Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

Now that Q3 is over, as promised, here is readout on how the model portfolio (on paper) I constructed and published at start of 2007 year is doing. Investment Quantity 1/5/2007 9/30/2007 Rate Amount Rate Amount %Gain UUPIX 156 32.09 $5,006 57.85 $9,025 80.3% FXI 47 105.94 $4,979 180 $8,460 69.9% FSESX 80 62.69 $5,015 100.67 $8,054 60.6% TABRX 397 12.61 $5,006 17.73 $7,039 40.6% VEIEX 211 23.68 $4,996 32.75 $6,910 38.3% VGTSX 573 17.46 $10,004 20.67 $11,844 18.4% CSCO 527 28.48 $15,010 33.13 $17,460 16.3% VDMIX 803 12.46 $10,005 14.28 $11,467 14.6% VFINX 77 129.87 $10,000 140.61 $10,827 8.3% VSTCX 492 20.31 $9,992 21.28 $10,470 4.8%

Finally long-awaited interest rate cut is here and that also came with big bang. For many folks and even for stock market which tracks every word of Ben Bernanke, this looked like surprise. IMO, this was very much expected move and one of the reasons I wrote my previous article "is it time to buy", it was clear that mid-Aug provided ideal opportunity to make some bets. Here is report-card on how my recommendations did over 5 weeks - pretty good record considering one returning over 50% and only one in negative (which is housing stock and looks like we have yet to find the bottom of housing market) Symbol Price on Aug 17 Price on Sept 21 % Gain UUPIX 33.56 52.57 56.6% FXI 119 168.48 41.6% IBN 38 50 31.6% APPL 117 144.15 23.2% AA 32 37.4 16.9% LLNW 7.56 8.47 12.0% VGTSX 18.02 20.16 11.9% BX 23 25.32 10.1% FISMX 25.58 27.98

I am a student of macroeconomics and like to read about various macro-economic factors such as inflation, interest rate, labor productivity, education and how it impacts long-term prospects of a country. Based on such analysis, I like to come up with investing strategy and find out mutual funds, stocks or ETF and recommend them and invest personal money to test out these strategies (put your money where your mouth is:-) Based on prominence of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, I have been looking for ways to go beyond BRIC countries and look at other emerging countries. Countries in Laton America, Asia and Eastern Europe have been growing as fast or faster than BRIC countries and provide excellent investing opportunities. Check out following article - top 3 countries are non-BRIC countries in emerging markets with Peru topping with 168% returns Top 10 places to invest However investing in one country or index poses significant risks due to political, social factors which

In last post titled "Is it Time to Buy", I recommended 11 stocks. My post was so timely as markets have returned to normaly with discount rate cut of 50 basis points and Fed and Bush Government all assuring that they are not going to let market turmoil impact economy. Q2 GDP also came in very strong at 4%. Let's see how my recommendations did in last 2 weeks: Recommendation Symbol Price on Aug 17 Price on Aug 31 2-week Gain Target Price Profunds Ultraemerging funds UUPIX 33.56 45.41 35% 50 Ishares Trust FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index FXI 119 150.31 26% 150 WCI communities WCI 7.76 9.32 20% 12 Apple AAPL 117 138.48 18% 150 ICICI Bank ADS IBN 38 44.45 17% 47 Alcoa AA 32 36.53 14% 40 Limelight Networks LLNW 7.56 8.25 9% 14 Fidelity International small cap FISMX 25.58 27.68 8% 2