FOOL PORTFOLIO
REPORT
(FOOL GLOBAL WIRE -- Tuesday, January 13, 1998)
by Rick Aristotle Munarriz
([email protected])
MIAMI, FL (Jan. 13, 1998) -- Ladies and Gentlegents, the Gardners have left the building. It's true, quite true, as they are on the road on a 10-city tour to see if all cozy signing chairs creak the same. By the time you read this it will probably be too late to catch them tonight in Chicago. I hear it's their kinda town. Chicago is.
I hear that they have cracked Al Capone's vault, and much to Geraldo Rivera's chagrin, beneath the dust and cobwebs, found a Zip drive, a "50 Hours Free on AOL" promo CD, and one of those waycool Voodoo 3Dfx video cards. Nobody's whacking these FoolPort holdings.
Tom and David will then be on their way to Atlanta come Thursday. There they will no doubt be disappointed to find that they will be two years too late to go for the Olympic gold in the Synchronized Long-Term Investing competition.
But sensing that most of you do not live in the fine cities of Chicago or Atlanta, and hitch-hiking in this day and age is far too dangerous to condone for Folly pursuit, let's move on to the vibrant market today -- since Gardners at a distance has not only made the heart grow fonder, it has made the FoolPort stronger.
Yes, while the Gardners are away, the FoolPort will sway, and today it just happened to be all good. Swing High Sweet Chariot. The market was strong. FoolPort was stronger. The huge 4.06% surge was the biggest gain all year -- okay, it's only mid-January. Still, that was better than the 1.38% and 2.26% upticks in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, respectively. It was poetic outperformance given the fact that while the FoolPort has more than tripled since its inception, the indices have barely doubled.
Yesterday Jeff wrote about how big the portfolio had gotten with 15 equities, each marching to their own drummer. Well, today the orchestra was in perfect sync. Every stock but one rose today. That would be short selection Trump Hotels & Casinos (NYSE: DJT), fittingly flat on a day when the market hit the jackpot. Trump announced an extension of its 1997 share buyback last week. Good thing the company is buying -- nobody else seems to want to. What baffles me is what a leveraged company like Trump, which can't earn enough to eliminate its bloated debt service, plans to hock in order to find the funds to buy back shares. Sure, sell a casino. I just have to sit back and admire the market timing genius of Ivana and Marla -- they bought low and sold Trump high.
Probably the biggest news today is that there was no news. Three holdings, America Online (NYSE: AOL), Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), and KLA-Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC) were all up more than $4 today. By now it is a 4-gone conclusion that investors will 4-give and 4-get, and the 4-tunate companies will eventually come 4-ward... 4-ever... 4 a 4% FoolPort gain.
Fresh out of numbers, I went over to Amazon's website to celebrate the literary gains today. Up $4 1/8. Zounds! What bounds! I figured I would order Tom and David's new book, being there with party hats and fistfuls of confetti and all, but it turns out they were clean out of You Laugh More Than You Stink. What? That's not the name of the book? Someone's playing games on me. TelePrompTer! Line? Oh, You Have More Than You Think. Well that makes more sense. I assume this one isn't scratch & sniff either.
Well, after today, maybe a pop-up book is more appropriate. Wait, I'm dreaming out loud again. That is always dangerous. Maybe I'll get sent off to Chicago too -- the home of the Bulls on a day when the market was bullish. Okay, the Bears play there too. Perfect contrast. Like a town where the bloodiest mob hit happened on St. Valentine's Day. An ironic podium to preach the merits of long-term investing in a town where the Mayor is named Daley.
But tonight, we too are feeling a little high on the Daley. We have the Daley Double and the Daley Trouble, and now this Daley 4% gain, the likes of which we haven't seen in months. If you are aching to click the night away, feel free to scan the past reports to let me know the last time the Foolfolio roared with such voracity.
In the end, today will matter little, as will Friday's 3% loss. FoolPort scored big like Chicago's favorite citizen, Michael Jordan, on a hot night hitting nothing but net. Oprah doesn't score, right? Stepping stones and potholes, all marking the path to what has been a remarkable road so far, on an incredible journey far from over.
--Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)
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TODAY'S
NUMBERS
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Day Month Year History FOOL +4.06% -2.74% -2.74% 226.40% S&P: +1.38% -1.89% -1.89% 107.71% NASDAQ: +2.26% -1.83% -1.83% 114.06% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 8/5/94 355 AmOnline 7.27 89.31 1128.02% 5/17/95 1960 Iomega Cor 1.28 11.88 827.44% 10/1/96 42 LucentTech 47.62 79.25 66.43% 8/12/96 130 AT&T 39.58 65.19 64.71% 8/11/95 125 Chevron 50.28 74.63 48.40% 9/9/97 290 Amazon.com 38.22 55.44 45.04% 8/12/96 110 Minn M&M 65.68 84.13 28.09% 8/12/96 280 Gen'l Moto 48.74 58.00 18.99% 4/30/97 -1170 *Trump* 8.47 7.13 15.87% 1/8/98 425 3Dfx 25.67 26.13 1.78% 1/8/98 115 S&P Depos. 95.91 95.31 -0.62% 12/19/97 17 Raytheon 53.21 47.63 -10.50% 8/24/95 130 KLA-Tencor 44.71 37.94 -15.15% 6/26/97 325 Innovex 27.71 22.63 -18.35% 8/13/96 250 3Com Corp. 46.86 31.81 -32.12% Rec'd # Security In At Value Change 8/5/94 355 AmOnline 2581.87 31705.94 $29124.07 5/17/95 1960 Iomega Cor 2509.60 23275.00 $20765.40 9/9/97 290 Amazon.com 11084.24 16076.88 $4992.64 8/12/96 130 AT&T 5145.11 8474.38 $3329.27 8/11/95 125 Chevron 6285.61 9328.13 $3042.52 8/12/96 280 Gen'l Moto 13647.92 16240.00 $2592.08 8/12/96 110 Minn M&M 7224.44 9253.75 $2029.31 4/30/97 -1170*Trump* -9908.50 -8336.25 $1572.25 10/1/96 42 LucentTech 1999.88 3328.50 $1328.62 1/8/98 425 3Dfx 10908.63 11103.13 $194.50 1/8/98 115 S&P Depos. 11029.25 10960.94 -$68.31 12/19/97 17 Raytheon 904.57 809.63 -$94.95 8/24/95 130 KLA-Tencor 5812.49 4931.88 -$880.62 6/26/97 325 Innovex 9005.62 7353.13 -$1652.50 8/13/96 250 3Com Corp. 11715.99 7953.13 -$3762.87 CASH $10740.46 TOTAL $163198.58
