This is my second update. The first was post 45183 on 8/21. I found the process of doing this update to be illuminating to myself. I’m doing this update today due to work pressures over the next 10 days and I wanted to get this done.
I first started the high-growth investing August 1 with about 22% of my IRA. Now its about 48%. I’m also down to 17 securities from 20, which helps me keep track of what I’m doing. On the other hand I’ve known for two years now that I make too many moves in my portfolio, even though I am exceeding my self-imposed target of beating the VOO by 1% per quarter. I could do better if I didn’t defeat myself along the way. On the other hand, over the last 2.75 years I’m up 23% over VOO, versus the target of beating by 11%, so I can’t complain too much. Since discovering growth investing I seriously wonder if I could beat by 4% per quarter, long term, instead of just 1%.
As I mentioned in that first post, I benchmark myself against the VOO. For August, I was up 8.45% versus the VOO at 3.56%. So, beat the index by 5.2% in August, something to be happy with. For September I’m negative, less than 1% though, lagging the VOO by about 1.25% as of today.
In summary, Year to date up 26.6% (VOO up just 10.2%), August beat the VOO by 5.2%, September lag it by 1.2% Measly for many here, but I’d be proud to average 2% per month beat on the market for a decade if I could.
I exited 6 positions entirely (MSFT, TTD, NEWR, SHOP, CRM, ANET), and entered 3 (TWLO, PSJ, ZS). I cut back drastically on AIEQ to fund some new purchases, and frankly I’m losing interest in AIEQ overall lately.
In a brief two-month exposure to high-growth investing my August matched my prior best month (January), and September is my second-worst month (behind July). Obviously I need more data points to determine if this investing is right for me, or if I can succeed at it like others do. For now I find it interesting and engaging though.
AIEQ - 13.5% is less than half what I had before. Selling those shares funded increasing my growth allocation. Frankly, The Robot has stumbled in its stock picking the last 3 months or so. Will be interesting to see how it does at year end, but I’m beginning to believe that I have Better Places for my Money than there.
NVDA - still at 8.4% and still have high convictions on this stock for the long term.
AAPL - still at 7.2% though I’m, over time, becoming less impressed with the company under Tim Cook, though I’m an Apple user for 20 years and an ex-engineer with them. I could see myself selling shares to fund other purchases in the next several months.
AMZN - still at 6.1% and still love the stock and where Bezos is taking the company.
AYX - grown to 4.3%. My third-best performing growth stock though I admit I don’t know enough about the company, and that concerns me some.
NFLX - still at 4.4%. Its done very well for me and I love the company.
MDB - up to 4.3% and my best performing growth stock. Only thing keeping me from buying more is I wonder if its grown too expensive to add to. Today it is down 4% for no reason and I can’t convince myself to add more. Will probably regret that.
PYPL - up to 5.4% allocation. I see them being a bigger player in this space over the years.
SQ - bought up to 5.1% allocation. Great company with bright future.
OKTA - bought up to 5.1%. They appear to dominate a growing, important industry.
NTNX - bought up to 5.4% (from 1.1%). Tough one. I believe in their vision but wow, its by far my worst performer, down over 20% aggregate (one lot down 30%). Hope this doesn’t turn into my falling knife. Not willing to sell, not willing to buy more on weakness either.
WIX - bought up to 4.6% based on what I’ve learned about them, I wanted more.
PSTG - bought up to 3.8% but I’m beginning to sour on the HW play and re-thinking this. We will see if I keep it next month. I’m just above break-even on it.
TWLO - new position at 4.2%.
ZS - new position at 4.1% and my second worst performer, though just barely under-water (nothing like the loss on NTNX).
PSJ - 7.6%. An ETF way to gain SaaS growth exposure. Hasn’t blown me away and questioning if I want to keep either of my ETFs moving forward.
Cash at 6.4% versus 8.7% before.
I could see myself trimming back a few more names, get me to 12-13 stocks from 16. If I did that, AIEQ and PSJ would be on the chopping block, as would PSTG, and trimming AAPL. Apple is my least-favorite of my blue-chip portfolio, and PSTG is my least-favorite of my growth portfolio. But NTNX needs to do something to convince me the market really is wrong and I really am right, else its going to go as well.
