As you will notice, my best investment for 2009 was Helmerich & Payne (HP) with a 16% gain using 49% of the portfolio. The worst investment was American National Insurance (ANAT) which lost 22% with 23% of the portfolio. The best gain from the Nasdaq 100 Watch List was Pharmaceutical Products (PPDI) with a gain of 9.78% using 26.71% of the portfolio. Three trades Hythiam (HYTM), Evotec (EVTC) and YRCW(YRCW) were pure speculations with minor portions of the portfolio. The losses of HYTM and EVTC were easily offset by the gains of YRCW. As I've said many times before, gold and silver stocks act as perpetual options on the price of the precious metal. My postions in Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) and Hecla Mining (HL) were attempts to participate in the run-up in the metals. Each of the transaction with HL and AEM were completed within a month.
| Symbol | Close Date | % Gain/Loss | % of Portfolio | ||||||
| AEM | 2/4/2009 | 4.51% | 20.28% | ||||||
| HL | 2/5/2009 | -23.78% | 4.55% | ||||||
| ANAT | 2/23/2009 | -22.57% | 23.61% | ||||||
| SYY | 2/23/2009 | -6.69% | 30.33% | ||||||
| HP | 3/26/2009 | 16.06% | 49.00% | ||||||
| MO | 6/5/2009 | 13.22% | 48.33% | ||||||
| VIVO | 6/12/2009 | 13.71% | 49.64% | ||||||
| CAH | 7/30/2009 | 8.53% | 27.32% | ||||||
| PPDI | 8/5/2009 | 9.78% | 26.71% | ||||||
| EVTC | 9/16/2009 | -5.90% | 1.60% | ||||||
| HYTM | 9/23/2009 | -42.31% | 0.53% | ||||||
| YRCW | 9/24/2009 | 37.27% | 1.37% | ||||||
| MO | 10/9/2009 | -2.10% | 55.40% | ||||||
| BOH | 10/23/2009 | 8.60% | 50.13% | ||||||
| CEPH | 11/2/2009 | 0.23% | 26.70% | ||||||
| WTR | 12/11/2009 | 5.31% | 21.07% | ||||||
| NWN | 12/11/2009 | 5.91% | 27.25% | ||||||
| CAH | 12/30/2009 | 0.93% | 25.61% |