The Motley Fool: The Boring Portfolio

ANN ARBOR (Mar 18) -- I never feel quite so boring as when I look across the fence to notice that the neighbors' portfolio has leaped nearly 7% in 6 1/2 hours, when all I have to show for the day is about ninety bucks. Sigh.

Not to worry, though. A big chunk of the cash in the Borefolio cookie jar is going to be used this week to purchase some really, really Boring stocks. What will they be? Can't tell you yet. I will say, though, that these will be stocks of companies that make things that do *not* plug in.

The only real piece of news for the current Boring holdings came out of St. Paul, MN, late Friday evening. Green Tree Financial reported that John Brink, CFO of the company, had resigned "to pursue other interests." The current controller is assuming the CFO duties until a replacement is hired. I have a call in to the company for clarification, but no reply yet. Needless to say, the market did not take kindly to this little item, and GNT fell a full point in the morning but managed to recover a bit by the end of the day.

Our lone technology sector holding, Lam Research, gained $2 on the heels of some nice progress late last week. Do we smell some money moving back into technology stocks?

The only other noticeable movement in the Borefolio today came from Texas Industries, which fell $ 1 1/8 (on light volume) despite Goldman Sachs raising its rating today on Chaparral Steel from "market performer" to "moderate outperform." Recall that Chaparral is 81% owned by TXI. TXI's conference call following up on Friday's impressive earnings report does not take place until Wednesday morning, which is its tradition. I'll report back on that call right here on Wednesday evening.

That's about it for tonight. There's not much point in standing around here jabbering when the big party is going on next door at Tom and David's place. Let's go join them, shall we? I'll do my boring best to see if we can throw just as nice a bash over here real soon!

TODAY'S NUMBERS

                   Day   Month    Year  History
        BORING   +0.18%   0.01%  -1.98%  -1.98%
        S&P 500  +1.75%   1.91%   4.99%   4.99%
        NASDAQ   +1.35%   1.31%   7.06%   7.06%

    Rec'd  #   Security     In At       Now    Change

  2/28/96 200 Borders Gro    22.51     27.63    22.72%
  1/29/96 100 Texas Indus    54.52     66.13    21.28%
   2/2/96 200 Green Tree     30.39     32.25     6.13%
   3/8/96 400 Prime Medic    10.07     10.50     4.27%
  2/23/96 100 Lam Researc    48.02     38.75   -19.30%

    Rec'd  #   Security      Cost     Value    Change

  1/29/96 100 Texas Indus  5449.99   6612.50  $1162.51
  2/28/96 200 Borders Gro  4502.49   5525.00  $1022.51
   2/2/96 200 Green Tree   6077.49   6450.00   $372.51
  1/29/96 400 Prime Medic  4027.49   4200.00   $172.51
  2/23/96 100 Lam Researc  4802.49   3875.00  -$927.49

                             CASH  $22345.09
                            TOTAL  $49007.59