Boring Portfolio Report
Monday, January 29, 1996
The Borefolio became a going concern today as it acquired its first two holdings: 200 shares of Kulicke & Soffa (NASD: KLIC) purchased at 23 3/4 and 100 shares of Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI) bought at 54 1/4.
My intention here is to acquire investments that can be held for a decent interval rather than engage in a lot of day to day (let alone tick by tick) hand-wringing. That said, it was pretty difficult not to notice that certain market makers greeted the arrival of the Borefolio with their own special kind of howdy-do today.
Any other day of the week, TXI is lucky if it sees 30,000 shares traded. And I believe they break out the Lone Star Beer in Midlothian if the stock moves up a full quarter-point. Today, TXI actually gapped up at the open (from its close on Friday at 53 1/2) and didn't stop until 43,000 shares were traded. TXI closed at its high for the day: 55 1/8, up 1 5/8.
What was the market-moving news for TXI, you ask? Well, a new Vice President of Scrap was appointed over at Chaparral. (I swear it's true.) As exciting as that news may be for us Boring types, somehow I don't think it accounts fully for TXI's heeby-jeebies today. Could it be that some folks in the "financial community" are actually monitoring what goes on here in Fooldom?
Who knows? What I do know is that the Kulicke & Soffa market-makers had an even warmer greeting prepared for the Borefolio today. As you may recall, KLIC closed cleanly last Friday at 22 1/4 bid, 22 1/2 ask. Within seconds of the market's opening today, though, it cost you a neat $25 to buy a share of KLIC. Yeeoww! Fortunately for me, the broker's line was busy. By the time I placed my order, I could have all the KLIC I wanted for a "mere" $23.75 per share.
KLIC finished the day at 23 5/8, up 1 5/8, on volume of nearly 1.4 million shares--over double its normal volume. Of course, KLIC reports earnings tomorrow after the close of the market, which undoubtedly contributed to today's excitement.
What a way to get started! This is a tad too exciting for MF Boring!
--Greg Markus (MF Boring)
