Had to sell the rest of my LL&E Royalty Trust (LRT – $2.01).  I just didn't know what it was doing in my portfolio anymore.  

_{photo by Jim Frazier via Flickr and Creative Commons}

I own some other royalty trusts but they pay royalties and are not subject to the tremendous amount of specific company risk that I have had with LRT.  With the latest announcement that they don't expect to pay dividends every month or make enough revenue to keep the trust open, I decided to dump the rest of my shares once the initial panic selling from last week was over.  I sold the rest of my shares today at $2.01 and $2.00.  I kept a little in my IRA.  There could be some money to be made if one really watched the developments of this trust around closing wells and post Hurricane Season 2005 repairs but I don't have the time given how small the opportunity is.  The company trades very small amounts.

Original Trade:  I bought LRT in 2001 as part of a basket of Royalty Trusts.  My remaining Oil Royalty Trusts are: BP Purdoe Bay (BPT  – $67.25), Mesa Royalty Trust (MTR – $56.51) and Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT – $24.88).   

What is a Royalty Trust?
Explanation and a list of other traded Royalty Trusts from Wikipedia.org.

Confessions:  Does owning an oil royalty trust that collects a money from an oil company for every barrel of oil pumped make me a bad guy?  I benefit from fossil fuels that will be burned and whose carbon dioxide residuals will find their way into the permanent green house gasses that contribute to global warming.  Unlike an oil company who's behavior I can influence as a shareholder, Royalty Trusts behavior is set in writing from the day they are created.  A royalty trust cannot decide to move into biodiesel if it was set up to collect royalties from wells – an energy company can, though.  

Disclaimer: I do not give investment advice. Do your own research. Do not rely on anything in this weblog to make investment decisions. I do not log all my trades here. I only describe or mention those that I think might be interesting. Consult an investment professional familiar with your specific financial situation before buying or selling any security. Options may be for me but they are are not for everyone. Futures are highly speculative. You can lose more than your initial investment in futures.