Sold TBs

Investing Strategies Abandoned Arctic Outpost #13
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Sold 1 TB in each of DDOG, MNDY, ZS and UPST.

Note: Have TBs remaining in MNDY, ZS and UPST.

Added to S per plan.

Waiting to add BILL but decided SNOW is a no go.

All the Best,

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I wanted to add some perspective here on the Trading Blocks I sold this morning to show the power of how this works.

  1. The DDOG TB was purchased on 2/18 and was sold today returning it to a full portfolio allocation. It produced short term gain of 4.75% in just 5 trading days.

  2. The MNDY Trading Block I sold today was 1/2 of a TB purchased on 2/23. The short term gain in just 3 trading days is 27+%. The remaining half is carrying the same percentage gain but I intend to hold it for a while. I remain significantly above my core allocation for MNDY.

  3. The ZS Trading Block I sold this morning was one of 1 of 3 purchased on 2/25 and produced a short term gain of +15.88%. The remaining two TBs have short term gains of just over 10% and I may sell both before the end of the day - or not. I am significantly above my core allocation for ZS.

  4. The UPST TB I sold today produced a short term gain of +21.7% and was purchased on 2/18. I have another left that is currently up just over 10%. I remain significantly above my core allocation for UPST however, I may sell the remaining TB before the day is out.

  5. I just sold a TB in NET that was purchased on 2/18 for a short term gain of +23.48%. I am not at my core allocation for NET.

All this was on top of significant short term gains from the MELI transactions.

Please keep in mind that these short term gains were on the high side due to the ongoing rally/sell off chaos. Normally the short term gains on TBS range between 3-7%.

All these quick gains are on top of what the core allocations have produced over the last several days - TBs by definition are additional shares purchased and layered on top of normal portfolio allocations.

All the Best,

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Wonderful job Champico!

I’ve been out of commission for a while dealing with funerals, Covid, new businesses and baby news so it’s been turbulent. Always follow your updates though and find them a pleasant breeze in these volatile times. I am also dabbling with TB allocations. Are you using any technicals to guide your entry/exits like moving averages? Asking for a friend :slight_smile:

Keep doing what your doing.

All the best,
Noserider.

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Hi NoseR:

Hope you and your wife are well and staying safe!

Also Hope things are clearing up for you and the chaos is winding down. Condolences on the funerals and hopefully really good news on the baby thing.

I do have a system but its not much dependent on the technical stuff - which, confuses me sometimes and seems more like voodoo at times than science to me. I more or less use the old “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quakes like a duck - it most likely a duck” strategy. It goes something like this:
If a high confidence company goes down 3% or more on no news - then its a candidate for a TB add. So I add shares equal to 10-15% of the core position and then just wait for it to recover. Sometimes that is a day or so - sometimes longer. Either way I don’t care because I’m. just carrying an over allotment on a company I really like anyway. In a regular market these swings are like Once-in-A-Lifetime Real Estate deals that come around somewhere weekly.

So for me - the way I see it, when I compare it to the LTBH folks - is that when the company goes down the 3+% or so - they ride it down - and then they ride it back up and then get right back to exactly where they were. The TB folks are right back to where the action started also - but in the middle of it all they tacked on the additional 3+% added to their score. Do that enough and at the end of the year you can be seriously ahead. And if you are in an investment you believe in - lets say DDOG - do you really care if you might have to tote around extra shares?

So what does it take to do it?

  1. Knowing your stocks and watching them carefully for TB opportunities.

  2. High Confidence in those companies which is the ability to know the difference between a race horse and a terrapin. (Lower class folks might call this part knowing the difference between poop and Shinola.)

  3. Having the courage to act.

  4. Keeping cash on hand for opportunities

  5. Absence of greed, which is to say - once the TB turns profitable 3% or greater - don’t hold on wait of more - your core allocation will take care of that - Just take the dang shot.

Note: I’ve made this mistake a bunch of times and usually it’s best to sell a TB while the gettn is good.

  1. Time - to do all this. I devote about 4 hrs a day to this and sometimes more depending on how the market is acting on any given day.

My ratio of success to failure on this is about 8-2 or so and the losses are usually because I think I see a better TB opportunity elsewhere so I’ll sacrifice one TB to roll the funds into a better TB.

Lastly - don’t get offended when folks call you a trader or simply can’t believe that you’re doing what you do - just chuckle all the way to the bank. If I actually revealed my bottom line results of this people just wouldn’t believe it. And many don’t believe is already. And it’s not their fault: They been regimented, told and conditioned to believe that LTBH is the way to make money in the markets. “You can’t time the markets” they mindlessly quote without realizing that letting the markets time themselves is way, way different from attempting to time the markets.

Enough - just nice to hear from you and hope your life is calming down.

All the Best,

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Me thinks I gotsta get me some of that TB action.

Thanks for explaining.

MoneySlob

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Thanks for that Champico!

Yes things are starting to calm down a little but life in Sri Lanka always keeps you on your toes. Currently the country is facing a debt crisis and has run out of fuel, medicines and politicians worth a damn but I heard that the last one is taking on global appeal.

MoneySlob this sounds a lot like the whack-a-mole strategy you employ as well right?

I can certainly see the logic in it. After reading I promptly turned some MNDY and ZS shares I over-allocated in to TBs and grabbed those 3-5% gains. I might do so again today!

So TMB used to talk about his simple method of watching the 50/200 MMA swing above and below price and use those as markers for entry and exits. I need to try and find him somewhere on these boards and ask him about it again.

A lot of practical knowledge seems to always get lost in the search to find the financial acronym that can tell you the future when perhaps you just needed to sit back and just watch the present. Hey I’m learning I think!

Thanks again for the kind words. Always enjoy reading your posts.

Kind regards,
Nose.

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MoneySlob this sounds a lot like the whack-a-mole strategy you employ as well right?

I just watch for when all gains for the day make a hump around 12:30pm - 1:30pm or right after opening.
It is a rare occurrence this days but very visible in my portfolio viewed with iPhone stock app. And . . I mainly do it when I want or need cash. I don’t buy back in with the money for sometime if ever. Caveat: I am crazy.

I believe that Champ looks for broader swings in his high conviction stocks that have no rational.

Anyway, his way is the money maker. Of course one must have enough “settled” cash to do this. He also spends alot more time on this than I can at this moment. I am stuck in paradise with a girlfriend half my age but twice my maturity level. Sigh.

MoneySlob

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I don’t usually have the time or confidence to do this as often and successfully as Champ but try to follow a few stocks - either the high confidence stocks where I often add before I sell, or lower confidence stocks that I sell before I add back. I used to trade around Alteryx pretty successfully while it was my top stock (there’s a throw back). I do use some TA (look for support or resistance) and put in limit orders at the beginning of the day or if i get an alert that I set.

I’ve jumped on Upstart this week due to what looked like a very nice opportunity that turned into multiple opportunities.

2.28 - sold ~6% of my shares at 156 when it was +15% for the day
3.1 - bought back at 144.44, 8% more shares
3.2 - sold 10% at 156 when it was up 7%
3.3 - bought back at 144, 9% more shares

All with limit orders and lucky to hit close to highs/lows each day. Now have just 1.3% more shares, but entirely paid for by gains. Four trades in four days and each at ~8% swing? That can’t happen again tomorrow, right? Wait for it - it’s already nearly halfway there.

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Ghonkoba,
That’s very fortunate timing on UPST and I think there maybe some advantage to your use of resistance and support to establish limit prices. Well done!

Moneyslob,
You just went up two notches in my all time greats list. Well done! I also live in a developing world paradise island so I can relate to half of what you are saying :wink:

-NR

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