Summary for Week Ending 30 April 2012

Written by Mark Bern, CPA CFA

This week I ended up spending more time than expected writing Updates to my popular Enhanced, Long-Term Investing for Income Strategy.  There have been a total of 13 articles in the series this week.  Each one reviewed what recommendations I have made in the past for the subject company and how things turned out for each recommendation.  Then my new recommendation for each company reviewed is reviewed.  I doubled up in some of the articles so the total number of companies included in my writings this week was 16.  Thus far I have made 86 recommendations in this series of which 48 are still open.  Of the 38 closed positions, all have been profitable.

The series includes two model portfolios that I use to compete against each other. The portfolios use almost the same list of companies with one using options to enhance the overall portfolio return while the other portfolio is filled with buy-and-hold positions. The series is an experiment in progress (and in public) to determine if using options can, in fact, increase return over the intermediate term. I have committed to keeping this series “alive” through September 2014 (at a minimum) and will extend the term annually thereafter if interest continues.

The companies and links to access the articles are listed here:

1. Qualcomm and Walgreen
2. Chevron and JCI Controls
3. Blackrock and Applied Materials
4. Spectra Energy
5. United Technologies
6. Medtronic
7. Teva Pharmaceuticals
8. Union Pacific
9. Microsoft
10. Comcast
11. VF Corp.
12. Emerson Electric
13. Novartis

I hope you’ll peruse some of the articles on companies that are of interest to you and get an idea about how the strategy works. As always, your comments to the articles are welcome. I try to answer all questions posed to me there within 24 hours.

With the exception of one significant other project I will be completing my mid-year research review of my Master List companies and in the coming week I plan to begin my “Master List” series with detail analysis and explanations of why each company survived my rigorous test. I hope you’ll join me and question my assessments. I always enjoy sharing and learning more from others about the companies I own or want to own. I believe the process makes us all better investors.

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