Portfolio best year ever

Here is my portfolio and I am up 79% overall for the year . The main lesson I have learnt is to sell the losers and laggards so the averages go higher. I was really hit by INFN and AFSI (taint hit) that caused my protfolio to drag but I have also realized that some of my old stocks really hit the roof this year like OLED, MZOR etc. The reason I hold some of the bigger stocks is a hedge during downturn but am begining to realize that folly of that logic. I am in the process of reducing my stocks to 20 or less as per this great group of investors.

ANET 13.96% 50% Was bought in tranches
AAPL 9.72% 49%
OLED 9.66% 210%
ISRG 7.87% 100% Juiced up with Options
CGNX 7.45% 121%
PEGA 6.58% 42%
MKL 5.63% 18%
GPT 3.24% 4%
MZOR 2.42% 200% Juiced up with Options
CAMP 2.32% 49%
EBIX 1.99% 30%
INFN 1.70% -17%
VEEV 1.64% 53%
WAL 1.42% 10%
ABMD 1.00% Brough late in the year
IDSY 0.40% 15%
BLCM 0.40% -30%
EXEL 1.00% Options Up 10 times but was very small stake bought 2 years ago
NTNX 1.00% Options
SPLK 0.50% Options

Rajesh

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The main lesson I have learnt is to sell the losers and laggards so the averages go higher.

That is the philosopher’s stone of investing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_stone

The difficulty is deciding if a price drop is or not warranted. The best advice regarding this question comes from Peter Lynch, “Sell when the story changes or when you discover that you made a mistake” or words to the effect.

Easier said than done because our fight or flight instinct works against us in the market.

Denny Schlesinger

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The difficulty is deciding if a price drop is or not warranted. The best advice regarding this question comes from Peter Lynch, “Sell when the story changes or when you discover that you made a mistake” or words to the effect.

Easier said than done because our fight or flight instinct works against us in the market.

Yes, it’s a tough world out there-Sometimes you have to make more important decisions than which container of milk you want to buy–Or which restaurant you want to go to --Or where you want to go on vacation next month.

b&w

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Denny,
I too feel that one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from this board is to try to shed all vestiges of price anchoring. Whatever a given stock did last year, last month, even yesterday is seldom of value in making investment decisions.

OTH, if you know why the stock price behaved in a certain manner, that can play a big role in decision making.

My understanding was that Palmer (I had never previously heard of him or the firm he represents) was an Andrew Left understudy. Or, at least this attack on Square was similar to Mr. Left’s recent attack on Shopify - simply unfounded and well publicised.

After market close I put in orders to buy options. Those orders were executed shortly after the market opened this morning. As I write, it’s noon in New York and the options I bought this morning are up over 60%. I wouldn’t call that luck.

So I absolutely agree, the time to take action is when the story changes or when you realize you made a mistake. Of course, there’s always the problem of incomplete information. The story might’ve change, but you don’t know it. There’s no solution, as an investor you just have to get comfortable with the uncertainty of what you know/don’t know.

I have a friend who is very protective of his cash. So much so that he never bought a house because the Seattle area real estate market has taken a couple of big downturns over the last 45 years. Instead, he’s paid rent up until he retired (this year) when he finally decided it made sense to buy a house because that way no one could ever raise his rent again. Go figure . . .

My friend once asked if I would recommend a stock. I told him I had no recommendation. First of all, one stock is just too concentrated a portfolio. Second of all, even though I knew he would put only a very small amount of money in the market, the uncertainty that would come from his decision to follow my suggestion would drive him bonkers, and heaven forbid the stock goes down. I would never be forgiven.

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and heaven forbid the stock goes down. I would never be forgiven.

An excellent reason for not managing other people’s portfolios! I talk stocks but I don’t recommend stocks.

Denny Schlesinger

An excellent reason for not managing other people’s portfolios!

I tried managing portfolios for two friends for a few months once. It’s a thankless task!
Saul

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My understanding was that Palmer (I had never previously heard of him or the firm he represents) was an Andrew Left understudy. Or, at least this attack on Square was similar to Mr. Left’s recent attack on Shopify - simply unfounded and well publicised.

One of the best investments I ever made over a four and a half year period, one that started as a Chinese penny stock product of a reverse merger, was under constant attack by shorts. I learned a lot about analyzing bear raids! There is a lot of boiler-plating, typical tactics for scaring the unwary. Innuendo. Misquotations. Disinformation of every sort. You really have to know the real story not to be scared out of a fine position. People taking tips don’t have this knowledge and they often lose their shirts.

One favorite tactic to validate bear raiders is to say that he was right here or there. Of course they are right sometimes but that does not make them less bear raiders.

One thing I could never figure out is since the upside of a stock is unlimited but the downside is limited by zero, why do people take the side with the lesser odds?

Denny Schlesinger

recommending stocks to neophytes is a no win game. If it goes down they blame you, if it goes up they take the credit. Family is worse, I would worry more about a close relative, a loved one, losing $1000 than I would about losing $10,000 myself.

And as you say one stock is risky in itself.

So if you want to do it anyway recommend an ETF like BOTZ. Denny has a list to choose from. At least they won’t go to zero if you are wrong.,

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