Hello all. Yendor’s first summary post. I thought it may interest a few to follow a new lurker as I learn and grow. Background. Teacher and member of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve in Canada, with about 6 years till retirement in both. Both wife and I have very secure pensions. The goal with our investments is to be able to support a very healthy travel bug in retirement. Would love to have enough money set aside to support both our daughters families to join us wherever we are in the world in retirement whenever they are able. All of our investments are within tax sheltered accounts.
Started investing in May of 2019. Really had no clue what I was doing and after a little bit of reading over the next 7 months invested in about:
45% of portfolio into 10 dividend stocks I learned about on Motley Fool Canada,
25% into an ETF that followed the NASDAQ 100 (ZQQ)
30% into approx. 15 stocks I felt would do well in the recovery mostly from MF Can discussion boards.
For the most part, in spite of myself I did okay finishing the part year up 20.3%
I also in hindsight made some huge errors, like buying and leaving positions in SHOP and ZM as I felt they would go nowhere. (boy was I wrong)
Knowing what I now know I realize I left a lot of gains on the table but counted myself lucky having increased my net worth.
Really did a deep dive through the months of Dec and Jan into 4 main areas as I realized I was playing with fire not knowing enough. Came to focus on 4 main threads.
1) Beth Kindig: Really enjoyed her perspective and believed that she had some great insights as to future investments. I now follow her regularly on public posts and interviews but don’t actually subscribe to her service as of yet.
2) Kathie Wood: Same as Beth and shown by the performance of her basket of ETF’s seemed to have an understanding of investing for the medium to long term in stocks that would be driving growth in the future. This area of investing seems to fit well with my thought processes.
3) At the same time I really started comparing the Motley Fool US recs to the CAN recs and saw that I needed to pay much more attention to the US recs and get into US stocks in a much bigger way.
4) Finally, after a particularly long day of reading near the end of December I heard reference to the “Saul’s Investment Discussions” on the US MF site and the “Saul way” of investing in SaaS type companies. This really intrigued me, and I spent the next 3 weeks basically working my way back through the whole of 2020 board discussions, reading the methodology, reasoning and analysis of the companies this group picks and why you pick them.
This set the stage for what I have done in January and the changes I want to make thought the year.
Overall I have my investments now in 5 baskets in the following proportions. I have trimmed many of my 50+ positions down to 32. I hope to be down to 25 by end Feb.
My portfolio closed this month up 6.6%. It was 11.3% coming into the last week of the month but, like many others, saw a pullback in the final week. Hoping for a rebound next week. I should note, that many of my positions increased much more than my overall portfolio but as I added significant investments in the 2nd and 3rd week of the month, many of these newer positions went negative in the final week dragging down my overall portfolio.
While I won’t go into the details of my ETF, Dividend and own research stocks as I understand that isn’t the purpose of this board, I will cover my MF Recs and SaaS stocks as I believe many of you have mentioned you heard of many great SaaS stocks on those boards first. I include the overall performance of the other areas for those that are interested. For myself it allows me to see how the different philosophies perform over the year. If showing returns on the MF rec’s is offside, please let me.
Overall, the different parts of my portfolio performed as follows:
Basket of stocks, Allocation, Jan Performance
Dividend stocks (4) 31.5% 5.8% (excluding dividends)
ARK ETF’s (5) 13.8% 2.8%
Own Research (4) 5.8% 3.8%
MF US & CAN (10) 23.0% 18%
SaaS (9) 26% -1.6%
Overall.
January 6.6%
First of all, I shrunk my position in my dividend stocks from 10, to my 4 highest convictions. These 4 now make up 31.5% of my portfolio down from a high of 45%. I had determined to keep approx. 30% of my portfolio here for at least a portion of this year as I decide where it is a better place to invest. Overall, it pays me an 7.6% dividend and is up 12.9% in overall value for the last 9 months. Until I figure out where the best place is to go, this works for me.
13.8% of my portfolio is now in in Kathie Wood ARK ETF’s to varying degrees based on my personal beliefs and to which will be the most successful this year. I opened these positions in early Jan and made additional purchases the more successful ones through the month. At this point this basket of stocks is up 2.8% as of the end of the month, taking a deep hit like everything else in the final week.
5.8% of my portfolio are in 4 positions that I researched over the last few months. While two are up (XBC, TAN) the other two are down (PACB, CRSP) I will follow these over the month and decide which to close out to move into choices with higher confidence) Overall these small positions are up 3.8% on the year.
