Stock picks for the year --results were pretty good

With the end of 2010, I thought it was time to look back on the various stock picks that I made to see how I did. Here are the results:
Stock -- Caribou Coffee Company (CBOU), named stock of the month for April when it was at $8.04. It closed the year at $10.08, a gain of 38% on an annualized basis.

Stock – Shamir Optical Industry LTD (SHMR) chosen as the stock of the Month for May when it was $9.75; it closed the year at $13.40 after paying a dividend of 80 cents. Return for the period on an annualized basis is 68%.

Stock – Jack in The Box (JACK) chosen as the stock of the month for June. It was 22.17 when chosen and went down to $21.13 by the end of the year. It declined at 9% on an annualized basis.

Stock – American Capital LTD. Chosen as the stock of the month for July when it was 4.89. I closed the year at $7.56, a gain of 109% on an annualized basis. My recommendation, however, included writing the November 5 straddle. For those of you who followed that advice, you got a return of 110% on an annualized basis.

Stock – in April, I began writing about Armanino foods of Distinction (AMNF on the pink sheets). At the time, the stock was 48 cents. It ended the year at 74.8 cents and it paid a hefty dividend during that period. Even aside from the dividend, the gain was 84% on an annualized basis.

Stock – The stock of the month for September was Brandywine Realty trust (BDN). It was selling at 10.93 at the time and it closed the year at 11.65. This is a return of 20% on an annualized basis. However, I suggested that in buying the stock, you also sell the January 12.5 calls for 45 cents, a move that brought the total return to over 30% aside from the nearly 6% dividend.

Stock – The stock of the month for October was actually a class of securities: closed end funds holding municipal bonds. There is no easy way to figure out the total return from these stocks since the recommendation. Suffice to say that they paid about 7% or higher in tax free yields, the point of the recommendation.

Stock – the Stock of the month for November was Range Resources (RRC). It was $39.10 when I recommended it and it closed the year at $44.98, a gain of 90% on an annualized basis. Of course, now that we are down to just a two month holding period, the annualized returns start to get less meaningful.

Stock – In mid October, I also wrote about a Canadian stock GasFrac Energy Services (GFS:CA or GFS.TO). It was 7.07 when I recommended it. It closed trading for the year at 9.19, a gain of 30% or about 140% on an annualized basis.

Stock – in mid November I recommended Entropic Communications Inc. (ENTR). The stock was selling at $9.00 when recommended and closed the year at 12.08, a gain of 35% in a month and a half. My recommendation was to write December 10 calls and December 7.5 puts on the stock as well. For those who followed that advice, the return was over 120% on an annualized basis.

Stock – In mid December, I recommended Lighting Science Group (LSCG). It was selling at $3.25 when I recommended it a few weeks ago. It closed the year at the same price.

Stock – A few weeks ago, I also recommended purchasing puts on Panera Bread (PNRA). Since the point of the trade is the expectation that the stock will tank briefly (at least) right after the first of the year, there is no point to looking at the results.

On the whole, I am satisfied with these results. I had one stock that declined a bit, but everything else went up at a minimum rate of 30%, with some much better.