A Quick Year End Review

This was a good year as my primary portfolio generated a net gain of ~ 57% 61% for the year. In this portfolio, I employed the use of margin when high probability opportunities arose. The bulk of the gains were generated from merger arb plays in (1) Pharmasset, (2) Inhibitex and (3) Medco Health Solutions. I went “All In” in those situations and fortunately, those deals paid off. I'm currently "All In" in Nexen and anxiously waiting for this deal to close (hoping for an early close next year).

The performance in my retirement portfolio was a bit more muted with a return of ~ 22 26%. I was not able to employ the use of margin in my retirement account so I couldn’t take full advantage of the high probability plays.

The majority of my trades were special situations related. Out of the 49 closed positions, I had 3 losers: (1) Illumina, (2) Jaguar Mining and (3) Ancestry.com. I’ve been much better this year at limiting my losses when compared to the previous year. The previous year, I had two big blowups and learned a great deal from that experience.

I’ll continue to employ my current strategy in maintaining half my portfolio in growth names and the other half in special situation plays in the upcoming year.

Have a Healthy and Prosperous New Year! Off to reading the latest edition of Barron’s...

Edit: For some reason, I thought the market was closed on Monday, 12/31. I'll update my year end results again on Monday.

Update on close of 12/31: Nice year end rally and a few extra % gain for the year.