September Update

For the Fiscal Year ending September 30^th, 2008 the Model Portfolio’s return was -11.0% vs. S&P 500’s total return of -20.6%. Since inception, the Model Portfolio's 3-year return through September 30th, 2008 is 21.2% vs. S&P 500's total return of 4.2%.

It was a tough year. Many of our holdings are deep in negative territory especially those with exposure to the housing market. For now we are happy to hold on to these holdings and in some cases will increase our positions. Many should emerge stronger from the current downturn. Coutrywide Financial which we bought aggressively throughout the year is now Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). We also added new positions such as Ebay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and General Electric (NYSE: GE). Finally, Cadbury (NYSE: CBY) completed the spin-off of Dr. Pepper (NYSE: DPS).

September Trades

September 17 2008
Sell 100 Morningstar Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN) $57.00

Sell 100 Western Union (NYSE: WU) $25.00

Buy 300 General Electric (NYSE: GE) $23.00

Buy 200 Ebay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) $22.00

Buy 100 USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) $27.20

July - August Trades

NO TRADES

June Trades

June 13 2008
Buy 2500 Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) $4.75

February - May Trades

NO TRADES

January Trades

January 8 2008
Buy 200 Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) $5.50

January 14 2008
Buy 1000 Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) $6.00

Buy 35 Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) $88.00

January 23 2008
Buy 800 Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) $5.25

Buy 100 Ebay (Nasdaq: EBAY) $26.50

Buy 100 Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE: CSG) $43.75

Buy 200 USG Corp (NYSE: USG) $31.50

Buy 200 Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) $22.50

Buy 150 Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) $18.75

Buy 300 Mueller Water Products (NYSE: MWA-B) $7.80

December Trades

December 26 2007
Sell 100 Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) $65.00

Buy 50 Moody's (NYSE: MCO) $36.00

Buy 20 Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) $101.00

Buy 100 USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) $35.80

November Trades

November 20 2007
Sell 200 Electronic Arts(Nasdaq: ERTS) $56.00

Buy 75 Centex (NYSE: CTX) $19.25

Buy 150 Pulte (NYSE: PHM) $10.25

Buy 50 Moody's (NYSE: MCO) $36.00

Buy 200 Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) $9.00

Buy 25 Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) $110.00

October Trades

October 18 2007
Buy 100 USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) $36.00

Buy 20 Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) $132.00

Buy 25 Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE: CSG) $50.80

September Update

For the month of September the Model Portfolio’s return was 0.1% versus S&P 500’s total return of 3.7%. For the Fiscal Year ending September 30^th, the Model Portfolio’s return was 16.9% vs. S&P 500’s total return of 15.6%. Since inception, the Model Portfolio's 2-year return through September 30th, 2007 is 36.2% vs. S&P 500's total return of 24.2%.

We made no changes to the portfolio in September. Meanwhile, housing related stocks including Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) were hit hard in September dragging down the Model Portfolio’s performance for the Fiscal Year. Consider that at the end of August the Portfolio was outperforming the S&P 500 by 4.9% for the trailing 11-month period.

Earnings season is right around the corner. Perhaps Mr. Market will be so kind as to provide us with a few fat pitches.