October 2009 Trading

Unfortunately, October set a new low for realized gains, although it was only slightly lower than September. Yields were also down a bit, but still at about 8%. The bad news is that I'm holding some unrealized loss. This is concerning, but not anything that I haven't seen before. Fortunately I'm only 35% invested, so I anticipate there will be buy-in opportunities at low prices on the horizon.

In October I sold the following:

• McGraw Hill Publishing
• Exxon Mobil Corp
• Eli Lily and Company

At the end of the month, I'm invested in:

• Lockheed Martin Corp - Down 5.9%. I was up 5.2% at the end of September, but didn't sell! Another demonstration of the wages of greed. This represents about 75% of my current holdings and about 25% if my available funds. Also, I've been holding some of these stocks for nearly 3 months, the longest holding period to date.
• Public Service Enterprise Group Inc - Down 1.1%
• Nokia - Down 3.9%
• Owens and Minor, Inc. - Up 2.2%. This purchase was made at a discount after a bad earnings announcement, and the stock partially recovered after I bought in. Hopefully not a dead-cat bounce.

No dividends were collected this month