Van Meerten New High Potfolio beats Warren Buffett

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the Van Meerten New High portfolio on Marketocracy and I'm happy to report that the portfolio's average annual return of  9.90% beats Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) annual return of 9.35% by 5.88%.

During the same 10 year period the S&P 500 Stock Index returned only 5.95% so the portfolio beat the market by 66.39%.

Although Marketocracy has the fund classified as a Quant fund there are some important differences.  The objectives of the fund in order of priority is:

1. Capital preservation
2. Select stocks trading above their moving averages
3. Initial purchases should have hit new highs in at least 50% of the last month's trading sessions
4. A sell discipline to minimize downside losses
5. Unlike most Quant funds it does not stay fully invested - If market conditions are uncertain and no stocks meet the purchase criteria no additions are made until conditions improve

I am trying to manage a portfolio designed for the person that has already accumulated significant assets or has a large self-directed IRA and feels protecting their nest egg is more important than trying to squeeze a few more percentage points of return in the short run.

The portfolio should not be volatile and over the past 10 years the Beta has been .79 more than 20% less than the market.

Speed up with Expedia (EXPE)

Put a little speed in your portfolio with an addition of Expedia (EXPE). It's in my S&P 500 Marketocracy fund. EXPE is a holding company that provides wholesale and retail travel services to off line retail travel agents and the public.

Some of its holdings include Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Trip Advisor and Hotwire. I've used them all and gotten fine results. It operates in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy Netherlands and through investments in China. Pretty global!

The fundamentals of the balance sheet are solid and growing. Although it had a loss for 2008, it has healthy profits for the first 2 quarters of this year.

It has competion from Orbitz (OWW) and Priceline (PCLN). The stocks market cap is 7B to PCLN at 7B and OWW at only 519M. It wins in the revenue comparison with 2.9B compared to 2B for PCLN and only 800M for OWW.

As the economy recovers both business and personal travel should be increasing and the use of their services will soar.

Any stock needs some buzz to move and there are 15 analysts following this stock. Recent analysts recommendations have had 3 BUYS and 1 HOLD.

On the technical side BarChart rates EXPE as an 88% Buy with 10 out of 12 TA indicators a BUY and 2 a HOLD. Recent price action had 5 new highs in the last 20 trading sessions with 4 new highs in the last 5 trading sessions. Price movement has been 57% for the last 65 trading sessions.

Good numbers, analysts buzz good recent technical action.

Recommendation: BUY under 25 with a protective stop loss at 21.

Disclosure: I hold no position in EXPE at time of publication.

International Printing (IP) May Start Printing Money

International Printing (IP) is one of the leading companies in the paper products industry. Its name says it all. They produce printing and writing paper as well as pulp, tissue, paperboard and packaging material. They even produce chemicals that others in the industry use. Their markets are truly international and they serve the US, Europe amd the PAC rim.

Their main competitors are Weyerheauser (WY) and MeadWestvaco (MWV). Their Market Cap is 10.8B to WY's 8.3B and MWV's 3.9. Revenues are similarly comparable with 25.8B compared to WY's 6.5 and MWV at 6.2.

As the world economy comes back online the demand for packaging and paper product should soar and IP will start printing money.

The stock is part of my Marketocracy S&P 500 holdings.

On a short term technical basis BarChart is high on this stock. In the last 20 trading sessions IP has high 13 new highs and given a 104% return over the last 65 trading sessions. Of BarChart's 13 technical indicators IP is 13 for 13 BUY!!!

Recommendation: BUY at this level of around 25 with a protective stop loss at the 50 Day Moving Average of 20. Move you stop loss up weekly to protect your profits.


Disclosure: I hold no positions in IP at the time of publication

Changes to Jim Van Meerten - BarChart Model Portfolios W/e 9/11/2009

Deleted from the Jim Van Meerten - BarChart Short Portfolio: GMXR GMX Resources and NTLS NTELOS Holdings - both of these stocks are showing signs of recovery and are presently trading above their 50 day moving averages on BarChart. I've covered these short positions

Deleted from Jim Van Meerten - BarChart Stategy Lab Portfolio: TLP Texas Pacific Land - this stock hasn't been maintaining its upward momentum and is present trading below its 50 day moving averages

Performance of these portfolios can be followed Marketocracy

Changes to Jim Van Meerten - BarChart Model Portfolios

In the next few days I will be posting links to several model portfolios that I have been running on Marketocracy. I have been using BarChart to manage these portfolios and use Marketocracy to independently measure their performance. You will be able to follow these additions and deletions on this site and maybe even make some similar trades in you own portfolio. There will be:

• Jim Van Meerten - BarChart S&P 500 Portfolio - A portfolio using only the large cap stocks included in the S&P Large Cap 500 Index


• Jim Van Meerten - BarChart S&P 400 Portfolio - A portfolio using only the mid cap stocks included in the S&P400 Mid Cap Index


• Jim Van Meerten - BarChart S&P 600 Portfolio - A portfolio using only the small cap stocks included in the S&P 600 Small Cap Index


• Jim Van Meerten - BarChart New High Portfolio - A portfolio using BarChart to screen for stocks that are trading more than 100K shares a day and hitting the most new highs in the last 20 trading sessions


• Jim Van Meerten - BarChart SLO Portfolio - A portfolio that is a continuation of the portfolio I used to win the Strategy Lab Open sponsored by Investor Place Media. This portfolio will also use BarChart to screen for stocks hitting the most new highs but will concentrate on more thinly traded stocks trading between 25K - 99K a day


• Jim Van Meerten - BarChart Short Portfolio - A portfolio again using BarChart to find stocks trading over 100K shares a day hitting the most new lows over the last 20 trading sessions.

At any time these portfolios may be non-compliant with Marketocracy's Compliance rules. Marketocracy requires all funds to be invested at all times with at least 65% in positions and no more than 35% in cash. If I can't find enough proper trades that meet my criteria my fund might hold more than 35% cash.

Anyone who tried to stay full invested during this last Stock Market Crisis can see the value in not riding a dead horse into the ground.

I hope that by having model portfolios what have a mix for large, mid and small cap stocks plus stocks trading at new highs and lows there will be a little something for everyone in this site.

If any of my posts are unclear please ask questions or make comments for improvement. The goal of this site is to help you become a better investor through the use of my 40 years of experience, knowledge, common sense, discipline and a great stock screener: BarChart.

Disclosure: I promise not to hold any of these positions in my personal portfolio, You'll never have to worry about any front running or pump and dump recommendations on this site.