I know this is a relatively short time frame and these stocks have had a remarkable run, but I can’t not share the power of this board.
As of today up 67% YTD according to Interactive Brokers TWR calculation.
That is unbelievable especially with S&P500 up something like 5%.
I’m in the midst of a portfolio slimming-and-concentrating effort I started in February. Trimming dead money, adding new companies and adding to winners in cloud/AI companies. I’m not nearly done with my transformation, however I know it’s working in the short term:
More risk? Probably. More volatility? Without a doubt. Better returns? So far.
Carpe Diem!
Thanks for sharing your progress Kiplin!
I encourage you to share an EOM summary. It really helped me understand my investments and decision making better.
Hey Carpe Diem,
I did the exact same thing as you, maybe more towards March of this year, at the 26,000 market peak. Right before the dips. Heh.
I am at 22% YTD as per my Voya “Personal Rate of Return”. And 20% of the total amount was a 2020 target fund that only upped 2% during YTD. Not to mention the huge NTRX learning experience I just went thru(at least 8% of my Portfolio).
Good to hear your story and I, too, am satisfied.
John
I too have been transforming my portfolio since February. From somewhere around 55-60 positions down to 23 currently.
Up 30.33% YTD (not including capital infusions)
36% overall including capital infusions
Portfolio wide XIRR of 76% YTD.
And that’s with a cash position of about 11% of my portfolio.
It’s been so ridiculous that I just have to laugh at it. They feel like video game type numbers.
I can only imagine how some of the long time board posters/users must feel with returns that dwarf mine.
AMAZING.
As with so many others on this board, the last 18 months have been spectacular for me. YTD I am up 21 percent as of this moment, and I have about 5 percent cash and another 20 percent in more conservative REITs and MLPs. But there is a problem and that is my psychology. I am such a cynic that I keep wondering if this is simply too good to last. Success of this magnitude is something to which I am not accustomed.
I usually beat the S&P, over time, by a percent or two and that has kept me working as an active investor for decades. Marginal success I am familiar with. But this… yep pretty stressful for me.
I would like to hear how others feel about it.
Mike
I would like to hear how others feel about it.
I would say that I feel “measured”… “rate limited”…
I remember in the dot.com days and day trading and making a thousand bucks every morning on the pop of Amazon. I remember watching some of my dot.com stocks go to zero. I remember the big run up before the financial crisis and then Hurricane Ike LEVELED me… and when I got back to look at my accounts… everything was down 30+%.
So I think how folks feel would be relative to their experiences in the past. I also know that looking back past all of that… I’ve done just fine and put my kids through college and will retire nicely. There are bull runs. There are bear attacks. There are Black Swans. There are massive pops. They all happen. Perseverance is WAY more important than any event in my opinion.
For me… this is nice. Had some great gains in the last two weeks… but yo… it comes… it goes… don’t get too excited when it’s going way up… don’t get too excited when it’s going way down. I honestly think that looking at returns weekly… monthly… are rather meaningless and just cause too much stress. I don’t look at my own other than end of month… and that’s only because I’m trying out Saul’s method and holding myself accountable… but the returns aren’t the point… the point is understanding WHY is own every stock and reassessing my thesis on each.
My two cents… regardless of my “urge” to feel anything one way or the other… I’ve learned over the years that short term swings just don’t matter in the long run… so I feel “measured”…
Mark
Yeah Mark I can relate, got three daughters through college, retired at 53, and am now helping to educate my grand daughters. I missed most of the tragedy in the dot.com bust because I had always been a very conservative investor so I held no tech back then. I did get hit in '08 as everyone did. I think my problem is I have just never had really exceptional success in the market until the last four years. I have heard actors, for instance, say after gaining fame and success, that they continually think they will be found out, that somehow their success is a fluke, even though they are working hard and earning what they have.
I work hard at this every day, and yet, up 40 percent last year, and up 20 percent this year, when the over all market is not even close to those numbers, seems unreal so I keep asking myself how is this possible. The gains of the last several years have allowed me to reach a point to where I could withstand a major correction and it would not affect my life very much. So that is a goal I set and reached. So I am nervous, but in a good way I guess, just scratching my head and giving thanks for the great people on this board.
Anyway thanks for the response and let’s hope we all continue to have great success.
Mike
The way I feel is I’ll relax when my gains have held for a couple of years. Until then, I won’t be surprised by anything. Hoping for feeling delighted two years from now but you never know.
Peace,
Dana
Definition of exuberant
1 a : joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic exuberant praise an exuberant personality
b : unrestrained or elaborate especially in style : flamboyant exuberant architecture
2 : produced in extreme abundance : plentiful exuberant foliage and vegetation
3 : extreme or excessive in degree, size, or extent exuberant prosperity
We should all be exhuerant when life is going good.
I posted this on NPI. Seems in line with this thread, so sharing here. Been a heck of a May and June.
From famous Nessun Dorma, the climatic finish of “Vincero” is epic, and translates to “I will win”.
Dude. IQ. SMH.
I just mentally climbed the top of a mountain overlooking New Zealand or Switzerland on a sunny day, and emitted an epic primal scream of “iQiyi!!!”
(Pronounced “I Key”)
C’mon…do it with me now. Let out that primal scream.
You know you want to.
Or go old school:
https://youtu.be/6R5-FXVHruQ
https://youtu.be/Kg3aiEiK_PU
Dreamer ← having a good day.
“From famous Nessun Dorma, the climatic finish of “Vincero” is epic, and translates to “I will win”.”
One of my all time favorite songs.
Rob
I know this is a relatively short time frame and these stocks have had a remarkable run, but I can’t not share the power of this board.
As of today up 67% YTD according to Interactive Brokers TWR calculation.
That is unbelievable especially with S&P500 up something like 5%
Wow! I’ve been doing extremely well since the beginning of last year although not as well as many others on this board. I started following this board about the middle of last year. Over that time frame, I’ve been dumping slower growth stocks with weakening longer term outlooks (like General Mills, AT&T, etc.) and building a more aggressive portfolio with better growth stocks. I didn’t just dump older positions willy-nilly but tried to get rid of the weakest ones. So I still hold some older stocks and a few ETF/funds which are doing well. All of these have sizable gains in a taxable account so I’m not anxious to sell. In the meantime, I’ve added quite a few growth stocks (25 total with about 1/4 in Chinese stocks) which are now the majority of my portfolio.
Although I’m still probably overly diversified, I had about a 30% return last year (compared to 21.8% for the S&P) and I’m up about 22% so far this year. I only regret not being more aggressive with some of my newer picks but I don’t like the risk and volatility of an extremely concentrated portoflio. And my top ten positions are all higher growth stocks.
I continue to learn from others here and will continue to actively manage my portfolio, likely culling more underperforming stocks/funds and adding to higher conviction stocks. But I think we’re overdue for a major correction and I will proceed cautiously.
dave
I’ll chime in also - what a great 6 months!
Thanks to decision making that was greatly helped by comments on this board, I’m up 77.59% so far this year - this is a 6 month return! It doesn’t hurt that MDB, PVTL, and AMD are all almost doubles in the last few months.
Thanks all for your help, and let’s enjoy the sunny seas for now