Update Number 2 on my portfolio selected using Graham’s techniques

I’ve been a way for a while working on other projects. It’s encouraging that people still visit the site even though I haven’t posted for quite some time!

Anyway, as some of you will recall, on 5 December 2008, I selected a portfolio of 11 stocks using techniques detailed by Benjamin Graham in his book The Intelligent Investor.

The initial portfolio value was $1 million with approximately $90,909 invested in 11 companies as follows:

Company	Buy Price	No. of shares	5-Dec-08 Value	5-Jun-09 Value
Caltex	$6.18	14,710	$90,908	$189,759
Harvey Norman	$2.35	38,685	$90,910	$119,150
Soul Pattinson	$8.33	10,913	$90,905	$110,221
Sims Metal	$11.74	7,744	$90,915	$178,189
Flight Centre	$8.30	10,953	$90,910	$92,553
Hills Industries	$2.90	31,348	$90,909	$52,351
Beach Petroleum	$0.75	122,026	$91,520	$105,552
ASX	$31.60	2,877	$90,913	$107,312
Austereo	$1.11	82,271	$91,321	$131,634
WA Newspapers	$4.70	19,342	$90,907	$82,784
Milton Corporation	$14.02	6,484	$90,906	$97,260
Total			$1,001,024	$1,266,765

As can be seen above, as at 5 June 2009 this portfolio had appreciated by 26.5% to $1,266,765. The All Ordinaries Index had appreciated by 15.8% over the same period. The return from my portfolio doesn’t include dividends – this would increase the return further as most of the companies in the portfolio pay reasonably high dividends.

The performance of this portfolio to date is a testament to Graham and his techniques rather than any brilliance on my part. Graham wrote the book on investing and I’m just a follower.

If I had sat there and listened to all the doomsayers, I would have missed that 26.5% return completely. I may hand out some awards in a future post to some of the most misguided doomsayers who appeared on the scene during this financial crisis. Much of what has been said by these people is utterly absurd, but it did help frightened equity investors to dump stock in some very good companies at what is already being proven to have been silly prices. For this I thank you doomsayers.

Note: None of the above constitutes financial advice. You need to do your own research and consult appropriately qualified people for advice (where necessary).