BUY: SHOO (NASDAQ), IIIN (NASDAQ), LMS (NYSE), KSWS (NASDAQ), WON (NYSE)

• Purchased 81 shares of Steve Madden Ltd (SHOO/NASDAQ) at $29.48/share = $2,387.88.
• Purchased 138 shares of Insteel Industries (IIIN/NASDAQ) at $17.29/share = $2,386.02.
• Purchased 82 shares of Lamson & Sessions Co (LMS/NYSE) at $29.30/share = $2,402.6.
• Purchased 70 shares of K-Swiss Inc (KSWS/NASDAQ) at $34.05/share = $2,383.50.
• Purchased 338 shares of Westwood One Inc (WON/NYSE) at $7.01/share = $2,369.38.

Initial bank account: $12,296.75
Total cost (shares): $2,387.88 + $2,386.02 + $2,402.60 + $2,383.50 + $2,369.38 = $11,929.38
Total cost (transactions): $15 x 5 = $75
Final bank account: $292.37

Portfolio:

• PNCL (NASDAQ): 333
• CALL (NASDAQ) : 545
• SGTL (NASDAQ): 271
• KG (NYSE): 131
• ANIK (NYSE): 254
• PPD (NYSE): 78
• HNR (NYSE): 217
• MOT (NYSE): 133
• PWEI (NASDAQ): 90
• PLAY (NASDAQ): 266
• HRB (NYSE): 109
• CLMT (NASDAQ): 79
• FCX (NYSE): 46
• FDG (NYSE): 82
• XJT (NYSE): 378
• DLX (NYSE): 112
• ASEI (NASDAQ): 49
• INTX (NASDAQ): 265
• CECO (NASDAQ): 113
• CRYP (NASDAQ): 148
• UIC (NYSE): 49
• CONN (NASDAQ): 105
• HGT (NYSE): 102
• WIRE (NASDAQ): 117
• IPS (NYSE): 27
• SHOO (NASDAQ): 81
• IIN (NASDAQ): 138
• LMS (NYSE): 82
• KSWS (NASDAQ): 70
• WON (NYSE): 338

Total portfolio price is 84,778.38. Please see the most recent portfolio price update to see the portfolio's price changes before today's purchases.

Following several months of dithering, I bought Westwood One today for $7.01/share. Analysts (for what they're worth -- bah!) seem to think the earnings outlook for this company is not that bright, and perhaps purchasing it with a holding horizon of approximately one year isn't the most ingenious plan. However, the thing I noticed is that, according to MSN's MoneyCentral, the company has (or more correctly I, as a shareholder, have) $8.01 of book value per share. If the company's balance sheet is relatively accurate in valuing it (depreciation and amortization can be nebulous bits of arcana that don't fully square with real life), I just bought $8.01 of stuff for $7.01. That should be a pretty good deal -- an automatic 14% return on my investment as long as I don't just decide to sell to Mr Market when he's acting whack.

Portfolio Price Update

Time for the monthly "State of the Portfolio" address.

If I sold my portfolio at this exact second, I would be paid approximately $72,849. This compares with a purchase price of $62,328.25 (plus fees of $225). This would turn out to be a return on the principal of 16.88%. Over the same period of time, we've seen major US market indices do the following:

• Dow: 11,278.7695 -> 12,767.57: up 13.2%.
• S&P 500: 1,309.93 -> 1,455.54: up 11.1%.
• NASDAQ composite: 2,370.8799 -> 2,496.31: up 5.3%.

If I didn't know better, I'd think the only lesson people learned from the tech bubble burst of 2001 was "don't pay high prices for tech stocks"!! In any case, although a rising tide does lift all boats (so having a portfolio appreciate doesn't necessarily mean much in an advancing market), we're a little ahead of the general market advance right now. I'm due to sell my first group in April, so if I'm luckless there may be a major downturn before then that changes the outlook. We'll see.

It's interesting to see the psychology of securities ownership (even of the fake kind): you see prices go up -- which means nothing other than if you were to sell everything you own right now you'd make some money -- and you want to throw everything you have at the stock market. Luckily for me, everything I have is not that much! Well, maybe not that luckily.

I've decided to post a group-by-group breakdown of my assets since the time at which every purchase period will have both a buy and sell part is approaching.

Group 1: Purchased April 20, 2006

Sym	Purchase	Current	Net Gain $	Net Gain %	Aggregate $
CALL	$4.28	$3.07	($1.21)	-28.27%	$1,673.15
KG	$17.68	$18.69	$1.01	5.71%	$2,448.39
PNCL	$7.00	$19.30	$12.30	175.71%	$6,426.90
SGTL	$8.60	$3.51	($5.09)	-59.19%	$951.21
				23.51%	$11,499.65

Group 2: Purchased June 18, 2006

Sym	Purchase	Current	Net Gain $	Net Gain %	Aggregate $
PPD	$34.20	$39.41	$5.21	15.23%	$3,073.38
ANIK	$10.58	$13.91	$3.33	31.47%	$3,533.14
MOT	$20.08	$19.62	($0.46)	-2.29%	$2,609.46
HNR	$12.38	$9.94	($2.44)	-19.71%	$2,156.89
PWEI	$29.55	$33.19	$3.64	12.32%	$2,987.10
PLAY	$10.10	$13.48	$3.38	33.47%	$3,585.68
				11.76%	$17,946.34

Group 3: Purchased August 20, 2006

Sym	Purchase	Current	Net Gain $	Net Gain %	Aggregate $
HRB	$22.67	$23.55	$0.88	3.88%	$2,566.95
CLMT	$31.00	$44.35	$13.35	43.06%	$3,503.65
FCX	$54.57	$57.76	$3.19	5.85%	$2,656.96
FDG	$30.10	$23.00	($7.10)	-23.59%	$1,866.00
XJT	$6.53	$7.71	$1.18	18.07%	$2,914.38
				9.4%	$13,527.94

Group 4: Purchased October 23, 2006

Sym	Purchase	Current	Net Gain $	Net Gain %	Aggregate $
DLX	$22.06	$32.91	$10.85	49.18%	$3,685.92
ASEI	$49.41	$54.77	$5.36	10.85%	$2,683.73
INTX	$9.32	$11.57	$2.25	24.14%	$3,066.05
CECO	$21.76	$28.88	$7.12	32.72%	$3,263.44
CRYP	$16.62	$23.50	$6.88	41.40%	$3,478.00
				31.73%	$16,177.14

Group 5: Purchased January 16, 2007

Sym	Purchase	Current	Net Gain $	Net Gain %	Aggregate $
UIC	$50.01	$52.61	$2.60	5.20%	$2,577.89
CONN	$23.65	$27.56	$3.91	16.53%	$2,893.80
HGT	$24.05	$24.56	$0.51	2.12%	$2,505.02
WIRE	$21.16	$23.98	$2.82	13.33%	$2,805.66
IPS	$90.75	$107.98	$17.23	18.99%	$2,915.46
				11.25%	$13,697.93

There may be some slight data-entry errors in those tables as I'm not going to waste time triple-checking it, but the general gist of it is correct.