4. INVESTMENTS IN MARKETABLE SECURITIES

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Investments in Debt and Marketable Equity Securities (and Certain Trading Assets) Disclosure [Text Block]

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, 2012 and 2011 is summarized below:

	Three months ended  September 30,						Nine months ended  September 30,
Description	2012			2011			2012		2011
Net realized (loss) gain from sales of securities	$	(12,000	)	$	36,000		$	55,000	$	115,000
Unrealized net gain (loss) in trading securities		57,000			(209,000	)		87,000		(256,000	)
Total net gain (loss) from investments in marketable securities	$	45,000		$	(173,000	)	$	142,000	$	(141,000	)

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012, net unrealized gains from trading securities were $57,000 and $87,000, respectively. This is compared to net unrealized losses of $209,000 and $256,000 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, respectively.

For the three months ended September 30, 2012, net realized loss from sales of marketable securities of approximately $12,000 consisted of $35,000 of gross losses net of $23,000 of gross gains. For the nine months ended September 30, 2012 net realized gain from sales of marketable securities of approximately $55,000 consisted of $126,000 of gross gains net of $71,000 of gross losses.

For the three months ended September 30, 2011 net realized gain from sales of marketable securities of approximately $36,000 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 of approximately $115,000 consisted of $169,000 of gross gains net of $54,000 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.