Listed in descending order by position size, posted here mostly as an exercise to force myself to take a similar look at my own portfolio to the summaries that get posted here with semi-regularity.
Ticker Port % YTD change Comments
NVDA 25.62% 38.04% If I had added on the way up throughout 2016, I'd really be looking to trim it
AAPL 10.27% 33.35%
cash 8.86% N/A
SHOP 7.69% 130.02%
MELI 5.66% 79.35% position increased recently
UBNT 5.28% -13.24% position increased recently; not owned @ beginning of year
EXC 4.84% 3.38% position trimmed recently; too flat for too long
TWTR 4.61% 7.79%
SWIR 4.52% 80.89%
CAMP 3.82% 33.38%
BOFI 3.48% -23.26% Stinking short attacks
CCJ 2.99% -13.56%
NXPI 2.89% 11.06% Drawn out purchase by Qualcomm; planning to sell once owned for 1 year
SO 2.70% 3.25%
CELG 2.33% 0.98%
Options 2.11% N/A Testing out strategies/observing unusual activity, gambling on earnings a bit
RIG 1.14% -38.26% May survive, if any offshore drillers do
UAA 1.09% -30.40%
SDRL 0.11% -86.51% Impending bankruptcy for several months; loss to eventually offset some gains
For company name references.
Company Name Ticker
Nvidia NVDA
Apple AAPL
Shopify SHOP
Mercado Libre MELI
Ubiquiti Networks UBNT
Exelon EXC
Twitter TWTR
Sierra Wireless SWIR
CalAmp CAMP
Bank of Internet BOFI
Cameco CCJ
NXP Semiconductor NXPI
Southern Company SO
Celgene CELG
Transocean RIG
Under Armor UAA
Seadrill SDRL
11 Likes
Impending bankruptcy for several months; loss to eventually offset some gains
If you sold now, and realized a pittance instead of nothing, wouldn’t that pittance serve just as well as an offset? The last I heard the IRS still accepts money as an alternative to an offsetting loss.
1 Like
Good point. I did finally give up any hope of SDRL not going bankrupt about 5-6 weeks ago and have no good reason not to go ahead and sell those shares beyond waiting for an uptick in crude oil prices (which may be more likely now after the big drop yesterday).
NVDA now at 26.5% of portfolio value…guess I’ll let it keep running for now.
Starting to truly understand the adding to winner’s philosophy, even though I didn’t in this case with NVDA. Had I done so, I might not have the 800% gain on the entire NVDA position, but my total portfolio would be higher…of course then NVDA might be 30% or more, increasing the thought of possibly trimming some that much more.
2 Likes
Starting to truly understand the adding to winner’s philosophy
This is great. I came around to this thinking as well, in great part from this board, but also from investing in a small private business. Long story short, I recently increased my equity stake, after learning of a sharp uptick in recurring revenue after a successful expansion of offerings and marketing blitz. I wouldn’t have thought to “add to my position” until I saw the business actually doing better and returning to growth. I will post more detailed thoughts on that separately.
A reflection of what precisely you define as “winner” is important here, imho. Winner to me doesn’t necessarily mean a higher stock price. Digging thru earnings, poring over financials and reading up on the guidance, conference calls and any public information available on the company is where you determine whether the company is winning. Personally, this is why I can mentally distinguish between adding to a long stock position when its price is up or down. It could be “winning” from the looks of a stock price, but slowing its growth, or vice versa.
In terms of your NVDA position… Have you considered a protective collar on at least a portion of your shares? Off topic for this board, but I see you over on the SA options board so if you’re interested we could discuss further there.
Cheers
Nick
5 Likes
For a quick comparison of how my portfolio has evolved in the past 8+ months, here are the 2/13/2018 percentages, followed by the 6/7/2017 percentages (with annotations, as needed).
2/13/2018
Company Ticker % of total port
Nvidia NVDA 25.99%
Arista ANET 10.40%
Mercado L. MELI 9.31%
Apple AAPL 6.68%
Ubiquiti UBNT 5.72%
Shopify SHOP 5.76%
Square SQ 4.28%
Bank Int. BOFI 4.33%
Cognex CGNX 0.16% (options position only, to capture any pop from 2/15 Q'ly announcement; not recurring revenue)
Options Opt. 4.04% (excluding CGNX and CELG positions)
Trade Desk TTD 2.76%
cash cash 8.87%
Sierra SWIR 1.98%
iRobot IRBT 1.64%
Hubspot HUBS 1.97%
Alteryx AYX 1.61%
Pure Stor. PSTG 2.07%
Celgene CELG 1.71% (options position only)
Under Armr UAA 0.68%
Seadrill SDRL 0.05%
6/7/2017
Company Name Ticker % of total port
Nvidia NVDA 25.62%
Apple AAPL 10.27%
cash money cash 8.86%
Shopify SHOP 7.69%
Mercado Libre MELI 5.66%
Ubiquiti Net. UBNT 5.28%
Exelon EXC 4.84%
Twitter TWTR 4.61%
Sierra Wirels SWIR 4.52%
CalAmp CAMP 3.82%
Bank of Intnt BOFI 3.48%
Cameco CCJ 2.99%
Cognex CGNX 0.00%
NXP Semicndtr NXPI 2.89%
Southern Co. SO 2.70%
Celgene CELG 2.33%
The Trade Desk TTD 0.00%
Options Options 2.11%
Transocean RIG 1.14%
Under Armor UAA 1.09%
Seadrill SDRL 0.11%
4 Likes
I did have many more annotations than what is included, but inadvertently closed the tab and lost it…sad times. That information would have been quite useful to me in that form. It can be retrieved at some point if I put the effort back in.
To summarize the main take-aways, I have gotten rid of the following positions since June 2017:
Exelon, Twitter (maybe the only “mistake” from these), CalAmp (up some, so maybe should have held this and axed Sierra Wireless), Cameco, NXP (buy-out from QCOM), Southern Company, and Transocean
Adding along the way with Arista Networks and Mercado Libre has worked out quite well so far, still to be determined on doing that with The Trade Desk. NVidia, BOFI, SQ, and Shopify would have been well-served by adding on the way up…although NVidia would dominate the portfolio even more if I had been “buying in 3rds”/adding to winners since back in 2015.