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The first half of 2009 is now behind us and the Buy List is having a pretty good year. To review the rules, the 20 stocks I select at the beginning of the year are locked in place and I’m not allowed to make any changes during the year.

I assume the portfolio is equally weighted at the beginning of the year. The average of the 20 stocks is currently up 14.53% for the year. Including dividends, we’re up 15.22%. By contrast, the S&P 500 is up 1.78%, and 3.16% with dividends.

The average daily volatility of the Buy List is 3.18% greater than the market.

Fourteen of our 20 stocks are up for the year, six are down. The best performer is Nicholas Financial (NICK) with a 123% gain. The second-best is Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH), one of our five new stocks this year, which is up 47.8%.

The worst performer has been Aflac (AFL), which is down 32.2%. That’s bad but it was a lot worse. In fact, Aflac has nearly tripled off its March low. If I didn’t have my frozen-in-place rule, I could have easily sold out at the worst time. The second-worst performer has been Moog (MOG-A) which is now down 29.4% for the year.

Since the March 9th low, the Buy List is up by over 51%. Let’s hope for a great second-half to 2009!

Posted by edelfenbein at June 30, 2009 10:19 PM