For the past few weeks, I’ve been opening new trades each Monday but this time I will actually take a break. None of the 5 current trades breached the +20% or -20% so I still have the same positions as last Monday but they actually performed well last week.

As the year comes to an end with only one month left,I am very satisfied with my performance so far. An average of +3,34% per trade is well above my objective, especially when I consider that trades are open less than 2 months on average. So depending on how you manage your portfolio (number of trades and how much you put into each trade), this can translate into a strong performance. Generally, I would not put more than 20% of the portfolio (speculative portfolio obviously) into a trade. So that would come up to a return over 20% in 2009.

Anyway, without further wait, here are some comments on the current trades:

*******************************************************************************

Oct 5 – AAPL/INTC +12,20% – still live

I did not expect this trade to develop very fast as these are two very high volume trades that are not as volatile as many others that we trade. But the has been consistent and is positive territory. Apple seems to have delayed its much anticipated notebook until 2010 but its very strong performance with its Iphone business has kept numbers strong.

*******************************************************************************

Oct 9 – GOOG/IACI +13,60% – still live

This was a play on internet advertising basically assuming that Google would come out a “bigger winner” in these times than the average internet company that depended on advertising. It’s no secret that I am not generally a fan of IAC Interactive but this was more of a play on Google than the opposite.

Google continues to impress and innovate. News that it will soon release a phone has been greeted with skepticism but so far Google has not failed often so I would tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

This is probably the trade I’m most happy with right now, even more so when I heard Barry Diller talk about getting rid of “Ask.com”, once the most valuable property owned by IAC but now like many others, a property that has lost its audience because of underinvestment by its owner.

*******************************************************************************

Nov 6 – BIDU/AMZN – +7,83% – still live

No matter how overvalued I felt that Amazon was at the time I initiated this trade, I will always feel nervous being short a stock like Amazon, which fundamentally I still like and which I will surely buy at some point in the future.

But the fact was that Amazon had been overbought and Baidu had been oversold.. that simple, and so this trade stands!

*******************************************************************************

Nov 13 – PCLN/TZOO – +12,60% – still live

This was a play on how analysts perceive these 2 stocks and how growth in Travelzoo seems to only happen with high advertising costs, not a sign of a promising business.

*******************************************************************************

Nov 20 – NILE/YHOO – +1,77% – still live

Not much new to report as this trade is one week old and I am just happy to see it doing well already. This is a play on Yahoo having a very limited upsize while Blue Nile should have a good holiday season and show good profits.

Many would have seen this one coming, especially on the short side. I wrote last week about how I thought Yahoo was difficult to trade on right now and actually was uncertain about entering a trade. But this weekend I spent some time trying to see if the luxury markets where Blue Nile does business was getting back some traction and at least from Google Trends, the rebound seems to have started. Blue Nile does trade at a very high P/E ratio which is certainly a bit worrying but Yahoo’s ratios are even higher with the prospects of revenue growth very gloomy at best. Last week’s news release about more lost market share is more reason for concern and I feel very comfortable

On the other hand, Blue Nile has been going through some difficult times in the past few months as the stock dropped and recent traffic analysis indicates major drops. It is certainly not a great sign but I would think that Nile would actually benefit from consumers looking for better prices when purchasing such luxury items. Their next earnings report will certainly be very interesting and I do understand this is somewhat of a gamble but the recent stock drop does seem exagerated, especially for a company that even now has little competition.

So an interesting trade, two companies that are showing worrying signs. The difference is that one of them has a promising underlying business model while I am far from convinced about Yahoo’s plans for the future.

Disclaimer: No return is guaranteed and each recommendation should be considered within the investor’s individual situation. As with any financial investment, there are risks involved.