Sorry, it’s been a while since I listed my equity portfolio moves.  I made the following trades yesterday:

New Buys:

  • Chubb
  • Computer Sciences Corp
  • Dominion Resources
  • Northrup Grumman
  • National Presto (beware, less liquid)
  • SCANA Corp
  • Safeway Corp
  • Total SA

New Sells:

  • iShares Brazil Fund
  • General Dynamics
  • Honda Motors
  • Mosaic Inc
  • Nucor
  • Vishay Intertechnology

And over the past few months, I made the following trades:

Rebalancing Buys:

  • Conoco Phillips
  • Mosaic Co
  • PartnerRe
  • Pepsico Inc
  • Safety Ins Group Inc
  • Shoe Carnival Inc
  • Valero Energy Corp
  • Vishay Intertech Inc

Rebalancing Sells:

  • Assurant Inc
  • Companhia De Saneamento Basico Do Estado De Sao Paulo
  • Conoco Phillips
  • Dorel Inds Inc
  • Ensco International Inc
  • Industrias Bachoco SA ADR
  • iShares Inc MSCI Brazil Index Fund
  • Magna Intl Inc
  • Mosaic Co
  • Nam Tai Electronics Inc
  • National Western Life Insurance
  • PartnerRe
  • Pepsico Inc
  • Reinsurance Group Amer Inc
  • Shoe Carnival Inc (2)
  • Valero Energy Corp
  • Vishay Intertech Inc (2)

Thoughts

1)  I try not to trade too much.  For those that are new to my writings, rebalancing buys and sells are meant to bring the positions back to target weight after they have moved 20% away from the target weight.

2)  I consumed some cash today, enough to get me inside my 20% cash limit.  I don’t believe in the rally, but I maintain my discipline that I don’t let cash get too large.

3) I tried to take some cyclicality off of the table today.  I end up with a little more insurance, utility, and energy exposure, but less of industrials and basic materials.

4) Assurant and SABESP are still double weights.  The rest of the portfolio is equal-weighted aside from that.

5) In terms of balance sheets, and industry factors, this is my most conservative portfolio ever.

6) I still don’t trust the financial sector aside from insurers here.

7) I had some runners-up in my analyses: ACE AEE EE HELE TFX UGI

8 ) I think my portfolio is cheaper and more defensive now.

9) That said, I also raised my central band by 11% today, raising all of my target weights by that amount.  That makes me more likely to be a buyer than a seller, though the change caused no buys yesterday.

10) Dropping the iShares Brazil Fund seemed to be wise.  The run in the emerging markets has been huge, and Brazil is more export and commodity dependent than most.

Full disclosure (here is the whole portfolio): ADM AIZ ALL CB CNI COP CSC CVX D DIIB ESV GPC IBA LNT MGA NE NOC NPK NTE NWLI ORCL PEP PRE RGA SAFT SBS SCG SCVL SWY TOT VLO

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