June 2024 Report

Once again, Apple pulls through with a very compelling presentation of Apple Intelligence, which in turn generated a nice gain in the stock. I was skeptical of Apple’s AI play and thought they would simply just integrate ChatGPT into their iOS. The presentation provided many uses cases for Apple Intelligence, which I can see myself using. Now, there’s no choice, but to upgrade to a new iPhone if you want to experience these features. Considering what this device can do, the cost of a new phone is really insignificant.
 
Not much with special situations other than a small play on the Talen Energy Dutch offering. Still continuing to sell Puts on tech plays to generate income. I’m selling way out of the money options so I’m pocketing small premiums, but they add up over time.
 
I find that optimizing one’s tax situation is as important as generating gains. I admit that I started late in adjusting my portfolio to minimize taxes. Things such as waiting to sell ESPP shares until they become a qualifying disposition to cash exercising employee stock options for long term capital gains. It’s only been these past two years that I’ve started to take action on these tax saving strategies. I guess these are good problems to have but should have started much earlier. If you have time, YouTube is a great resource and that’s where I learned many of these tax savings strategies. I just can’t bring myself to pay a financial planner charging ~ 1% of assets for this advice.
 
 
2024 Performance = + 6.23% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January + 0.02%
February +0.99%
March – 0.33%
April - 3.07%
May + 5.16%
June + 3.52%