Thank you CenturyLink!

We lagged the market last week, dropping to -3.04%, while the SMI rose to -0.52%. The result could have been worse if not for the excellent performance of CTL, which clearly outperforms the S&P 500 for several months.

Note that CenturyLink is the only stock in our portfolio whose company does not have an international vocation. We nevertheless placed a buy order on April 7, 2010, despite the increased currency risk, because CTL has had the strongest buy signal from our algorithm for several months already.

Regarding the poor relative performance of the portfolio, let us recall that our positions are defensive in nature, and therefore tend to underperform when the market makes significant upward corrections, such as last week. The portfolio volatility, on the other hand, fell further to 12.29%, while that of the SMI increased to 17.59%.