Motley Fool Recs
23% of my portfolio was invested in MF US & CAN recommendations, that I moved money into throughout Dec & Jan, while the value has gone up in many cases, I am in the negative with many as I added in the 3rd week of Jan. (I obviously still have much to learn on the patience side of the equation and on when to purchase)
Motley Fool Recs (23% of investments, up 18% for month as follows)
Stock Price change Stock inc % position, gains/losses to date
FLGT, $52.10 to $110.49, up 112.1%, 6.6%, +83.6% (added to position through month)
MELI, $1675.22 to $1779.51, up 6.23% 4.8%, +0.07% (added to position through month)
MGNI, $30.17 to $34.64, up 12.8%, 2.1%, +51.7% (fall 2020 position)
SFIX, $58.72 to $95.42, up 62.5%, 2.1%, +7.1% (initial position 3rd week Jan)
SHOP, $1437.32 to $1394.29, down 3.0%, 1.5%, -3.4% (added to position through month)
ASML, $487.72 to $524.16 up 9.5%, 1.4%, +1.8% (added to position through month)
FVRR, $195.10 to $206.51 up 5.8%, 1.4%, -10.7% (added to position through month)
SIVB, $387.83 to $437.78, up 12.9% 1.2%, -6.8% (purchased last week of month)
TWLO, $338.50 to $359.43, up 6.2%, 1.0%, -1.58% (added to position through month)
ZS, $199.71 to $199.70, even 0%, -6.1% (initial position, 3rd week of Jan)
Overall I realize that short positions have driven up both my FLGT and MGNI stocks but am confident that MF has these recs correct and both companies will continue to grow during and after COVID. In the short term I expect some gains to be given back here.
MELI is also a high confidence position for me. This market (Latin America is just starting down the path of Ecommerce and I believe has huge potential. I needed exposure to markets outside of CAN and US and this is my first big foray in that regard.
My next level of confidence would be in ASML, and SHOP. Both come highly recommended form MF and should have great growth over the next 3-5 years. Not SaaS type growth, but steady growth year after year.
The last five positions, (SFIX, FVRR, SIVB, TWLO,ZS) I have less confidence in and have only opened small positions as I learn more and follow their progress. As their quarterly reports come out, we will see if they take a step forward. I intend to add to any of the gainers here through the year as appropriate.
SaaS Investments
26% of portfolio is invested into SaaS stocks. All of these positions were taken in the month of January. While 8 of the 9 positions in this portfolio are up, I have managed to be down 1.6% overall following the “buy high” philosophy apparently. As I have purchased these throughout the month of Jan, the last week of Jan caused this investment area, was actually up approx. 3.5% until the last week of the month to drop below water.
SaaS investments (26% of investments, down 1.6% for month as follows)
Stock Price change Stock inc % position, gains/losses to date
CRWD, $211.82 to $215.80, up 1.9%, 8.9%, -3.3% (added to position through month)
NET, $75.99 to $76.66, up 0.9% 4.0%, -2.6% (added to position through month)
DDOG, $98.44 to $102.75, up 4.38% 3.0%, +1.4% (added to position through month)
ROKU, $332.02 to $389.03 up 17.2% 2.9%, -1.3% (added to position in 3rd week)
TDOC, $224.27 to $263.83 up 17.6% 2.1% +12.8% (added to position through month)
DOCU, $222.30 to $232.89 up 4.8% 1.7% -5.4% (added to position through month)
ASAN, $31.58 to $35.37 up 12.0% 1.7% -10.1% (started position in 3rd week)
ETSY, $177.91 to $199.09 up 11.9% 0.9% +7.5% (added to position through month)
U, $153.47 to $149.82 down 2.38% 0.7% -4.9% (started position last week)
Not sure what I can add here that is much better covered in each of your great posts. Position size here is dictated by confidence in all the analysis I have read over the last 2 months. My last 4 positions (DOCU, ASAN, ETSY, U) are small starts as I don’t have as much conviction as my top 5. My intention is to grow my positions in ROKU, TDOC and DDOG over the month of Feb so that they are equal weigh to NET. CRWD will remain as is until it returns to its winning ways.
I am absolutely open to feedback and or comments. As I gain more confidence, I hope to be able to contribute to this group, but honestly, most of you have now been doing this for years, and I am just happy to soak up knowledge.
Cheers,
Yendor
25 Likes
Here is Yendor’s message formatted for readability.
