Sorry, for the neglect of this board. I have been busy, have enjoyed having my daughter visit. In thinking about what I hope to accomplish here, I realize that I have probably been too ambitious. I will probably not try to benchmark a portfolio as such due to a number of practical constraints and the realization that such benchmarking provides little practical information. Carlson's book details 70 years of performance of his strategy, but contains some long stretches when the strategy underperformed the markets.
I'm still trying to compare O'Shaughnessy's findings that poor stock performance in the previous year was the worst strategy he investigated, with Carlson's findings that it was one of the best. Virtually all research indicates that low P/E stocks outperform the market. Thus we have added that qualifier to Carlson's under performance criteria to develop our own Dow Underdogs.
I still hold T in my portfolio and will continue to do so, even though it's no longer part of the Dow. My guess is that, it will outperform the Dow over the next year. I also hold EK but will re-evaluate it. On the surface, there is little reason to hold it, but then that may be the best reason reason to hold it! (pure contrarianism).
