As part of our year end review we present this table.  In the first three lines we see results of a letter written in the turbulence of August in which we pointed out that dividend stocks were good investments.  First line:  Symbol and dividend % in August.  2nd line: price of issue at time.  3rd line:  recent price.  Note: NONE of the stocks were at a loss.  Not to mention dividends collected in the meantime.  Not a bad strategy.  Especially when bonds and CDs were yielding zilch, and stocks were pitching about and in extreme volatility.

Below in the second section some individual issues where our analysis put us long, (second line price when mentioned in our letter).  3rd line

recent price.  Naturally all of these are positive.  Many reflect old and mature positions.  The dates are not all noted.  AIG was the subject of several letters where we saw buy signals. (It is worth noting that these letters were written in defiance of the conventional wisdom that AIG was worthless.)   In some cases we have been long for years — gold, silver, the Dow and S&P.  Some were bought during the crash.  We have not included every letter or trade.  Readers can page back through letters and see the real time comments.  We bought and sold BAC, sometimes making profits, as we did with FNM and FRE where a poison pen letter by a no-name NY firm hammered good profits there.  Present readers probably never saw our letters on rare earths, LYSCF AND STHJF, where you will see nice profits.

C and F which we noted a number of times were originally bought in the crash as, we pointed out at the time, as lottery tickets.

Above all these tables demonstrate the power of long term trend following.  Due to the format of the tables the reader might find it convenient to print this issue of the letter, making it easier to read the tables.

A second letter on year end and next year will be posted shortly.