The market has been all over the place, mostly in a downward trajectory, since the last update and it looks like this volatility could be here for a while longer although today is very quiet with the US market closed. Overall the portfolio remains positive for the year (as I write this at least!) but well off the high it hit in January. The general sell off and a couple of stock specific factors are behind the decline.

Plenty of trading since my last post, the twitter feed and the trade page details it all.

RCG (RCG) has been a big faller over the last couple of weeks off the back of the Nina Wang / Tony Chan trial result. I decided to maintain my holding & ignore the volatility. The fundamentals remain excellent and the share rating paltry considering the performance so far and the future potential of the business. At some point the share register issues will be resolved and I’d then expect the shares to be quickly re-rated.

I have taken a decent sized position in Quintain Estates (QED) recently. This was flagged up recently on the Motely Fool discussion boards and it looks to be a low risk property play with no funding issues trading at a large discount to NAV. The price has ticked up a little bit over the past week and I expect it to gather further positive momentum over the next few weeks. There is still a seller about though so there may be a chance for further buying on any weakness.

I have also dipped back into Man Group (EMG) which has fallen a long, long way over the last few months. Its flagship fund continues to badly under perform but I expect that trend to reverse at some point and overall Man is a solid business that looks too cheap to me at these levels. A tight stop on this one though as it could fall further if the general market heads down.

Overall I am now keeping a closer eye on certain positions with an eye to minimising losses / taking profits and retreating back into cash given the more negative tone to the market. There may be some further downside to come but overall I remain bullish for 2010, especially for the core portfolio holdings where there looks to be some real good value and hopefully positive newsflow in the coming months.