August 2020 Performance

As they say: The Beat Goes On… I don’t know what to make of this market, but the market knows of only one trajectory and that is UP. The percentage of cash has decreased to ~ 13% of my portfolio simply because of the portfolio appreciation. I can thank Apple and Visa for a big portion of the portfolio appreciation. I did not make any changes to my core holding.

I did execute trades on some recent mergers such as Principia Biopharma, Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Aimmune Therapeutics. I played via short Puts on all of those positions. I exited Principia Biopharma and Momenta Pharmaceuticals with some small gains. I continue to maintain a short Put position in Aimmune Therapeutics. I like all of these deals as I do not see any antitrust issues and all are structured as tender offers, which should lead to quick closings. I may get back into Principia Biopharma and Momenta Pharmaceuticals.

I am waiting to deploy some cash into the upcoming IPOs in Ant Group and Airbnb. I really admire both of these companies and they should do well over the long term. Just need to see how the market prices both of these deals.

That is it for the August recap…

2020 YTD Performance = +27.1% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January +2.7%
February -6.8%
March -9.9%

April +12.3%

May +6.6%

June +3.8%

July +6.1%

August +11.8%