Special Situations Real Money Portfolio 2005 Performance

It’s hard to believe that the Special Situations Real Money Portfolio (AKA my son’s Coverdell Education Savings Account) has completed it’s first full calendar year. I’ve had some time this weekend to look over all the transactions that have occurred. It has been a pretty interesting year for . Even a few of the transactions blowing up, I still had market beating performance with these low risk risk arbitrage transactions.

There was no lack of great opportunities this year, but my son’s Coverdell ESA did lack funds many times to take advantage of the full range of opportunities. I look forward to adding another $2,000 dollars to that account in the next few weeks now that a new year has started.

Let me update you on what has happened so far in my real money portfolio. The detailed transactions are listed in the table below. Each transaction in the table is linked back to the post that discussed that purchase, sale, or cashout.

Date

Action

Quant

Description

Symbol

Price

Amount

12/27/05

Cashout

499

FRAGRANCENET
COM INC

FGNT

$0.97

$484.03

12/07/05

BOUGHT

1,999

TOUCHTUNES MUSIC CORP

TTMC

$0.42

-$846.53

12/05/05

BOUGHT

99

JB
OXFORD HOLDINGS INC

JBOH

$1.90

-$195.05

12/05/05

BOUGHT

1,999

REFOCUS
GROUP INC

RFCG

$0.28

-$566.67

12/01/05

Cashout

85

LYNCH
INTERACTIVE CORP

LIC

$29.94

$2,544.49

12/01/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.10

11/01/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.79

10/14/05

Dividend

200

CENTRAL FEDERAL CORP

GCFC

 

$18.00

10/10/05

BOUGHT

85

LYNCH
INTERACTIVE CORP

LIC

$25.70

-$2,191.45

10/07/05

Cashout

900

COLOR
IMAGING INC

CIMG

$1.10

$990.00

10/06/05

Cashout

300

MERCURY
AIR GROUP INC

MAX

$4.00

$1,200.00

10/03/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.70

09/07/05

BOUGHT

900

COLOR
IMAGING INC

CIMG

$0.90

$816.95

09/01/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$2.19

08/29/05

SOLD

1,700

REFOCUS
GROUP INC

RFCG

$0.35

$587.02

08/23/05

BOUGHT

300

MERCURY
AIR GROUP

MAX

$3.45

-$1,042.95

08/02/05

Cashout

99

BESTWAY
INC

BSTW

$13.00

$1,287.00

08/01/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.45

07/22/05

BOUGHT

1,700

REFOCUS
GROUP INC

RFCG

$0.25

-$432.95

07/18/05

Dividend

 

CENTRAL FEDERAL CORP

GCFC

 

$18.00

07/12/05

Cashout

1,990

CAPITOL
FIRST CORP

CFRC

$0.18

$355.41

07/01/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.03

06/24/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.03

06/16/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.51

06/13/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.03

06/07/05

BOUGHT

499

FRAGRANCENET COM

FRGN

$0.58

-$297.37

05/16/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.50

04/18/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.44

04/15/05

Dividend

 

CENTRAL FEDERAL CORP

GCFC

 

$18.00

03/16/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.44

02/16/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$3.45

02/14/05

BOUGHT

200

CENTRAL
FEDERAL CORP

GCFC

$12.39

-$2,485.95

02/07/05

BOUGHT

99

BESTWAY
INC

BSTW

$11.01

-$1,102.94

02/01/05

BOUGHT

1,990

CAPITOL
FIRST CORP

CFRC

$0.12

-$251.75

01/21/05

Deposit

 

CONTRIBUTION 2005

 

 

$2,000.00

01/18/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.96

01/03/05

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$1.38

12/08/04

Cashout

425

ASA
INTERNATIONAL

ASAA

$5.00

$2,125.00

11/16/04

Interest

 

Money Market Fund

 

 

$0.27

10/22/04

BOUGHT

425

ASA
INTERNATIONAL

ASAA

$4.55

-$1,946.70

10/19/04

Deposit

 

CONTRIBUTION 2004

 

 

$2,000.00

Closing the year out, my positions at the close of the market on December 30, 2005 are as follows:

Holdings on December 31, 2005

Date

Quant.

Description

Price

Amount

12/31/05

 

Cash

$1.00

$1,461.96

12/31/05

99

JB OXFORD HOLDINGS

$1.72

$170.28

12/31/05

1,999

REFOCUS GROUP INC

$0.27

$539.73

12/31/05

200

CENTRAL FEDERAL CORP

$7.84

$1,568.00

12/31/05

1,999

TOUCHTUNES MUSIC

$0.39

$779.61

 

 

 

 

$4,519.58

As you can see, my recent additions include JB Oxford and Refocus Group. There is a problem with the cash out of my Refocus Group shares, but I am hopeful that Firstrade will resolve it soon. For now, I am using the $0.27 value per share that is listed on my account summary page. That value may go up or down depending on how this issue gets resolved.

The JB Oxford’s going private transaction was completed on January 4, 2005. However, since I’m doing this update for the 2005 calendar year, I used the closing price of $1.72 for December 30, 2005 instead of the cashout value.

Now that I’ve gone through all the transactions and my current account balance, let me take a look at my performance. I have invested $4,000 in this account and I am up a total of $519.58. That’s almost a 13 percent gain on my investment. The internal rate of return since this portfolio was first funded on October 19, 2004 is by my calculation 12.1 percent APY. For the 2005 calendar year, my performance was 8.4 percent APY. That is almost double the 4.91 percent return for the S&P 500 for 2005.

I was bit surpised at the performance of the Special Situations Real Money Portfolio. Given the losses that Central Federal Corp. caused, I didn’t think that I would beat the S&P 500 index this year. Hopefully when the Fed stops raising interest rates, Central Federal Corp. will recover a bit so I can close out that position.

I look forward to the increased flexibility that I will have in this account in 2006. There were several opportunities that I couldn’t participate in due to a lack of funds. If you are interested in current going private transaction opportunities, consider contributing to Fat Pitch Financials to gain access to my exclusive daily updated detailed summary of current going private transactions.

9 thoughts on “Special Situations Real Money Portfolio 2005 Performance

  • January 9, 2006 at 7:43 am
    Permalink

    George,
    Why has your Refocus not been cashed out yet?
    Morning Son

  • January 18, 2006 at 12:59 pm
    Permalink

    This was very illuminating – thanks for putting up the details George. If you’re considering doing this again for 2006, would you consider posting this information
    up on a “real time” basis? Just an idea, since you’re someone who’s gone through the trenches for a year – I’m sure me, and others like me would find a world of good in it.

    Thanks again for the diligence and good work on your site.

  • January 18, 2006 at 7:58 pm
    Permalink

    Hi Sree –

    I will try to do more frequent updates on the performance of Special Situations Real Money Portfolio and let you know about positions that have been closed out.

    I have moved my “real time” reporting of new trades to Contributor’s Corner.

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