A long time regular reader (Bob S.) asked me about two portfolios I've created over the years.
The first was the anti-PC portfolio created in January 2004. I created it because I had made money buying Halliburton when it had done just the opposite of what the Lefty-Marxist ('wars are done for profit') PC meme claimed: it had fallen with the election of George Bush and fell further with the war in Iraq. I bought it at the bottom in 2003 and it doubled. It doubled again since then.
I created the anti-PC portfolio made up of Citibank, Microsoft, McDonald's, WalMart, Starbucks and Halliburton.
Citibank is down 50%. Microsoft, WalMart and Starbucks are right where
they were in January 2004. McDonald's has more than doubled. The overall anti-PC portfolio is up 19% since January 2004 but the Dow Jones is up more: 22%.
No political or investment conclusion to draw from this lesson.
My perfect portfolio is the same as the Dow Jones, up 1% today over January 2007. I no longer recommend this portfolio as I said a month ago. Global diversification doesn't work. The world is now one stock, thanks to global instantaneous arbitrage.
We are not in a recession, despite the hysteria in the global financial sector and among the political busybodies. I commented on this a month ago.