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I haven’t been blogging as much because I’ve been busy lately. We just got back from a nice weekend retreat at a colleague’s ranch (estancia) in rural Paraguay about 1.5 hours east of Asuncion. We had a wonderful weekend. It is a nice respite from the hectic time we’ve been having in Asuncion and at work. I am working on posting some photos from the trip and will write about the it later. Today I wanted to highlight the efforts of some Peace Corps volunteers to support school building in Paraguay. Through their "Biking to Build Schools" initiative, they hope to raise $35,000 to help a local NGO, the Center for Campesino Education Training and Technology (CECTEC), build schools in rural Paraguay. In 2009, the volunteers plan to ride 6,000 miles in South America from Ushaia, Argentina at the southernmost point of South America to Asuncion to raise money via donor pledges. I think it’s a noble endeavor. Please consider donating to their cause via their web site, http://www.bikingtobuildschools.com/.
My wife and I went to a charity benefit dinner at Club Centenario on behalf of the Hogar Unidos por Cristo ("United for Christ Home") a children’s home in nearby San Lorenzo. I posted some photos from the event. Over 190 children live at the home founded six years ago by Patricia Bozzano, a devout Catholic. What started as a small sanctuary for abandoned children grew and grew, and now the home is seeking donations to build a school. Patricia lined up an impressive group of sponsors, including Club Centenario, Asuncion’s most exclusive club, which donated space to host the event. The event was excellent. Some of the children performed two songs, and we were treated to a buffet dinner. We had never visited Club Centenario and were glad to have had a chance to attend an event at the club.
After over two weeks of watching my investment portfolio get pummeled, I decided to take matters into my own hands and try some market timing. I sold six "safe" — actually, lousy — mutual funds that had been trounced in the market, and ploughed the money into Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL). The funds were attempts to hedge against the domestic financial market, all 5-star Morningstar rated funds with moderate risk, high return ratings. Some were international funds and hedge-type funds. They lost over 40 percent collectively since I bought them last fall. Forget about being cautious. I decided to go back to my tried and true friend, Google, and pick up some shares of Apple. I’ve won with Google twice, the first time being when I picked up shares at IPO ($85) and made a killing. Google dropped from $707 per share last year to almost $320 last week. I picked up shares of both on the bounce. While the financial markets will probably be volatile for the foreseeable future, these two companies are undersold. My gut tells me to ride them on the bounce until they recoup my loss and then jump off. I think it’s a good contrarian move. While it’s not always a good idea to concentrate in a limited number of stocks in a volatile sector such as technology, there’s one rule that trumps this adage — sometimes it’s better to go with your gut.
