Portfolio

Your New Year's resolutions might include personal goals such as losing weight, eating better, exercising more or learning the mambo. But your resolutions should also include financial goals, such as reassessing your investment portfolio. With the volatility of the stock market in 2011, some investors ignored their portfolios to avoid the stomach-churning ride of daily price fluctuations. But as the year draws to a close, consider reviewing your investments to determine whether your portfolio could use some improvement.

RAIT Financial Trust, a Philadelphia company that invests in real estate and lends money for real estate, reported positive trends in its loan portfolio. The company said it had $91.8 million in troubled loans on Sept. 30, down from $143.2 million a year ago. The occupancy rate for its apartment, office, and retail properties has improved steadily over the past year, to 84.5 percent on Sept. 30 from 74.8 percent a year ago. RAIT's shares were up 15 percent, or 68 cents, to $5.30 on the New York Stock Exchange.

What is going to happen with the financial crisis in Europe? Some on Wall Street argue Europe is finally getting its act together and the sell-off in European banks and capital markets is overdone. Others say they believe the European monetary union is going to collapse spectacularly, with the euro currency going out of existence and the region plunging into conflict. So, here are ways to play those opposing scenarios in a portfolio. Consider the view of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which last week upgraded ratings on European banks to neutral from underweight, for this reason: "The new funding arrangements agreed by the ECB (European Central Bank)

George C. McFarland Jr., was named president of Pennsylvania Trust, Radnor. McFarland will retain his current responsibilities as director of trust and account administration and as portfolio manager, and will continue to help lead the internal management and administration of the firm.   Salveson Stetson Group, a Philadelphia executive search firm working with clients on identifying talent for senior executive-level positions, hired Donna DeHart as vice president. DeHart had served as a vice president for Advantage Building & Facility Services.

Class starts with an outlook on the U.S. economy and consumer confidence, and then the analyst's sales pitch begins: Will the fund be spending its precious dollars buying shares of VF Corp. (VFC), maker of North Face, Nautica, Timberland and Vans fashions and Lee and Wrangler jeans? The fund just bought 75 shares in Qualcomm (QCOM) last week at $65.84, making a bet on a rebound in 2013 sales of chips for mobile handsets. And in April, the investment committee will hear a pitch for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Class starts with an outlook on the U.S. economy and consumer confidence, and then the analyst's sales pitch begins: Will the fund be spending its precious dollars buying shares of VF Corp. (VFC), maker of North Face, Nautica, Timberland and Vans fashions, and Lee and Wrangler jeans? The fund just bought 75 shares in Qualcomm (QCOM) last week at $65.84, making a bet on a rebound in 2013 sales of chips for mobile handsets. And in April, the investment committee will hear a pitch for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Capmark Financial Group Inc., Horsham, said today it closed on the first stage in the sale of its low-income housing tax credit portfolio for $102.4 million. The commercial real estate lender, which emerged from bankruptcy in September, sold the portfolio to the Hunt Cos. Inc., El Paso, Texas. Hunt was the successful bidder at Capmark's bankruptcy auction. The initial part of the sale was for $63 million, and the rest is to be paid in stages, Capmark said. -Paul Schweizer

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, or PREIT, said it completed the sale of Paxton Towne Centre in Harrisburg for $76.8 million. The sale to Kansas-based Rubenstein Real Estate Co. L.C. represents a gain on approximately $33.6 million, and net proceeds of $24.9 million after closing costs for the trust, PREIT said in a statement. Philadelphia-based PREIT has a portfolio of 47 retail-shopping properties, including the Cherry Hill and Willow Grove Park malls, in 13 states in the eastern half of the United States.

Public stock and bond markets got you down? Venture capital is starting to look good again. VC and angel funding have rebounded strongly since 2008 and the financial crisis, and Golden Seeds Fund 2 L.P. , a vintage 2011 fund, is just one example. The fund is focused on making early-stage portfolio investments, such as Cognition Therapeutics Inc., a Pittsburgh life-sciences company, and is building a portfolio of 20-plus investments through 2013. Golden Seeds is a network of angel investors wagering on start-ups at a time when small business needs financing more than ever.

