White Trash Update

Last week was a better one for White Trash on Wall Street; the White Trash and Minor Vices Portfolio is now up 1.1% since inception, helped along by solid performances in the "beverages that are bad for you and made by companies with hyphenated names" (aka Brown Liquids) category (Brown-Forman, Anheuser-Busch, and Coca-Cola) and a surprisingly good showing from Ford.

The spinoff of Kraft Foods from parent company Altria has been a net win as well.

Over the same time period, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the major indexes performed as follows:

• DIA, an ETF which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is up 1.3%
• SPY, an ETF which tracks the S&P 500, is up 1.1%.
• VTI, an ETF which tracks the performance of the broad US stock market as a whole, is up 1.15%
• IYC, an ETF which tracks the Dow Jones Consumer Cyclical index, is up 1.67%.

Never let it be said that white trash can't keep up with the Dow Joneses.

And once again, the complete White Trash portfolio is comprised of:

• BFB - Brown-Forman Corp. Cl B
  
• BUD - Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
  
• CHB - Champion Enterprises Inc.
  
• F - Ford Motor Co.
• GM - General Motors Corp.
  
• IGT - International Game Technology
  
• KO - Coca-Cola Co.
• KFT - Kraft Foods (not part of original portfolio; spun off by Altria)
  
• MCD - McDonald's Corp.
  
• MO - Altria Group Inc.
  
• WMT - Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
  

Happy investing!