Hello all. Yendor’s first summary post. I thought it may interest a few to follow a new lurker as I learn and grow. Background. Teacher and member of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve in Canada, with about 6 years till retirement in both. Both wife and I have very secure pensions. The goal with our investments is to be able to support a very healthy travel bug in retirement. Would love to have enough money set aside to support both our daughters families to join us wherever we are in the world in retirement whenever they are able. All of our investments are within tax sheltered accounts.
Started investing in May of 2019. Really had no clue what I was doing and after a little bit of reading over the next 7 months invested in about:
45% of portfolio into 10 dividend stocks I learned about on Motley Fool Canada,
25% into an ETF that followed the NASDAQ 100 (ZQQ)
30% into approx. 15 stocks I felt would do well in the recovery mostly from MF Can discussion boards.
For the most part, in spite of myself I did okay finishing the part year up 20.3%
I also in hindsight made some huge errors, like buying and leaving positions in SHOP and ZM as I felt they would go nowhere. (boy was I wrong)
Knowing what I now know I realize I left a lot of gains on the table but counted myself lucky having increased my net worth.
Really did a deep dive through the months of Dec and Jan into 4 main areas as I realized I was playing with fire not knowing enough. Came to focus on 4 main threads.
- Beth Kindig: Really enjoyed her perspective and believed that she had some great insights as to future investments. I now follow her regularly on public posts and interviews but don’t actually subscribe to her service as of yet.
- Kathie Wood: Same as Beth and shown by the performance of her basket of ETF’s seemed to have an understanding of investing for the medium to long term in stocks that would be driving growth in the future. This area of investing seems to fit well with my thought processes.
- At the same time I really started comparing the Motley Fool US recs to the CAN recs and saw that I needed to pay much more attention to the US recs and get into US stocks in a much bigger way.
- Finally, after a particularly long day of reading near the end of December I heard reference to the “Saul’s Investment Discussions” on the US MF site and the “Saul way” of investing in SaaS type companies. This really intrigued me, and I spent the next 3 weeks basically working my way back through the whole of 2020 board discussions, reading the methodology, reasoning and analysis of the companies this group picks and why you pick them.
This set the stage for what I have done in January and the changes I want to make thought the year.
Overall I have my investments now in 5 baskets in the following proportions. I have trimmed many of my 50+ positions down to 32. I hope to be down to 25 by end Feb.
My portfolio closed this month up 6.6%. It was 11.3% coming into the last week of the month but, like many others, saw a pullback in the final week. Hoping for a rebound next week. I should note, that many of my positions increased much more than my overall portfolio but as I added significant investments in the 2nd and 3rd week of the month, many of these newer positions went negative in the final week dragging down my overall portfolio.
While I won’t go into the details of my ETF, Dividend and own research stocks as I understand that isn’t the purpose of this board, I will cover my MF Recs and SaaS stocks as I believe many of you have mentioned you heard of many great SaaS stocks on those boards first. I include the overall performance of the other areas for those that are interested. For myself it allows me to see how the different philosophies perform over the year. If showing returns on the MF rec’s is offside, please let me.
Overall, the different parts of my portfolio performed as follows:
Basket of stocks, Allocation, Jan Performance
Dividend stocks (4) 31.5% 5.8% (excluding dividends)
ARK ETF’s (5) 13.8% 2.8%
Own Research (4) 5.8% 3.8%
MF US & CAN (10) 23.0% 18%
SaaS (9) 26% -1.6%
Overall.
January 6.6%
First of all, I shrunk my position in my dividend stocks from 10, to my 4 highest convictions. These 4 now make up 31.5% of my portfolio down from a high of 45%. I had determined to keep approx. 30% of my portfolio here for at least a portion of this year as I decide where it is a better place to invest. Overall, it pays me an 7.6% dividend and is up 12.9% in overall value for the last 9 months. Until I figure out where the best place is to go, this works for me.
13.8% of my portfolio is now in in Kathie Wood ARK ETF’s to varying degrees based on my personal beliefs and to which will be the most successful this year. I opened these positions in early Jan and made additional purchases the more successful ones through the month. At this point this basket of stocks is up 2.8% as of the end of the month, taking a deep hit like everything else in the final week.
5.8% of my portfolio are in 4 positions that I researched over the last few months. While two are up (XBC, TAN) the other two are down (PACB, CRSP) I will follow these over the month and decide which to close out to move into choices with higher confidence) Overall these small positions are up 3.8% on the year.
