“If I’m too scared to use my powers… then I don’t deserve them.”
-Hiro Nakamura
Friday stories began to circulate that the government would soon act to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Today a top House Democrat confirmed that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson “intends to use the powers that Congress provided.” Paulson had obtained his “bailout powers” from Congress back in July under the premise that having such powers would insure that they never needed to be used.
The news comes after a rough week for stocks. Things should get interesting next week. A bailout of FNM and FRE has been one of the capitulation events that everyone has been waiting for.
This week, the 8 Stock Portfolio posted its first weekly loss of 1.95%. This loss is measured as the change in value from the closing prices on 8/29/2008 to the closing prices on 9/5/2008. This compares to a declines of 2.88%, 4.95%, and 3.26% for the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500, respectively.
Since the beginning on 8/1/2008, the 8 Stock Portfolio is up 25.44%. This compares to losses of 0.93%, 2.38%, and 1.43% for the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P, respectively.
Here’s the performance individually for the week:
| 8/29/2008 | 9/5/2008 | Change | |
| Brunswick Corp (BC) | 13.79 | 13.69 | -0.73% |
| Chico’s (CHS) | 5.74 | 6.32 | 10.10% |
| RH Donnelley (RHD) | 3.75 | 3.22 | -14.13% |
| Ruby Tuesday (RT) | 6.99 | 7.76 | 11.02% |
| Select Comfort (SCSS) | 2.40 | 2.78 | 15.83% |
| Titanium Metals (TIE) | 14.41 | 13.02 | -9.65% |
| VMWare (VMW) | 39.70 | 36.17 | -8.89% |
| Whole Foods Market (WFMI) | 18.31 | 18.12 | -1.04% |
| 8 Stock Portfolio | -1.95% |
And here’s a separate table showing the performance from the start:
| 8/1/2008 | 9/5/2008 | Change | |
| Brunswick Corp (BC) | 13.11 | 13.69 | 4.42% |
| Chico’s (CHS) | 5.5 | 6.32 | 14.91% |
| RH Donnelley (RHD) | 1.47 | 3.22 | 119.05% |
| Ruby Tuesday (RT) | 6.7 | 7.76 | 15.82% |
| Select Comfort (SCSS) | 2.01 | 2.78 | 38.31% |
| Titanium Metals (TIE) | 10.5 | 13.02 | 24.00% |
| VMWare (VMW) | 35.31 | 36.17 | 2.44% |
| Whole Foods Market (WFMI) | 21.42 | 18.12 | -15.41% |
| 8 Stock Portfolio | 25.44% |
1 Comments
This sounds like a great experiment. I love all things personal finance and investment. I’ll certainly keep an eye on how this portfolio grows. It looks pretty good so far.
I especially like that 119% gain on RH Donnelley.
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