IRA Investing: Getting Positioned

Updates

The only transaction in my IRA last week was the sale of part of my position in SPDR Trust (SPY - commentary - Cramer's Take) in order to increase my cash position to a level close to my 40% target.

I am continuing to look for attractive purchase candidates because I would rather own good individual stocks rather than an exchange-traded fund, but I am finding it very difficult to come up with new ideas. This is not necessarily all bad, because it is too early to tell what industries and individual stocks will be market leaders in the next market upturn.

Sometimes patience is required before making commitments, and this is one of those times.

I actually didn't have too bad a week last week. My IRA was only down 0.7% while the S&P 500 was down 4.6%. The cash helped, of course, but most of my holdings were pretty stable.

Open Text (OTEX - commentary - Cramer's Take) reported good earnings results during the week and was only down 24 cents. This stock remains highlighted on my screening system and sells at a 20% discount to the median company in the business software industry. I consider it a buy.

My biggest winner last week was Exactech (EXAC - commentary - Cramer's Take). The stock was up 6.1% and is now up 16.4% since purchase in an absolutely horrible market. At these prices, I consider the stock fairly valued and will probably sell one half of my position this week.

The table that follows shows all the current holdings in my IRA as of the end of last week:

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Exactech, ICF International, LS Starrett, U.S. Physical Therapy, GP Strategies to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

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At the time of publication, Moore was long Cal-Maine Foods, CommScope, Exactech, Frontier Oil, CGI Group, Helmerich & Payne, ICF International, Kinetic Concepts, Open Text, Rofin-Sinar Technologies, LS Starrett, Stone Energy, SPDR Trust, Sybase, URS Corp., U.S. Physical Therapy and Western Digital, although positions may change at any time.

Richard Moore, CFA, has 40 years of experience in various facets of the investment business. He has been employed by banks, mutual funds and investment advisory organizations during his career and has also owned retail and service businesses. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Moore appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.