More than Keeping Pace

By Paul Price of Market Shadows

Our Virtual Value Portfolio had another good week along with the broad market. We gained 0.46% since November 14, 2013 bringing our original stake of $100K to about $135,550 as of the close on Friday, Nov. 23, 2013.

Our cash reserve held steady last week. It now represents 2.7% of the total portfolio value. Market Shadows’ total return has annualized more than 33% since we started it up 56 weeks ago.

The most important decision of all was to be in the market rather than holding cash or bonds. Cash earned almost under ZIRP. Any bonds but the shortest maturity issues have shown negative absolute returns since interest rates bottomed in mid-2012.

Avoiding Gold-related issues has helped us beat our benchmark. The per-ounce price of Gold has dropped about 35% from an all-time peak above $1900 (Sep. 5, 2011) to about $1243 (Nov. 23, 2013).