I’ve been busy working on new projects the past two months, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. My busy schedule has left me with little time to tend to my portfolio, which may be a blessing. There is a saying out there in the financial world that sometimes the smartest thing to do is… nothing.

My portfolio has sagged, bounced, fallen, spiked, and mellowed with the wild markets in the last couple weeks, but I’m still on the upside, and managed to pick up some more Provident Energy Trust (PVX: chart, web, Y!) when the CANROYS dipped a week or so ago.

That said, I always liked to think that my holdings were fairly robust, and this assumption has seemed to prove out, at least so far.

A few interesting points to note while going through the financial news headlines over the past few weeks.

Cornerstone Funds announced a continued monthly distribution through the end of the year. However, they also announced that the distribution for next year would be based on 21% of the net asset value (NAV) at the end of October of this year. The NAV (CLM: ETFconnect) has dipped and swayed, but it’s now below $5 per share, and if you were to take todays value and use it to calculate next years distribution, you’d come out to just over $1.02 per share, or a $0.10 decrease in the distribution. As you can guess, the shares sold off heavy recently, so the yield has maintained it’s value, but any unrealized gains have gone out the window.

Pengrowth Energy announced that they were instituting a DRIP program, and you’re dividends would be reinvested at a 5% discount of the average price over the preceding 30 days. Currently, the yield is tough to beat, and they announced a second quarter net income of $1.11 per share. Not bad.

Currently, my portfolio is heavily weighted in PVX, and it may be wise to move some money out of that holding and into Pengrowth to give some insulation between individual companies.

So far, I’m happy with my ride through the rough market ride, and hope to continue to prosper through the rest of the year. To be honest though, my prediction that we’ll be in a bear market by the end of the year may come true.

More to come…

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