March 2024 Report

I’m not making much head way this year with a loss of -0.33% in March. It doesn’t help when Apple (my largest position) declines ~ 5%. I’m just glad that Constellation Brands gained ~ 9% and helped to keep the portfolio’s loss contained. Cash remains at ~ 8% and will deploy when opportunities arise.

I’m maintaining a relatively conservative approach with the goal of capital preservation. I don’t think I will ever go All-In in any position like I did in my early years. I guess you get wiser as you age. I experienced the 1997 – 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, 2000 dot.com bubble and the 2008 Financial Crisis. The last thing I want to do is to lose a big chunk of my portfolio on a dumb bet.

Tesla is starting to look interesting with its recent decline. Fundamentally, they are currently in a rough spot with the macro issues, but they are the clear leader in their segment. It is interesting that I am seeing more used Tesla’s for sale at a local used car dealership. It used to be a rare to see a used Tesla for sale, but now it’s very common. The difficult part is how low will the stock go?

 
2024 Performance = + 0.68% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January + 0.02%
February +0.99%
March – 0.33%

February 2024 Report

I’m off to a slow start in the year and lagging the market. I eked out a small gain of 0.99% in February with Visa and Mastercard doing the heavy lifting, while Apple (my largest position) declined ~ 2%. Am I concerned? No, the goal is simply not to lose money at this point. A super gain would be nice, but steady growth and some income is the way to go for me now. I am still on the hunt for a decent growth company with a dividend payout.

Here’s a current breakdown of my main portfolio with the dividend yields (adjusted to my cost basis). 

When I started, I really did not pay attention to the dividends, but over time the dividend payouts have contributed positively to the portfolio. Right now, I’m simply reinvesting the dividends into the purchase of additional shares, which has nice compounding effect. Dividend paying stocks are the way to go over the long run. For example, my very first purchase of Visa is now yielding 18.90%. I am finally realizing the power of dividends! 
 
No arb plays at the moment, just selling some puts on high volatility stocks (Tesla, Nvidia, etc...) to generate small income. 

That’s it for now…
  
 
2024 Performance = + 1.01% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January + 0.02%
February +0.99%