitions and business ventures are doing to trump the historical business. Also the company’s BV is at $2.6/share and has $17/share in NOLs, compared to the $5/share that I was buying the shares at. I think this is going to be a great compounding machine for years to come.
– Accretive Health: This is a company that was recently written up by Alex Bossert on SumZero. The company is a turnaround situation that is likely going to be bought out. The company doesn’t have updated financials but they are working on it, the auditors are looking through the financials and could be issued anytime now. The company has a great chairman who has a history of turning around companies and selling them. This is setup for a similar situation.