United Technologies Corporation (currently trading: $52.70) – I received shares in this company as a graduate of their employee scholar program (I was a co-op who was hired back during my senior year at RIT.)  An excellent company all around filled with some of the best people I’ve ever come across.  Even though George David is no longer the CEO, he is still involved with the many different UTC businesses.  I’ll probably hold this until I retire, to be honest.  Performs well and has a lot of sentimental value, if such a thing can be said about stock.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (currently trading:  $4.66) First stock I ever bought on my own, back during the dot com boom.  As you can imagine, this hasn’t done so well for me (remember that 5-1 reverse split?)  The good news is, being my first stock, I did not put a whole lot in to start.  I’d sell this, but it is not worth the $7 Scottrade commission.

First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge…(currently trading: $11.93) Ah yes, there is a reason I am doing this — to learn from my mistakes.  I bought this alternative energy ETF around the peak of the 2008 “oil boom” when oil was headed up and up and up.  I bought at $25 and again at $27.  I’m trying to remember why I felt the need to go back twice in the span of a week, but I can’t seem to recall.  Another reason why I’m going to write about why I am buying/selling stock in the future is so that I think it through (read: more discipline!)

Cypress Semiconductor…(currently trading: $5.03) This is the first stock I bought once the DOW dropped below 9k.  I had wanted to buy a tech company for some time and had heard the CEO of this company on Mad Money.  Cramer was big on the company, what can I say.  I was more in a rush to buy stocks while I figured they were absurdly cheap than anything else.   I bought at $4.71, so things are looking up.

Alcoa Inc. (currently trading at: $10.81) Another waiting for the rebound stock.  I bought in the low $7 range so pleasantly surprised at the recent rise in this stock, even with the news of the layoffs.  We’ll see what Obama’s reconstruction means to this stock.

Insulet Corporation (currently trading at $8.95) Bought around $5 to satisfy my need to own a biotech company.  This company makes a tubeless insulin pump — with diabetes on the rise, I’m hoping someone buys this company.

EMC Corporation (currently trading at $11.75) Picked up at $11.40.  EMC has a good deal of cash on hand and they fill important needs within the enterprise; this is a long term hold for me.

American Oriental Bioengineering…(currently trading at $5.06) I just bought this stock, a traditional Chinese health care provider, at the start of the New Year over $7.  At the time they had a ton of cash and were 20+% owned by management.  Then they go and spend $70 million of their cash pile on property in Shanghai for new training facilities.  Looking at the bright side, I suppose it might be better in this economy to not have that on the balance sheet, but that is a ton of capital now gone.