January 2004 Short Interest for My Holdings
This is the December update of heavily shorted stocks in my portfolio.
(Short interest data from http://online.wsj.com/documents/shortint.htm, 1/15/2004 compared to 12/15/2003)
OCA Last Month 18,876,158; This Month 21,010,036; 11.30% increase; Short Interest 23.3 days (Average Daily Volume = 900,457)
PPD Last Month 8,201,904; This Month 7,930,669; 3.30% decrease; Short Interest 79.7 days (Average Daily Volume = 102,919)
FDP Last Month 4,622,424; This Month 4,561,634; 1.32% decrease; Short Interest 14.1 days (Average Daily Volume = 323,757)
TALK Last Month 5,690,659; This Month 5,588,452; 1.80% decrease; Short Interest 9.4 days (Average Daily Volume = 592,676)
Finally I got my first double-bagger in my investment career. My bearish bet in Microsoft ZMFME (MSFT Jan 05 $25 Put), now trading at $2.85, has more than doubled my cost of $1.35. (I purchased 10 contracts of ZMEFE on January 21, 2004.) Read
February 2004 Stock Quantity Avg Cost This Month Value % of Portfolio Last Month MOM Change % Change Since Entry Target % of Target FDP 148 $ 26.04 $ 25.46 $ 3,768.08 11% $ 26.00 ... Read
January 2004 Stock Quantity Avg Cost This Month Value % of Portfolio Last Month MOM Change % Change Since Entry Target % of Target FDP 148 $ 26.04 $ 26.00 $ 3,848.00 13% $ 23.83 ... Read
Today I made $3,000 contributions to my Fidelity Roth IRA account. After this contribution for tax year 2004, my Roth IRA is now worth ~$10,700. (As a recap, in early 2003 I started the account with $6,000 contributions for tax year 2002 and 2003, and ... Read
An OCA short is a stupid short! Simply a matter of time before OCA breaks out and does not look back. Who knows if it will be a squeeze or a controlled exodus, but there will come a time when enough value investors hear of OCA (as there are fewer bargains every month) that its price will inevitably rise towards its value, and the shorts will get their just desserts.
OCA's growth prior to the OrthAlliance merger was stunning. It looks as if they are almost done digesting that bad egg, and are ready to return to that level of growth: general dentistry and international expansion look very promising.
