ilmor's  Instablog

It sure has been a wild ride so far in 2010, after only a month!  I don't think anyone expected all the commotion in Egypt, etc.

Anyway, my portfolio appears to be hanging in there pretty well.  I'm up a little over 3% since 12/31/10.

Some changes were made along the way.  Essentially I've invested in a couple of agricultural and oil commodity inflation ETF's, as well as a few select dividend stocks just to broaden my diversity.

Still, my tech stocks have done well.  I remain bullish on those!

I've made some changes this week, a shift of strategy for 2011.

Firstly, I decided to sell off some stuff on which I've made profits.

I also sold my holdings in a bond fund, as I believe this is not the year for bonds.

I increased my holdings in $GOOG.  I think it has a great future as a long position, which is what it is for me.  I also bought $BAC; I think it has no where to go but up at this point.

In spite of what our Gov't says about inflation, I see, personally, food prices, gas prices and materials pricing increasing quite a bit.  There is inflation, and I believe it's going to get worse.  As such, I plan to buy shares of  $DBA.

I think gold will drop a little more, then continue quite a rise at least into the 3rd quarter of this year.  As such, I plan to buy GLD at $130 or less.

Lastly, I sold LXK, unfortunately, at a loss.  I decided that its only going to continue downhill, so I may as well unload.

There, that's it!  I let you all know how its working out!

My investing strategy is pretty simple.  I don't do much research other than reading a lot about what other investors think, such as many of you here on Seeking Alpha.  On top of that, I subscribe to two investment newsletters.While I am not authorized by them to publish their materials, what I can say is that, essentially I take their suggestions, consider them and then may or may not act upon them.  The same is true for suggestions that I read about here on Seeking Alpha or other investment web sites & periodicals.

I am also, for the most part, a "long" investor, however I may of course choose to shorten some investment lifespans if the overall market trends appear to be going either north or south in various areas.

So, from time to time I will let you all know which stocks I am buying and selling, as well as how my portfolio is doing.  Those stocks may or may not be recommended by the newsletters mentioned above.

As of this writing, I have no purchases on the immediate horizon.  My portfolio holdings, which began for the most part around mid-November of 2010, are currently returning about 3.8%.

One of my best returns has come from XIDE.  Other stocks I like are AAPL, GOOG, SBUX, F, AIXG, MAN and CSCO.  I currently believe that the investment climate is such that the stock market is the place to be, although not without some greater risk than we've seen in the past!

My portfolio also contains what is primarily a bond fund.  I think I'm going to ditch that one, as it appears that bonds are NOT the place to be for the forseeable future, as some sizeable interest rate rises appear to be on the near horizon.

Lastly I'll get a profile pic up so that you'll have some idea that I am a real live person.  I only recently joined Seeking Alpha so have not had an opportunity to do that yet!

Thanks for reading!

ilmor

Disclosure: I am long XIDE, AAPL, GOOG, SBUX, F, AIXG, MAN, CSCO.

Additional disclosure: If you do anything with your investments based on what I've written, you are entirely on your own and I bear no responsibility for your decisions!