4. INVESTMENTS IN MARKETABLE SECURITIES

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

4. INVESTMENTS IN MARKETABLE SECURITIES

Investments in marketable securities consist primarily of large capital corporate equity and debt securities in varying industries or issued by government agencies with readily determinable fair values. These securities are stated at market value, as determined by the most recent traded price of each security at the balance sheet date. Consistent with the Company’s overall current investment objectives and activities its entire marketable securities portfolio is classified as trading.

Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) from investments in marketable securities for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011 and 2010 is summarized below:

	Three months ended September 30,					Nine months ended September 30,
Description	2011			2010		2011			2010
Net realized gain from sales of securities	$	36,000		$	27,000	$	115,000		$	279,000
Net unrealized (loss) gain in trading securities		(209,000	)		181,000		(256,000	)		(100,000	)
Total net realized and unrealized (loss) gain from investments in marketable securities	$	(173,000	)	$	208,000	$	(141,000	)	$	179,000

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011 net unrealized losses from trading securities were $209,000 and $256,000, respectively. This is compared to a net unrealized gain of $181,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2010 and a net unrealized loss of $100,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2010.

For the three months ended September 30, 2011 net realized gain from sales of marketable securities was $36,000, and consisted of $65,000 of gross gains net of $29,000 of gross losses. For the nine months ended September 30, 2011 net realized gain from sales of marketable securities was $115,000, and consisted of $169,000 of gross gains net of $54,000 of gross losses.

For the three months ended September 30, 2010 net realized gain from sales of marketable securities was $27,000, and consisted of $39,000 of gross gains net of $12,000 of gross losses. For the nine months ended September 30, 2010 net realized gain from sales of marketable securities was $279,000, and consisted of $476,000 of gross gains net of $197,000 of gross losses.

Investment gains and losses on marketable securities may fluctuate significantly from period to period in the future and could have a significant impact on the Company’s net earnings. However, the amount of investment gains or losses on marketable securities for any given period has no predictive value and variations in amount from period to period have no practical analytical value.