August 2023 Performance

August was a mixed bag with the market taking a small dip. The performance of my 3 largest holdings were as follows: Apple -4.27%, Visa +3.60% and Constellation Brands -4.29%. This contributed to an overall decline of -2.10% for August. It is really hard to have the conviction to initiate new positions in this market environment. I would like to see some high-quality IPOs come to market, but I do not see that happening right now. It is also hard to beat T bills with a ~ 5%+ risk free return.

In terms of special situations, I did play Activision and exited the position for a small gain after the dividend payout. I continued to play the short put game to make some pocket change. Also participated in the J&J tender offer (odd lot) for Kenvue and currently holding onto the position. I usually flip these spin offs, but Kenvue has an attractive valuation and a nice dividend payout. Who knows, maybe I will start to build on this position. Spin offs historically have outperformed the market.

Kind of disappointed with Fidelity with their recent online platform issues. Their recent performance has gone way down with the site being slow and system going down near the close of trading. I was with TD Ameritrade, and they also had their issues. Who else is left to try? Thinking of Interactive Brokers.
 
2023 Performance = +27.20% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January +8.04%
February -1.60%
March +6.31%
April +2.39%
May +1.02%
June +7.00%
July +3.85%
August -2.10%