Don't Be Sad

Two out of three ain't bad. The market handed it to my portfolio this week. The S&P ended the week down 1.16%, my portfolio was down 2.1% this week. My big loser this week, ABX, which was down over 10%. Part of the issue was the Barrick was caught up in the credit crunch this week and couldn't get their money that was due to them.

Ford also put up a dismal week down 6% on the week. Again, this stock is going to be subject to roller coaster rides. It may continue to struggle as car sales numbers have been low, especially for the big three and uncertainty about the economy in general may weigh on sentiment on the stock.

Las Vegas Sands also continued to consolidate some of it's recent run up. RIG is still trying to gain some traction with it's stock price. It did see a nice rebound Friday with the price of oil going up and concerns about the US economy slowing down lessoned with the Fed cutting the discount rate.

The only winners for the whole week week: Pepsi Co. & Proctor & Gamble. Pepsi started the week with news that in was in talks to purchase a large Russian juice maker. The stock also handled the middle part of the week well because of it's defensive characteristics. PG benefited from the disclosure that Berkshire Hathaway was holding the stock. Having Warren Buffet on your side must be a good sign right?

And what about my newly added Bank of America? Well, not only did they benefit from the run on Friday in Financials in general but Berkshire Hathaway disclosed they also owned stock in BAC. Berkshire also held Financials such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase. BAC was up over 6% from my picking the stock on Wednesday.

When I chose BAC, I was torn whether to take BAC, WFC (Wells Fargo), or adding both. I went with BAC based on commentary that I had read seemed to favor BAC over WFC. I would not have lost on either choice this week. And Warren Buffet is on my side.

So even though I was down this week, I am still ahead of the market so far in my experiment. Lets see what the future holds.