My last update was thread 53995.
For most of this month I was slightly negative for the month. Something happened the last few days of the month to spring things forward. I believe earnings were overall better than feared and that let the market move forward again. I made a new all-time high in my portfolio (to paraphrase Tom Carnegie “it’s a new portfolio record!”). Whereas the VOO has just barely reclaimed its September high, I am almost 9% above mine. March and April are noticeably slower than January and February were, but if I could consistently do 3-4% per month I’d be very, very happy. The only down-side is that my “beat” became virtually zero in April - the market did roughly as well as I did this month. My benchmark is the VOO ETF with quarterly dividends re-invested.
Year to Date:
Month Me Benchmark Beat
01/25 15.6% 8.0% + 7.6%
02/22 26.0% 13.4% +12.6%
03/29 30.9% 14.7% +16.2%
04/26 36.4% 19.7% +16.7%
YoY 30.0% 11.6% +18.4%
Activity:
XBI: Bought a 2.7% allocation of the biotech ETF XBI. I had exposure earlier in the year through GH (sold for a big quick profit), and considered ABMD. I’ve been wanting in this space because I believe it will be big growth story, but I can’t quite stomach the volatility of biotech individual stocks. A Fool article on biotech ETF’s was enough to convince me to start a position with this fund. I’m also considering FBT in this space.
I only made one purchase and no sells this month. See my thoughts over the past several months about how I’m feeling I’m doing too much trading for my own good. Did I go over-board this month in response to this? Maybe. But I’m relatively happy where I am at the moment, and feel that this month’s market-matching performance is an anomalous pause in portfolio growth. If I were to make guesses on what I would do next month I can see myself trimming or selling TEAM and SMAR, and possibly AMZN and CRM. I have no plans to add to existing stocks or add any new names in particular but I could easily see myself adding to XBI or starting a position in FBT (both are biotech ETFs).
Holdings:
TICKER ALLOC. YTD
====== ====== ===
PSJ 10.8% 29.1%
TWLO 9.4% 51.1%
TTD 8.9% 85.5%
ZS 8.8% 70.7%
AYX 8.3% 45.9%
MDB 7.6% 66.0%
OKTA 7.4% 61.4%
CRM 5.8% 21.2%
AMZN 5.6% 29.9%
PYPL 5.0% 31.5%
ESTC 4.5% 21.1%
SQ 3.9% 27.6%
ZUO 2.8% 17.7%
SMAR 2.7% 68.1%
XBI 2.7% 21.6%
TEAM 2.6% 21.6%
Cash 0.5%
PSJ: This ETF anchor of mine still does not disappoint, giving me exactly what I am looking for: a growth anchor with less volatility and great returns. In fact, sometimes I think holding a big share of this and smaller individual shares would give me my desired growth in a SWAN (sleep well at night) portfolio.
XBI: I found this after reading a recent Fool article about biotech ETFs, and using them to invest in this space for people leery of the single stock volatility in this space. That would be me, exactly. This and FBT stood out to me and I went with XBI first. We’ll see how this goes, but I would like greater exposure to this space than what I currently have.
TWLO, TTD, ZS, AYX, MDB, OKTA: These are my highest allocations, best performers, and highest convictions. They are at the threshold of what I am comfortable with in terms of allocation, but they are doing well and I’m not ready to trim them just yet. I want to raise cash but will do so in other places first (see below).
AMZN: Depending on market reaction to their latest quarterly result I might finally decide to let this one go. I’ve held it a long time and it has done very well for me. And year-to-date it has been quite good as well. If I sell, will likely deploy this cash into a biotech ETF.
TEAM, ESTC: We use both products at work and not only do I love them, but most the company does as well. This does not mean I’ll love the stock, of course. I learned that lesson decades ago with my first ever stock purchase in Borland International. And my starter positions so far are not thrilling me. Both are negative for me so far. Going to hold for a bit longer before I decide if I sell or not.
Looking Forward: I’m at 15 stocks, two ETF’s, very little cash, and several names at the 10% allocation levels. My desire to add to the biotech space will require raising cash, and I have some names on the short-list to sell when I decide to do so. TEAM, ESTC, CRM and AMZN lead that list. They add up to 18% of my holdings. Liquidating it all and adding to biotech and more to PSJ is very appealing to me right now. My top holdings are beginning to worry me in terms of how much I have of them, but they are also doing very well. For now, letting those winners run.
EXPI: This is a cloud-based real estate company that employs a friend of mine. I have invested twice in it before for short durations, but I can’t put my finger on it. Can’t decide if they are the real deal or a flash in the pan. Very volatile holding, not very big market cap. STRONG growth but losing money. I might write up about it and get greater Fool input on it.