We all do it: We don't sell a stock when we should, even after the share price has hit our hoped-for target, or it has lost value and stayed low. We fall in love with our portfolio holdings. Professionals offer tips on how to sell as a discipline. We checked in with the folks running Logan Capital Management's Concentrated Value portfolio day to day. Marvin Kline and Rich Buchwald, managing directors at the $2 billion Ardmore money-management firm, are Penn alums (one undergrad, one grad school)

Class starts with an outlook on the U.S. economy and consumer confidence, and then the analyst's sales pitch begins: Will the fund be spending its precious dollars buying shares of VF Corp. (VFC), maker of North Face, Nautica, Timberland and Vans fashions, and Lee and Wrangler jeans? The fund just bought 75 shares in Qualcomm (QCOM) last week at $65.84, making a bet on a rebound in 2013 sales of chips for mobile handsets. And in April, the investment committee will hear a pitch for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Class starts with an outlook on the U.S. economy and consumer confidence, and then the analyst's sales pitch begins: Will the fund be spending its precious dollars buying shares of VF Corp. (VFC), maker of North Face, Nautica, Timberland and Vans fashions and Lee and Wrangler jeans? The fund just bought 75 shares in Qualcomm (QCOM) last week at $65.84, making a bet on a rebound in 2013 sales of chips for mobile handsets. And in April, the investment committee will hear a pitch for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, or PREIT, said it completed the sale of Paxton Towne Centre in Harrisburg for $76.8 million. The sale to Kansas-based Rubenstein Real Estate Co. L.C. represents a gain on approximately $33.6 million, and net proceeds of $24.9 million after closing costs for the trust, PREIT said in a statement. Philadelphia-based PREIT has a portfolio of 47 retail-shopping properties, including the Cherry Hill and Willow Grove Park malls, in 13 states in the eastern half of the United States.

CORRECTION: An article in Sunday's Inquirer about outstanding loans by the Delaware River Port Authority misstated the status of one loan. The former Home Life Furniture, a manufacturer in Northeast Philadelphia, is now on schedule with its payments after having them deferred for a year. The error was the result of incorrect information supplied by the DRPA.   With more than $20 million in outstanding loans to public and private ventures, the Delaware River Port Authority's economic-development pot is a gift that keeps on giving.

It's comforting to find a portfolio manager who ignores the noise of the markets, and, these days, the political screaming. Many investors are gaming Tuesday's election results, but not members of the Jensen Funds team. Perhaps it's because they are based in the Pacific Northwest, but the Jensen Funds portfolio managers don't give a hanging chad about who's in the White House or which party controls Congress. I caught up with one of the firm's founders and portfolio managers, Robert Zagunis, because he was stuck in Philadelphia during Hurricane Sandy.

Prolific children's author Jan Brett - more than 30 books so far - has another one out. It's called Mossy (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $17.99), and it's an unusual love story starring an eponymous turtle with a garden growing on her back. Here's the plot: Mossy falls in love with a male turtle named Scoot, then is taken away from Lilypad Pond by Dr. Carolina, a biologist who makes Mossy the main attraction at her natural history museum. It's all very exciting, until Dr. Carolina's niece Tory notices that Mossy, while enjoying the attention, is pining for Scoot.

Tovah Martin doesn't fuss over decorator colors on the walls of her Roxbury, Conn., home. She doesn't bother with window treatments or family portraits. Houseplants - hundreds of them - are what define her decor. Martin, author of more than a dozen gardening books, including The New Terrarium in 2009, has a new one from Timber Press ($22.95) called The Unexpected Houseplant: 220 Extraordinary Choices For Every Spot in Your Home . She's one of the best known and most knowledgeable garden authors in the country.

To the long list of investing strategies, add this: I'll have what she's having. That's the idea behind Ditto Trade, an online brokerage for anyone who has faith in cousins, best friends or next-door neighbors who are always bragging about their stock-trading chops. Attach your investment portfolio to theirs, and whenever they make a trade, so will you. No time to watch the market? No problem, as long as you trust the instincts of your Uncle Herb. Ditto Trade's CEO, Joe Fox, said his company will empower the stock-trading masses.

We all do it: We don't sell a stock when we should, even after the share price has hit our hoped-for target, or it has lost value and stayed low. We fall in love with our portfolio holdings. Professionals offer tips on how to sell as a discipline. We checked in with the folks running Logan Capital Management's Concentrated Value portfolio day to day. Marvin Kline and Rich Buchwald, managing directors at the $2 billion Ardmore money-management firm, are Penn alums (one undergrad, one grad school)

William Moss is all over TV promoting gardening and transformational landscapes, but you probably know him best as the host of HGTV's Dig In. He's just published his first book - about one of his favorite subjects, growing veggies in small spaces: Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening: The No Yard, No Time, No Problem Way to Grow Your Own Food (Cool Springs Press, $21.99). Moss describes his intended audience this way: "everyone living in apartments, condos, town houses, dorm rooms, or trailers as well as downsizers and newbies who all want to get out and grow!"