August 2024 Report

During the recent volatility, the best action for me was to do nothing. It’s really hard to pull the trigger as I did not see any real values during the sell off. The only action I took was to sell puts on several tech stocks during the sell off. There was fear out there so the option premiums were quite attractive. The market should be fine. with the anticipated September rate cut. As they say, “Don’t fight the fed”.
 
So, what did well in August? Apple, Visa and Mastercard… Apple continues to rally on the highly anticipated iPhone 16 launch. Do I buy this Apple AI upgrade cycle? Definitely, I actually purchased a new iPad Air to take advantage of the upcoming AI features. This will be nothing like the muted 5G upgrade cycle where the user did not really have any use cases. Visa and Mastercard are rallying based on the anticipated rate cut that will spur the economy. Visa and Mastercard are amazing companies, they do well in all types of economies.
 
I’ll continue to play it safe for the remainder of the year by maintaining a healthy cash position of ~9% and try not to do anything stupid. There will likely be some volatility as we head toward the elections.
 
 
2024 Performance = + 11.55% 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%
July + 2.42%
August + 2.52%