Bye bye EDD, hello more ZRX

My resolution to stop buying more Zirax lasted 17 days and another 1.5p drop in the share price. Ah well. I didn't put it any new cash this time - instead I sold out of EDD for a modest 12% profit after fees and taxes.

I've also committed to taking up my RBS rights. I can't see the share price falling below 200p tomorrow, so there's no advantage to delaying further.

Zirax is starting to catch up RBS as my biggest holding...
RBS: 23.8%
ZRX: 16.3%

Details
EDD - Education Development International - 29/5/08 - 42.65p - SOLD - 4.3% of portfolio.
ZRX - Zirax - 29/5/08 - 9.35p - BUY - 4.3% of portfolio.

Average holding time
Now that I've made a sale, my average holding period is no longer infinite. I've therefore added an extra output to my python script: average holding period based on actual sales, and average holding period assuming I sold out entirely today.

My values so far: 1780 days and 74 days. The first of those is the meaningful one in terms of minimising churn. Just under 5 years is perfectly reasonable. I believe I've read somewhere that investment funds average less than 1 year. Warren Buffett probably has something like 1000 years, which I doubt I will get close to.

Taylor Wimpey
I expect to add to my TW holding at some point in the next few days, as funds become available. 85p is really getting silly. Forget about house prices for a moment: the UK's rate of housebuilding is unsustainably low. Over the medium term, the UK needs several hundred thousand new houses per year, and there are only a handful of builders. Provided TW survive, as I think they should, they will take a share of that business. If the margins aren't there, the builders will not bother building, and therefore they will be there.

Land of leather
I took a look at Land of Leather today. It is trading on a fantastically low price. I'm starting to think that even if it only has a 20% chance of survival, it might be worth a punt. Perhaps I'm crazy.

It's on a P/E ratio of less than 1 and has a yield of 65%. Nice.

It had about £16m in the bank at the end of January and has a market cap of £10m. But obviously there are many many problems with it... In particular: high fixed costs, very negative working capital (fantastic when growing, not so good in a downturn).

I'll continue to watch. I think it's probably going bankrupt.