Bookkeeping: Beginning Stake in Thornburg Mortgage (TMA)

I've been talking about this name recently [Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) Earnings - Good Enough] and the technical pattern is quite impressive so I am creating an initial stake in this stock today. This position will do a few things for the portfolio

1. It should ying (to some degree) when other sectors yang (I am very underweight financials for obvious reasons, so in weeks like the past 2 when those dog sectors are in favor I will have some benefit)
2. I want to play the mortgage refi angle without going into housing, which for now still remains only a short term trade, so this is a way to have exposure to the "Cramer says housing is bottoming although he has no idea, but the stocks still go up for no good reason other than 'Fed Cuts Solve Everything' thinking"
3. Allow me to benefit from political idioticy of stuffing Freddie and Fannie with larger and larger mortgages. (<$417K)
   

There are very few mortgage pure plays - I've looked at some of the others and while they might offer some better potential return, they are far riskier. Thornburg seems to be run very well, and even though it has bounced 50% off its recent 'death spiral' lows it is still well over 50% below old highs.

My price strategy is as follows - begin a position here in the $12s range. The stock has support in the $10-$10.50 range (20 day and 50 day moving averages). If the market tanks, I will be adding to this position in a much larger way at those price points. This stock has little resistance on the upside until near $17 which is its 200 day moving average. If/when we get there, I will re-assess what I want to do.

I am starting Thornburg Mortgage as a $15K position, 1200 shares, or 1.35% of the fund. Price point is $12.60-$12.70s. (I had an itchy trigger finger to try to buy near $12 yesterday but did not do it). My hope is to see a pullback to $10.00-$10.50 as stated above, where I'd be more than willing to make this a 3%+ type of position. If the stock continues to break out say, over $13.50 I'd probably add more on strength as well.

The mortgage business is not going away, and the options of playing it are very limited as most mortgage operations are either (a) poorly run smaller outfits or (b) hidden within larger banks who have a lot of other issues. So this appears to be the best option, a nice solid $1.5 B company with good management which focuses on higher end customers (not subprime), and the potential for government intervention as a bonus.

While I might consider some financials, or home builders for the 10% of the fund I allocate to "short term trades" (which I have not been utilizing much of late), I can see TMA sticking around in the fund for the longer run since it does not really require a housing rebound - simply people desperate to get out of ARMs and into fixed rates, along with some decent about of purchasing activity in the $300-$500K+ market to which it caters. People who can truly afford that level of purchase without resorting to ridiculous exotic loans of the past 5 years, won't be affected as badly from the recession as the "common man".

Long Thornburg Mortgage in fund; no personal position