Saturday, December 29, 2012

Stock Trades, Year in Review


I figure I'll join the crowd and add this to the plethora of "best of", "worst of", "top X# of" etc for 2012.

Best Trade: ATT (T)
Bought in two lots in Dec 11 & Feb 12 at an average price of $29.40 and sold in late Sept at $38.35, near its highs this year. Accounting for commissions and dividends, a 32.5% total return, annualized (counting time actually held) at 48.2%.

Missed Trade: United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG)
An ETF. Bought in mid-April at $14.98 near its all time low and sold about two months later in late June at $19.00. Accounting for commissions and dividends, a 23.9% total return, annualized 117.8%. This is a miss because I simply didn't buy enough to make much actual money.

Which set up my....

Worst Trade: ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY)
High on the success with UNG, I read more and more about ETFs. Knowing that the VIX was way down from normal and knowing we're coming up on an election and the "fiscal cliff" I bought in mid-Aug...it got hammered and I averaged lower in mid-Sept just to get hammered some more. Cut by the "falling knife". I bailed shortly after the election, down a composite 20% or so. Only my 2nd loss ever, but valuable lessons learned about how ETFs (especially leveraged ones) work and investing (betting in this case) on things I don't fully understand. UVXY finally started moving up, up over 40% in the past month, 34% of that just in the last week...and it is just...just back to where I SOLD at.

The jury remains out on:

Pitney Bowes (PBI) bought back in July at $14.29. It just hit a new 52 week low this past week in the mid-$10 range. It continues to pay awesome dividends (at Friday's closing price, 14.4%).

Intel (INTC) Bought in mid-late November at an average price of $19.80
Conoco Phillips (COP) Bought in late July at $53.13
Both INTC and COP were near their lows when I bought in and have dividend yields in the upper 4% range at my buy in prices. I knew PBI was a flyer when I bought it, at some point soon, maybe the shorts will either cover or get squeezed out, in the meantime I'll take the dividends (assuming they continue to be paid).

Monday, December 24, 2012

Organic...NOT! (at least temporarily)



I noticed this label on a lot of the produce today. I hope no one minds the parsley in the stuffing tomorrow was temporarily not organic...from what I can tell, it is not plastic either. (at least the stuffing will be made with real butter!)

Not Organic Parsley

Christmas Cranberries


Getting ready for a little Christmas dinner tomorrow with friends. Elesa is fighting a nasty cold ... and now the fire alarm is going off, it is telling me I'm apparently burning down the whole building...

Cooking Cranberries - Christmas Eve

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Back to Turkey


Figuratively and photographically speaking. I still haven't finished photos from our trip in late summer to Istanbul. Here are a few photos from our last day, when we visited the Blue Mosque. Still really not sure, even after reading all about it, why they call it the "Blue Mosque". The ceilings were cool, but the bazillion wires that hung down from them to hold the lighting and chandeliers in place were a bit distracting. I thought the Mosque of Mohamed Ali at the Citadel in Cairo was more impressive.

Tourists at the Blue Mosque - Istanbul, Turkey


Blue Mosque - Istanbul, Turkey


Ceiling Details - Blue Mosque


Main Dome from Inside - Blue Mosque

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Finding Art in Bathroom Explosions



I know what you are probably thinking....but that isn't what we were thinking when we heard a tremendous crash tonight. Our bathroom shower, a big thick glass thing, had....EXPLODED!


The Scene as We Walked In


Not being one to miss an opportunity to get a few cool photos, here is the "art" part.

Shatter Pattern On Door


Broken Bits


More Broken Bits

Friday, December 14, 2012

Pioneer Cemetery



I have a long list of "things to do" for my times in Cincinnati. Any given trip, I only have time and opportunity to do a couple of them. One of the things that has been on my list for a couple years is to take my camera and check out the Pioneer Cemetery (aka Columbia Baptist Cemetery) down by Lunken Airport. This past trip, Shelby and I woke up relatively early on a very crisp clear morning and had a look around. Buried in this cemetery are the earliest white settlers to the area.


Pioneer Cemetery - Columbia-Tusculum, Cincinnati


Harriet


Frosted Headstone


Frosted Grass

Friday, December 07, 2012

Along the Little Miami


During my time in Cincinnati, Shelby and I took a walk along the Little Miami River near Camp Dennison. It has become almost a tradition when I'm in town that we go for walk there with our cameras. Here are some of the photos I took.


Wavy Glass - Little Miami River Reflections


Bench - Camp Dennison


Red Leaf - Little Miami River


Fossils - Little Miami River

Sunday, December 02, 2012

Yellow Springs


Had a couple weeks off back in Ohio for Thanksgiving with the family including a couple days of a get away up in Yellow Springs. The entire two weeks was a great break from work. The weather was generally crisp and clear, a beautiful late fall.

I'm sort of surprised they don't call it "Orange Springs".

The Yellow Spring - Yellow Springs, Ohio


The Yellow Spring - Yellow Springs, Ohio


The Yellow Spring - Yellow Springs, Ohio