Brian Nichols'  Instablog

Last time I reported my holdings was on 4/25/2012. I honestly didn't realize that it had been so long. Therefore, I determined it was time to update, as I have been very busy this last month. I also thought I would try something new, and show the performance of my holdings from the time I last reported. First, here are the stocks I sold, and my total return:

(HOG) 41% overall return. It was my 8th largest position on 4/25

Current holdings from largest to smallest along with performance since 4/25

(XPO) 8% = limit order $40 $90

(SPPI) 22% = limit order = $25, $50

(S) 26% = limit order $6, $10

(F) (9%) = limit $13, $18

(ALU) (13%) I continue to hold the large position because I first bought the stock so cheap. I am now about even, but have set a limit order to exit the position at $2.50

(MA) (1%) Have limit order at $500.

(IMUC) 20% uplisted to NYSE tons of upside

(ZAGG) (6%) limit $20

(GALE) EVEN -- Have more than doubled return since I bought. Will not sell for at least three years. I am waiting this one out

(JVA) (33%) -- Common sense suggests that I should sell. But I only invested $2,000 into the company. It is my smallest position therefore I will hold

New Positions Since 4/25

(ONTY) @$3.80 3% gain

(QCOR) @$40 = 20% return with limit order at $60

(NBS) @$0.3473 = 35% gain = limit order at $0.95

Notes:

On 4/25 I had a cash balance of $52,217 that was not invested in stocks or bonds. Today I have a cash balance of $44,217 after $9,968 returned from HOG and investments of $10,000 in QCOR, $5,000 in ONTY, and $3,000 in NBS. Any questions or comments please feel free to use the section below for discussions.

Disclosure: I am long XPO.

Additional disclosure: I am long all stocks that I have disclosed within the blog. This material is for informational purposes only and should not determine any investment decisions. The limit orders are subject to change without notice, but are current as of 6/15/2012

Over the last week I have been busy trying to reorganize my portfolio with a number of value presenting plays. On March 12 I updated my holdings and have been relatively quiet, but have made some recent changes. I have not added any additional holdings but I have sold a few and invested the money to make other positions larger. First, let's look at the positions I recently decided to sell:

ROYL

I alerted investor via twitter (@bnichols9883) back in late March that ROYL could very well trade lower, like it did in Feb 2011 when it also traded with large gains. The trend that led to ROYL's large gains was very similar. Therefore, I was able to sell the stock for a very nice gain and get out before it nose dived. This completely exits me from the energy space, a sector with few stocks that I believe are worth owning.

TPX

TPX is a stock that I have held for years, but recently sold due to my beliefs that its bull trend could come to an end. TPX was one of the better performing stocks YTD and was at all-time highs. I felt its earnings were beating expectations by lower margins and that it was due for a pullback. I had been trimming my position throughout 2011 but finally exited the entire position in April

DISH

I bought DISH with AAPL back around the new year after selling my largest holding GOOG. The stock performed decent and I was able to sell at 32, but I don't believe my outlook for Blockbuster will ever come true. Therefore, I sold the entire position

DLTR

DLTR was the fourth largest holding in my portfolio, and a stock I've held for many years. It has returned incredible gains, but I made the choice to sell the stock because I believe there are other stocks presenting more value.

MA & AAPL

AAPL is my largest position and MA is my third largest. But on Wednesday I cut both positions in half as MA reached new highs and AAPL destroyed earnings. I believe both stocks still have incredible upside, but I feel there are better opportunities.

Positions Added

As you can see I have exited my position in four stocks with one being my fourth largest holding. And I cut MA and AAPL in half which were two stocks with positions that nearly doubled all others in my portfolio. Therefore, they are both large positions but not nearly as large as they once were in my portfolio. With the proceeds from my sales I evenly distributed it into 5 stocks that were already in my portfolio. And I also increased one of my smaller positions by $7,000 with bank money.

XPO

(XPO) is now the largest holding in my portfolio. It was the second largest but now I believe more than ever that this company will achieve greatness in the near future. Its return has been incredible to my personal portfolio but with Jacobs now having more money than originally anticipated and all pieces of the puzzle being in place I expect great returns from this company.

My next largest positions are very close between (F), (SPPI), (S), (ALU), (AAPL), and (MA). The 6 stocks are almost perfectly divided based on their current price. I felt that Ford's, Sprint's, and ALU's recent loss was too good of an opportunity not to buy more shares.

Ford offers security in a growing industry. I believe it has a two year upside of 60% which is more than I believe AAPL and MA have during the same period.

SPPI is one of my favorites and is trading at particularly low levels. The stock could possibly fall or remain volatile over the short-term but I believe it could become a multi-billion dollar company in the next five years.

Both S and ALU are improving its business and becoming more efficient. Both companies are trading particularly lower over the last year but are performing much better. I think both have tremendous upside.

My unchanged positions include (HOG), (ZAGG), (GALE), and (JVA). I purchased $7,000 of additional shares in (IMUC.OB) because I believe the second half of the year could be quite special for the company. It has the best results of any company in the space and is developing a transcendent technology along with presenting data at ASCO, and could very well be announcing an AMEX listing in the coming weeks. Overall, it has a lot of potential!!

Back in December I reorganized my portfolio, and posted the stocks that I held within my portfolio. However, over the last couple weeks I have made several additional changes to my portfolio. I had said that I would be updating a list, quite frequently that included my holdings, but unfortunately I have failed to update the list. As of now, my cash position is much smaller than usual, at only 7%, and I plan to hold the stocks within my portfolio for quite some time. As usual, I have already placed limit orders on each of the stocks I own, which is the level that I am willing to take profits. Below is a list of the stocks I currently own, it's in order of greatest to least in terms of value within my portfolio.

AAPL
XPO
MA
DLTR
F
SPPI
S
DISH
ALU
TPX
ROYL
HOG
ZAGG
IMUC.OB
GALE
JVA

Stocks recently sold include: CAT, KR, and LULU

This portfolio is perhaps the riskiest portfolio that I have held in any period over the last five years. I have eliminated all but three stocks that return a yield, and am concentrating on value. I have sold LLY, DUK, GLW, CHD and T which all have yield and sold small cap stocks COOL and ACUR but will maybe buyback at a later time. I have also sold all but one of my energy holdings as I believe energy will be volatile throughout the election.