Chipotle and a healthy portfolio

Few experiences are better than owning a stock that's up more than 1 percent on a morning when the broader indexes are down 1-2 percent... with 10 out of 10 S & P sector indexes in the red as of 11 a.m. today.

(Okay, it'd be even nicer mathematically if the market were up 2 percent, and the stock was plus 5 percent. But there's an emotional high in knowing you're positioned in one of the few winners. It's a little like being afraid you have some dreaded disease -- and finding out you don't. About which, more below.)

Such was the experience today with Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), which provides healthy food with integrity, and a nicely personalized dining experience to its highly enthusiastic customer base -- and an opportunity to place capital in the path of social change to investors.

So strong does this company appear that we've just been working on a video report on Chipotle, which will be out in the near future. In part, you have to see it and even smell it for yourself -- the interaction with the customer, the commitment to healthy food on the part of founder Steve Ells, the sheer smoky goodness that wafts out of a Chipotle store, and the ebullient response of the restaurant's patrons. Hence our video.

The other trend behind CMG's success, of course, is the care for health that goes into the preparation. The food isn't loaded with pesticides, hormones, or other poisons. It's prepared on a grill, not a deep-fried bucket or frying surface loaded with grease.

When you consider how many toxic carcinogens are being pumped into our backyard , it's easy to see that Chipotle is part of the real cure for cancer. (That is to say, "stop causing it, stupid!")

Of course, this claim is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration -- it's just a common sense truism that if you stop firing a gun at yourself, you'll have fewer bullet wounds, and if you eat less cancer-causing food, you'll have less cancer. As the proverbial smoker said when asked if he would share a cigarette, "sure, have two -- I'll die slower."

Ownership disclosure:  At the time this product was published or posted, Damon Vickers & Co. and Nine Points Capital Partners owned shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).