Mid Year Performance

I  guess it’s time to review my mid-year performance. So far I’ve been pleased with the performance as my portfolio has generated a return of 19.29% from January to June. July is looking promising with a return of +2.96% as of July 20^th. Here are my returns on a monthly basis:

January -0.30%

February +4.67%

March +5.03%

April +5.13%

May +5.13%

June -0.37%

This year, I’ve been more disciplined in terms of cutting my losses when a trade does not work out. For example, I recently sold out my position in MoneyGram International generating a net loss of 11.13%. Like I mentioned before, once a position hits a 10% loss I will start to sell out a position. One can always re-enter a position, but you don’t want to let a losing position get away from you. I've also been more careful with position sizing to minimize potential blow ups that can vaporize ones gains.

I may write about my merger arb / special situation trades, but I do buy and hold companies for the long term such as VISA Inc., which I purchased in the IPO and plan on keeping it for a long long time.

My largest position is currently Constellation Brands, which I entered as a special situations play when it acquired assets from Anheuser Bush InBev in its acquisition of Grupo Modelo S.A.B. As I learned more about the biz and the potential earnings power, I gained a strong conviction and plan on hanging onto Constellation Brands for at least the next few years. Looking out 3 years, this company has the ability to generate ~ $1 billion in annual free cash flow. For a company of this size, this is serious cash generation.

I guess that's it for now. Hopefully, the second half of the year will produce decent returns so we’ll see…