The End of 2009 (and the Beginning of 2010)

Happy New Year, and sorry that I have not posted in awhile. I have had alot going on since my last post.

Stock-wise, I actually got back into the market relatively soon after my last 'I'm Out' post, as the moving averages told me to get back in. I was even for November but I was up a little over 1.5% in the month of December. Not sure if it was a Santa Claus rally or not, but I will take it.

One of the securities that I am in is my old standby Yellow Pages Income Fund (YLO.UN). It is in 'Hold' territory right now, and it looks to have pretty solid support. It is also paying out a great distribution yield, so I actually hold quite a bit. If it turns down, I will get rid of it, but for now it looks good.

I am only about 15% invested currently (it fluctuates), with the rest in cash. My other current holdings are Manulife (MFC) which I just bought on Dec 31, and two telecoms - Rogers Communication (RCI.B) and Telus (T) that I also just bought mid to late this past week. I don't have a problem holding two very similar stocks, as long as their indicators are good and they are both going up.

I ended up 2009 up 54.5% from my 2008 close, when you factor out my contributions for the year. I haven't recovered all of the money I lost last year yet, but I am off to a good start. If I had of used my current strategy last year, I would have made money (on the 'Down' ETF's) instead of losing money.

Now, on to 2010. I have already stated which securities I currently hold, and there are a few more that just went in to BUY territory on December 31st, so I will try to pick up some of those on Monday, Jan 4th. Those securities are HOU (Horizons Betapro Oil Bull), COS.UN (Canadian Oil Sands Trust, PMZ.UN (Primaris Real Estate Income Fund), and TCM (Thompson Creek Mining). MFC, RCI.B, and T are also in BUY territory, but I already own all of those.

I will reset everything for the start of 2010 and start calculating my returns from zero, starting next week. I doubt that 2010 will be as good for me as 2009 was, but I will stick to my easy to follow rules, continue spending about 20 minutes a day following stocks, and see where that gets me. It was certainly worth my time last year...