Magic Formula Investing results

Here is a look at my portfolios monthly returns:
- started with 20 stocks and then added about 6-7 every quarter
- now at 36 stocks; started selling 2 no gainers (close to 1 yr)
- 5 stocks were sold early for various reasons (3 buyouts / 1 tax and1 I just did not like)

MonthlyReturn of Total Return / Personal Return / Index Return

Mar 7.01 7.35 4.88
Apr 3.7 3.7 1.4
May -9.22 -9.82 -6.06
Jun 4.13 4.13 1.38
Jul -2.16 -2.16 -2.85
Aug 4.18 4.29 3.13
Sep -0.9 -0.9 0.74
Oct 4.61 6.2 6.04
Nov 3.76 3.57 2.5
Dec 1.2 1.2 -0.24
Jan 1.34 1.34 1.91
Feb 4.69 4.65 2.1

I used the Morningstar Small Core Index as a comparison. The TotalReturn is what Mutual Funds would use to list their returns (and anindex comparison) -- Personal Return includes cash in and outflows(you can see that during the month of the purchases -May / Aug / Nov -the personal and total return vary because of cash in and outflow)
Trends:
1) Overall I am doing great: + 28% total return // +25% personalreturn VS the index of 15% (SP500 would be about the same).

2) The May numbers serve as a cautious reminder that in a downturn,the portfolio may take a big beating -- market was down 6% vsportfolio at -9.8% - which is also the biggest monthly difference(positive or negative) of any month.

3) Transaction cost -- Even at 43 stocks the transaction costs arerelatively low -- 43x$6 ($3 per trade)= $258 or about 1/4% of value

4) Tough to track dividends - I use Morningstar and they recorddividends by reinvesting the $$ into the shares - I wish it was thateasy. The money usually just sits there for a couple of month until Ican invest it into new buys. It comes down to just being a little tolazy to make my own spreadsheet analysis - but I just add about 1%and don't get obsessed about it.