I've been playing at setting up a basis for my post ARU plays, in one of my portfolios.

It will take me a while to go through all those, but what are weekends for, right?

Is that an actual portfolio? If it is, my first response would be that you have way too many positions. I did a review of a friend's portfolio not long ago and he had 60 positions! 60! That's more than some institutions. I told him to fire his broker because he seemed more interested in generating commissions than putting him into good stocks.

Personally, I follow George A Miller who wrote brilliantly about the limits of human information processing. According to his work, the average human can track 7 (plus or minus 2) variables, after which mistakes are made and information is lost. When you apply this to portfolio management, it stand the notion of distributing risk on its head. Rather than spread your money over a wide range of stocks and sectors to limit risk, you are better off to pick a lesser amount and really follow them closely. Of course this assumes that you know what to look for, but that is the essence of securities analysis, and for that I fall back on Ben Graham's work. In addition to Graham, I use technical analysis to time my entry and exit, but I'm basically a fundamentalist. If the value isn't there, I don't make the play, even if it means passing on the occasional Google or Worldcom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mag...
http://www.musanim.com/miller1956

more to come...

ebear