Portfolio Update 9/13/19 as of 8PM.
It’s been a month since I posted my August portfolio update found here; https://discussion.fool.com/portfolio-update-815-34274489.aspx
I have found doing these updates is helping me keep better records of my investing thought processes over time. Much like keeping a journal in life when you re-read in the future it helps you remember what your thoughts were at the time of writing. Hopefully others find this helpful as well.
My portfolio monies are all in tax free accounts; Roth IRA, HSA, ESA. Thus I do not worry about tax consequences of my trading actions. ***This recently changed and I have most of my cash holdings in a taxable account.
Current Portfolio as of 9/13/19.
Change since 8/15/19 -11.6%.
2019 YTD +25%.
Stock Current % of Port % Change Mark
% of Port on 8/15 in port since 8/15 Cap
CASH 13.7 20.4 -6.7
TWLO 12.0 14.0 -2.0 15.6B
AYX 27.5 17.9 +9.6 7.3B
ZS 19.3 13.5 +5.8 6.2B
MDB 12.6 11.3 +1.3 7.9B
ESTC 15.0 13.9 -1.1 7.2B
EBIX 0 3.2 -3.2
PSTG 0 4.3 -4.3
NTNX 0 1.6 -1.6
New positions since last portfolio update: SMAR
Exited positions since last update: EBIX, PSTG, NTNX, SMAR
Trades between 8/15-9/13
Bought ZS 8/19, 8/22, 8/28, 9/9 71.80, 72.75, 68.60, 63.96
ZS 9/11, 9/13 49.56, 47.38
PSTG 8/21 13.67
SMAR 9/5 43.00
MDB 9/5 145.76
AYX 9/9, 9/10 120.59, 115.06
Sold ZS 8/20, 8/22 80.05, 72.99
NTNX 8/22, 9/4 19.78, 23.56
PSTG 8/21, 9/9, 9/10 13.75, 17.89, 17.75
NVTA 8/21 27.10
CRWD 8/19 96.40
EBIX 9/4 35.23
SMAR 9/11 40.32
Thoughts on trades and companies for the month.
Well this has been a really active month in the SAS stock world. Big move down. My portfolio lost almost 12% of its value this month. Lots of activity on the boards as well. I have not posted till now, knowing I would share my thoughts at this time when I posted my portfolio update.
First let me say I saw this past week as an opportunity. I was actively deploying cash and selling out of companies which did not have a big drop and I did not think were as good of companies compared to AYX, ZS and MDB which valuations improved.
A lot of new investors/posters are/were scared. In my opinion six to twelve months we will look back at this big price drop as an opportunity. This is why I am a fan of holding on to a small fraction of portfolio in cash. It helps me look at these events as opportunities.
Reading the boards lately is like deja vu, we went thru something similar last year. Here is how I summed up some thoughts on my monthly post then:
I was going to chime in on the raging discussion of risky momentum investing. It really comes down to this for me personally. Saul and the others on this board back their side of the argument up every month in their ‘End of the month Summary’ posts. This in my opinion is why these other posters even though they may have the best intention for sharing their thoughts are nothing but noisy gongs. No recommendation of what they feel you should invest in now to avoid the eventual downfall of the market and no sharing of their portfolio’s on any consistent basis! As the famous quote states "show me the money”.
https://discussion.fool.com/stock-portfolio-september-34002673.a…
Doesn’t a almost 12% drop in my portfolio value this month bother me? Nope, bring it on! In fact last October I lost -23% in one month.
https://discussion.fool.com/my-portfolio-and-recent-decisions-34…
The value of my portfolio is down -23% since 9/9/18. Yeap down that much in a month. Am I worried about it, absolutely not. In fact I have been buying stock the last few days with my cash position, which you can see has decreased by -8.6% of my overall portfolio. A few days ago since the value of my stock holdings had declined significantly that cash was over ~15% of my portfolio and now it stands at 2.7%. In fact this is partially why my portfolio is down so much as my purchase from just two days ago are down significantly already.
I mentioned last month about making some investments in a taxable account. I quickly realized I prefer to invest my cash in my non taxable accounts and leave the cash in the taxable account for now. This led to a lot of trading this month. Additionally my broker gave me a bunch of free trades.
I had decided before the SAS market drop this past week, that I wanted to increase my AYX position and was kicking myself for not having done it in June. We are not yet to June prices for AYX but I do not want to wait. I decided after its big drop I would load up.
Most folks would advise not to carry 27.5% of your portfolio in one stock. I definitely would not advise it for anyone who this little downturn we are going thru makes you neverous or feel uneasy.
I also decided to drop my portfolio down to five stocks currently. This is because of the what I see is a big opportunity to pick up ZS and AYX at a good value. I still have almost 14% of cash I can deploy if they continue to drop or a different stock of interest presents itself.
Clarification on my overall portfolio. 13.4% of my cash was from a recent inheritance, which I posted on last month. Without that money I would be at only 0.3% cash after this months buys, however without that money I probably would not have been as aggressive in investing my additional cash. Hard to say for sure and adds a little convolution to my investment record during this turbulent time. That cash has no barring on my overall returns to date, but was included in my portfolio allocation percentages. So I on a dollar basis have even more invested in AYX and ZS than the percentage basis my seem compared to previous portfolio updates.
AYX-My largest stock holding and my favorite stock. Margins plus growth make it a winner.
ZS-Stock price almost cut in half in one month. This is a great company with a bright future. Cloud security importance only going to increase. I love the new sales hire. Big overreaction IMO. I will be looking to add to this position if it continues to drop.
MDB-Floating around six month low. Databases are only increasing in importance as we are in a data age.
ESTC-popped 10% the other day, only thing that is saving my portfolio this past week. I think its search function are gaining importance. Next few Q will have increasing y/y revenues. I expect it to keep gaining.
EBIX-I previously posted that I sold and the reason. Its up since I sold, but not looking back.
PSTG-It was up 25% in less than a month. I need the money to buy AYX and ZS at reduced prices. NTNX ditto, it was up and I rather AYX and ZS at reduced prices.
SMAR-I got in and out which I have done before, the ZS price was too attractive.
Stocks that are not in my portfolio that I think are interesting right now would be CRWD and ZM.
Many folks on this board that freely share their knowledge and experience are a pure gift. A gift to me and gift to all of us. If you are a new investor I encourage you keep the faith, keep reading, keep learning, keep investing….it will truely change your life over time.
As always any suggestions or questions feel free to email me.