Motley Fool Recs
23% of my portfolio was invested in MF US & CAN recommendations, that I moved money into throughout Dec & Jan, while the value has gone up in many cases, I am in the negative with many as I added in the 3rd week of Jan. (I obviously still have much to learn on the patience side of the equation and on when to purchase)
Motley Fool Recs (23% of investments, up 18% for month as follows)
Stock Price change Stock inc % position, gains/losses to date
FLGT, $52.10 to $110.49, up 112.1%, 6.6%, +83.6% (added to position through month)
MELI, $1675.22 to $1779.51, up 6.23% 4.8%, +0.07% (added to position through month)
MGNI, $30.17 to $34.64, up 12.8%, 2.1%, +51.7% (fall 2020 position)
SFIX, $58.72 to $95.42, up 62.5%, 2.1%, +7.1% (initial position 3rd week Jan)
SHOP, $1437.32 to $1394.29, down 3.0%, 1.5%, -3.4% (added to position through month)
ASML, $487.72 to $524.16 up 9.5%, 1.4%, +1.8% (added to position through month)
FVRR, $195.10 to $206.51 up 5.8%, 1.4%, -10.7% (added to position through month)
SIVB, $387.83 to $437.78, up 12.9% 1.2%, -6.8% (purchased last week of month)
TWLO, $338.50 to $359.43, up 6.2%, 1.0%, -1.58% (added to position through month)
ZS, $199.71 to $199.70, even 0%, -6.1% (initial position, 3rd week of Jan)
Overall I realize that short positions have driven up both my FLGT and MGNI stocks but am confident that MF has these recs correct and both companies will continue to grow during and after COVID. In the short term I expect some gains to be given back here.
MELI is also a high confidence position for me. This market (Latin America is just starting down the path of Ecommerce and I believe has huge potential. I needed exposure to markets outside of CAN and US and this is my first big foray in that regard.
My next level of confidence would be in ASML, and SHOP. Both come highly recommended form MF and should have great growth over the next 3-5 years. Not SaaS type growth, but steady growth year after year.
The last five positions, (SFIX, FVRR, SIVB, TWLO,ZS) I have less confidence in and have only opened small positions as I learn more and follow their progress. As their quarterly reports come out, we will see if they take a step forward. I intend to add to any of the gainers here through the year as appropriate.
SaaS Investments
26% of portfolio is invested into SaaS stocks. All of these positions were taken in the month of January. While 8 of the 9 positions in this portfolio are up, I have managed to be down 1.6% overall following the “buy high” philosophy apparently. As I have purchased these throughout the month of Jan, the last week of Jan caused this investment area, was actually up approx. 3.5% until the last week of the month to drop below water.
SaaS investments (26% of investments, down 1.6% for month as follows)
Stock Price change Stock inc % position, gains/losses to date
CRWD, $211.82 to $215.80, up 1.9%, 8.9%, -3.3% (added to position through month)
NET, $75.99 to $76.66, up 0.9% 4.0%, -2.6% (added to position through month)
DDOG, $98.44 to $102.75, up 4.38% 3.0%, +1.4% (added to position through month)
ROKU, $332.02 to $389.03 up 17.2% 2.9%, -1.3% (added to position in 3rd week)
TDOC, $224.27 to $263.83 up 17.6% 2.1% +12.8% (added to position through month)
DOCU, $222.30 to $232.89 up 4.8% 1.7% -5.4% (added to position through month)
ASAN, $31.58 to $35.37 up 12.0% 1.7% -10.1% (started position in 3rd week)
ETSY, $177.91 to $199.09 up 11.9% 0.9% +7.5% (added to position through month)
U, $153.47 to $149.82 down 2.38% 0.7% -4.9% (started position last week)
Not sure what I can add here that is much better covered in each of your great posts. Position size here is dictated by confidence in all the analysis I have read over the last 2 months. My last 4 positions (DOCU, ASAN, ETSY, U) are small starts as I don’t have as much conviction as my top 5. My intention is to grow my positions in ROKU, TDOC and DDOG over the month of Feb so that they are equal weigh to NET. CRWD will remain as is until it returns to its winning ways.
I am absolutely open to feedback and or comments. As I gain more confidence, I hope to be able to contribute to this group, but honestly, most of you have now been doing this for years, and I am just happy to soak up knowledge.
Cheers,
Yendor
37 Likes