Month-End Recap, Dec 2010

As usual, this is not investment advice and should not be construed as such.

I am currently 90% invested, as follows:

62% Agricultural commodities
10% Other commodities
12% Emerging market equities
06% Miscellaneous equities
10% Cash

My largest position continues to be in soybeans, followed by sugar.

Although my net exposure hasn't changed from last month, I've redone my allocations somewhat. Most tangibly, I've continued to sell EM equities into weakness, while adding to my exposure in grains and softs. Both switches worked out well. Looking ahead, I hope not to make any major portfolio changes for at least a few months.

As for performance: December was a very good month to end what was a very good year for my portfolio. I ended the year at my high-water mark, which is always gratifying. Even more gratifying is the fact that I handily beat pretty much every benchmark imaginable -- MSCI World, S&P 500, GSCI, CRB, Gold, Oil, RJA, Barc Agg Bond, CSHFI, you name it -- without taking on any leverage or illiquidity. Here's hoping 2011 brings more of the same!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland's Economic Comeback

Image
On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a billion dollars of financial help to Ireland, as the country complied with the requirements set up in its 2010 bailout plan. The plan, which saved Ireland from bankruptcy after it suffered a massive banking crisis starting 2008, is reaching its end, as Ireland is getting ready to start issuing sovereign debt again in December. However, the country has to reach a minimum annual growth of 2% for its debt to become sustainable. Ireland is now out of its second recession in five years with a 0.4% second quarter expansion. This positive data, however, falls short of the optimistic 1.3% growth over the entire year predicted by the Irish government. Irish exports have grown by 4.3% over the same period, while household consumption grew by 0.7%. The IMF decision came almost one week after other good news for Ireland: on Friday, September 20, Moody's announced positive forecasts on Ireland's sovereign debt, which it now judg
Read more

Ongoing Contact

Students today commonly use Twitter and Facebook and, therefore, they receive lots of information on a regular basis. Information comes to them in small bits many times each day. Therefore, the 48 to 72 hours between class meetings can seem like an eternity. It is little wonder that students often seem incapable of remembering what took place in the previous class meeting. The amount of correspondence they have received in the interim is probably massive. I don’t use Twitter because I can’t write anything in 140 characters but I use email A LOT. I want to keep the students engaged in the period between my classes. I want them to think about Financial Accounting every day not just when they are walking into class. The emails that I send to my students vary enormously from motivational to practice questions to simply informational. I often ask the students about these emails in class so they know they need to read them. Yesterday was our first class where we discussed ow
Read more

Obama pushes for diplomacy on Iran's nuclear program

Image
President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani both openly stated their support for a new diplomatic effort regarding Iran's nuclear program. Obama, addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, stated that there was "basis for a meaningful agreement." In recent weeks, Rouhani, who was elected in June, has suggested that he is open to developing a program in which Iran is allowed to further their nuclear energy program but prevents them from building a weapon, claiming that a nuclear weapon program would "contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions." Obama said that Secretary of State John Kerry was working with the Iranian government to resolve the negotiations about Iran's nuclear program. In his statement to the UN General Assembly, he stated that success in the negotiations would be a "major step in a long road to a difficult relationship, one based on mutual interests and mutual respect," adding that "the roadblock
Read more