BUY: HRB (NYSE), CLMT (NASDAQ), FCX (NYSE), FDG (NYSE), XJT (NYSE)

• Purchased 109 shares of H&R Block Inc (HRB/NYSE) at $22.67/share = $2,471.03.
• Purchased 79 shares of Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP (CLMT/NASDAQ) at $31.00/share = $2,449.00.
• Purchased 46 shares of Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (FCX/NYSE) at $54.57/share = $2,510.22.
• Purchased 82 shares of Fording Canadian Coal Trust (FDG/NYSE) at $30.10/share = $2,468.20.
• Purchased 378 shares of ExpressJet Holdings Inc (XJT/NYSE) at $6.53/share = $2,468.34.

Initial bank account: $49,481.60
Total cost (shares): $2,471.03 + $2,449.00 + $2,510.22 + $2,468.20 + $2,468.34 = $12,366.79
Total cost (transactions): $15 x 5 = $75
Final bank account: $37,039.81

Portfolio:

• CALL (NASDAQ) : 545 (price is down $1.06/share or 24.8% since purchase)
• KG (NYSE): 131 (price is down $1.24/share or 7% since purchase) *
• PNCL (NASDAQ): 333 (price is down $1.11/share or 15.9% since purchase)
• SGTL (NASDAQ): 271 (price is down $3.74/share or 43.5% since purchase) *
• PPD (NYSE): 78 (price is up $2.43/share or 7.1% since purchase)
• ANIK (NYSE): 254 (price is up $2.85/share or 26.9% since purchase)
• MOT (NYSE): 133 (price is up $3.72/share or 18.5% since purchase)
• HNR (NYSE): 217 (price is down $0.47/share or 3.8% since purchase)
• PWEI (NASDAQ): 90 (price is up $4.30/share or 14.6% since purchase)
• PLAY (NASDAQ): 266 (price is up $2.28/share or 22.6% since purchase)
• HRB (NYSE): 109
• CLMT (NASDAQ): 79
• FCX (NYSE): 46
• FDG (NYSE): 82
• XJT (NYSE): 378

The general markets have behaved thusly since my last purchase.

• The NASDAQ composite index climbed slightly from 2,129.95 to 2,163.95, a gain of 1.6%. The index is still 8.7% off where it was when I started (2,370.8799).
• The Dow Jones Industrial average climbed from 11,014.54 to 11,381.47, a gain of 3.3%. The average has risen 0.9% from where it was when I started (11,278.7695).
• The S&P 500 index climbed from 1,251.54 to 1,302.3, a gain of 4.1%. The index is still off by a negligible amount -- 0.6% -- from where I started at 1,309.93.

A final statistic of some interest is this: discounting transaction costs, I paid $25,368.40 for my first two months of purchases and, in theory, could now sell those stocks for $25,544.78: $176.38 or 0.7% above par. Marginally better than a loss, but taking the transaction fees alone into account ($300 counting buying and selling), you have a loss of $123.62 or about 0.48% of the total purchase cost. I understand that it is difficult to fetch a price as high as the "current" asking price for a stock though, so the loss would probably widen some.

In theory, this is a collection of businesses that tend to be more good than bad. So now we dig in and wait! It is early still; I've held the first (most troublesome) batch for only four months now.

A note I want to add to help myself next time: I'm not selecting these stocks with a level of randomness I find acceptable. The next couple of times, I want to establish some basic rejection criteria and then just keep picking at random until I have five new ones.