Each month, we look at the aggregate Cake data and look at what individual investors are really doing.  Last month, I highlighted 5 stocks that moved from an “F” rating to an “A” rating- meaning investors saw these as attractive.  Construction, bonds, energy and broad indexing surfaced.

The basket of 5 positions handily beat the markets, which were down over 8% in January, with a -1.74% return.

Symbol    Name    January Return
CBI Chicago Bridge and Iron        12.04%
DUG ProShares UltraShort Oil & Gas         -1.28%
IJH iShares S&P MidCap 400 Index        -6.75%
MWTRX Metropolitan West Total Return Bond M      -0.55%
SWINX Schwab International Index        -12.16%

Total January Returns        -1.74%

I also talked about 22 positions that were rated “A” in December and changed to an “F” during that month.  We would expect that those holdings would underperform those positions moving from “F” to “A”.  And that is exactly what we see with a collective return of -5.44% for the basket.

Symbol    Name    January Return
ARAY Accuray Incorporated       19.77%
BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway        -7.00%
DD DuPont       -9.25%
DNR Denbury Resources Inc.    12.09%
DWSN Dawson Geophysical Company     -10.56%
EFV iShares MSCI EAFE Value Index       -15.31%
ERTS Electronic Arts       -3.74%
FXY CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust     0.74%
GD General Dynamics Corp.       -0.86%
GHM Graham Corp       -7.95%
GRMN Garmin Ltd.       -8.56%
IAU ISHARES COMEX GOLD     5.42%
MKL Markel Corp.        -9.69%
MS Morgan Stanley       27.87%
O Realty Income Corp.        -16.21%
ODP Office Depot, Inc        -27.52%
PGF PowerShares Financial Preferred        -14.76%
RSX Market Vectors Russia ETF        -17.06%
SSO Ultra S&P500 ProShares        -16.48%
STO StatoilHydro ASA        3.42%
TSL Trina Solar Ltd        -13.02%
VTV Vanguard Value ETF        -11.10%

Total January Returns        -5.44%

Tomorrow, I will do a post on the Stocks to Watch for January.