Updates on the Gumshoe’s portfolio … booooring.

Just wanted to let those of you who read my work here but don’t follow my portfolio over at One Guy’s Investments know that I’ve actually added positions to or strongly considered buying a few stocks that I have sleuthed out over the past few months, and I’ve been doing a flurry of writing trying to catch up on my portfolio disclosures and writeups over there.

Consider this some information sharing and, for those of you who care, some fuller disclosure.

I’ll link to any relevant posts from my other blog below, but just to be clear: As of today, these are the companies that I’ve sleuthed in the past and that are in the Gumshoe tracking spreadsheet, that I actually hold shares or options in as I type today:

Blackstone Group (options)

Centamin Egypt (shares, average cost $1.08:

Ambrian (shares, average cost around $1.40 … ouch!)

Raptor Networks (shares)

Markel (shares, average cost $400)

MEMC Electronic Materials (shares, average cost $16.25 — though my most recent transaction in this was a sell)

Novartis (shares, average cost $52.18)

HDFC Bank (shares, average cost $82.99)

Of those, the most recent buys, going backward in time from today, have been Blackstone, Centamin, Novartis and HDFC.

I also, though I haven’t yet written them up on my other site and don’t have anything new to say about them, currently own call options on Crocs, Morgan Stanley, DivX, Qwest, CDC, and Goldman Sachs, and shares of Lynas. All of those have been at least tangentially connected with a newsletter teaser I’ve looked at. Most of those have been in my portfolio for a while, and most of them are not doing terribly well (except for Lynas, perennial leader of the sleuthed stocks).

I think that’s all the ones I’ve written about here at the Gumshoe in recent months that coincide with my personal portfolio (though some of them I owned before I uncovered the teasers, and some I discovered because of the teasers I’ve read, or became interested in much later).

And if you really care to follow what I’ve been doing personally, (though I don’t know why you should, as I’ve given you no reason to believe I’m a stock picking savant), I’ve also fairly recently bought shares of China Fire and Security Group, Chipotle (B shares), and, most recently, the Morgan Stanley China A Shares Closed End Fund … along with filling out positions in Google and Exelixis on dips. None of those are stocks that I sleuthed out here, but they’re all probably of interest to some of you and may have been mentioned in teasers or comments or emails.

I almost never write about options trades (except to disclose a position in a pertinent article), since I often lose money on them — which means both that it’s embarrassing to tell you, and that I want to avoid giving anyone the impression that I think they should follow my sometimes foolhardy and impulsive options strategies, but I thought I’d list those above to be as transparent as I can here.

So … got that off my chest. I used to try to keep everyone up to date on my transactions over at the forum, but I can’t keep up with all the great postings over there as it is, and I know many of you don’t visit the forum regularly, anyway.

And this is, of course, not an endorsement or a recommendation to rush out and buy any of these shares — just information sharing, for those of you who might be interested, and a reminder that I do try to keep you up to date on any perceived conflict of interest I might have (I always include a note in a writeup if I own a stock when I write about it, but I almost never get back to all my old writings and update them why I buy or sell).

So … sorry to interrupt the fun with this cross-fertilization of my two sites (if you want to subscribe to One Guy’s Investments, gratis just like the Gumshoe, feel free: Subscribe to One guy’s investments by Email). OneGuysInvestments.com is where I usually publish this kind of long-winded gasbag commentary about my portfolio and other stocks that interest me — at least, the ones that have nothing to do with sleuthing out teasers or newsletter picks.

I hope to have some more good sleuthing to share with you soon. Thanks for your indulgence, and, as usual, thanks for reading.
             ——————–
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The author will always disclose any direct long or short equity, debt or option position in any stocks written about as of the day of publication, and will not trade in any stocks mentioned for three days (72 hours) after publication. Full disclaimer is at the bottom of the page.

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1. I’m glad to know about your other identity and will now follow One Guy, too. I like the way you talk about stocks, with a certain wryness and without all the b.s. and hype we see so often. Being willing to admit mistakes can be one of the best ways to teach. And by the way, I love Keppel. I ferreted that one out on my own, without a teaser and have been very happy with the results. I bought CAF, too, shortly after the IPO and have enjoyed the triple. Just bought more, too.

   womanwithportfolio

   [Reply]

   Posted by Anonymous | September 20, 2007, 9:48 pm

2. I heard this about China by a fund adviser on CNBC, and thought I would share it. China has the tenth largest GDP in the world with over 4 times the population of the US. AS the CHINA economy grows,it appears their population will grow even bigger in the future. People have not lost any fascination for making more babies.GI

   [Reply]

   Posted by Anonymous | September 22, 2007, 4:42 pm