In an effort to build my reputation as a future analyst/writer, I will track my investments here by posting each time I make a trade or engage in any other significant transaction. Time stamps will be provided by the site so that this will clearly be my honest investing history and rate of return. All asset classes will be included. This will be both an investing/portfolio tracking display as well as one on personal finance, as I will explain each decision as they are made. As for my background, I am formerly a financial industry professional (7 years), and now work in corporate negotiations. I have been investing actively ever since I turned 18 and could legally open my own account. I am a value-oriented investor targeting income and total return. I do my own research and my own calculations, making use of screeners as the initial step to finding opportunities. For now at the opening of this thread, I will post my current portfolio for perspective, which will be updated monthly and/or each time a transaction occurs. Position values will not be shown, instead the portfolio value's change will be noted with each update. Some securities and cash positions are held in foreign currencies, but everything here will be normalized and displayed in $USD. Positions: AT&T (T:NYSE) 7 shares Iron Mountain (IRM:NYSE) 107.65 shares Harmony Gold (HMY:NYSE - ADR) 1816 shares Hecla Mining (HL:NYSE) 300 shares Xinyuan Real Estate (XIN:NYSE - ADR) 330 shares Nevsun Resources (NSU:NYSE) 2630 shares Ladder Capital (LADR:NYSE) 208 shares Realty Income Corporation (O:NYSE) 11 share CBL & Associates Properties Inc (CBL:NYSE) 25 shares Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM:NYSE) 22 shares Qualcomm Inc (QCOM:NASDAQ) 100 shares Apple Inc (AAPL:NASDAQ) 11 shares Vodafone Group PLC (VOD:NASDAQ - ADR) 100 shares General Electric (GE:NYSE) 19 shares Unique Fabrication (UFAB:NYSE) 15 shares Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI:NYSE) 121 shares Gazprom PJSC (OGZPY:OTC - ADR) 400 shares Ocean Yield SA (OCY:OSLO) 300 shares Altagas Ltd (ATGFF:TSX) 100 shares Togami Electric Mfg. Co., Ltd. (6643:TYO) 200 shares Television Broadcasts Ltd (0511:HK) 300 shares Alco Holdings Ltd (0328:HK) 2000 shares Dongwon Development (013120:KOSDAQ) 1100 shares Ubiquoss (078070:KOSDAQ) 600 shares ESTec (069510:KOSDAQ) 300 shares Gold Bullion - 7.8 Troy ounces Silver Bullion - 496.5 Troy ounces Certificate of Deposit (1.45%, 2/2018) $2,302.02 (KRW denominated, matured - awaiting transfer to cash) Certificate of Deposit (1.35%, 6/2018) $3,222.84 Certificate of Deposit (1.5%, 6/2018) $2,063.39 Certificate of Deposit (1.55%, 9/2018) $2,517.30 Certificate of Deposit (1.5%, 2/2019) $2,350.66 Certificate of Deposit (2.12%, 3/2019) $2,302.03 (KRW denominated) Installment Account (2.3%, 10/2021) $1,381.22 (KRW denominated) Cash position reserved for investment (yields vary across accounts, liquid) $33,630.57 Value of precious metals holdings - $20,571.48 Value of equity positions - $65,629.14 Total Portfolio Value (19 February, 2018) - $119,831.19
I am greatly looking forward to following this thread. Thanks for posting and good luck keeping it updated!
Trade: Cash-secured put; Sold 5 contracts (put options) via limit order for XIN with a strike price of $5 per share and an expiration of 4/20/2018, collecting a premium of $33 per contract. Less $8.30 in fees and commissions, $156.70 was added to my cash balance, and created a short position for the contracts. The broker I use for options is Charles Schwab. XIN: Xinyuan Real Estate is a real estate developer and property manager with operations in China (primarily), and the United States (currently developing three properties in New York). I originally invested in XIN back in 2014, and was forced to exit most of my position earlier this year when covered calls I had been writing were exercised. I have been accumulating shares again since that time. The company has shown impressive performance before and during my time as a shareholder, with revenues and EPS that continue to grow, and has now continuously paid dividends since Q2 2011, with two dividend increases during the period. Current forward dividend yield is % 6.8.
I like the diversification of your portfolio. It looks like you are familiar with options as well. I am curious why you decide to hold stock in some positions instead of leveraged options positions since it looks like you are pretty well versed with financial products?
To be honest, I am not experienced with advanced options strategies. My specialty is in fundamental analysis of corporations as I am a value investor. My experience in options is limited to writing covered calls, and writing cash-secured puts on securities that I would not mind if I was assigned on the position(s).
End of November, 2017 Transaction Update: Trades: General Electric (GE:NYSE) - purchased 4 shares of General Electric during November at an average cost of $18.09 per share. There were no commissions or fees (Robinhood). General Eelectric is an industrial conglomerate in the United States which is currently undergoing restructuring. During November, a dividend cut of 50% was announced, from 24 cents per share to 12 cents per share (quarterly), driving the share price down. The market is currently very negative on GE, and not without good reason. However, the company is still a cash flow powerhouse, with $9.35 Billion in Owner Earnings over the last 12 months ($1.08 per share). I will continue to accumulate shares at a slow pace on a monthly basis, and remain underweight. Personal forward dividend yield on the transaction is 2.65%. Xinyuan Real Estate (XIN:NYSE - ADR) - purchased 3 shares of Xinyuan Real Estate at an average cost of $5.91 per share. There were no commissions or fees (Robinhood). Recently updated here Realty Income Corporation (O:NYSE) - initiated a new position by purchasing 1 share of Realty Income at $56.61 with no fees or commissions (Robinhood). Realty Income is a leading Real-Estate-Investment-Trust (REIT) with a record of 26 consecutive years running of raising it's dividend, even through both of the last two major recessions (2000s tech bubble and 2008-09 financial crisis). The team in charge has shown excellent management skills and ability to get results, while also rewarding shareholders. I will continue to accumulate shares on a monthly basis. O pays a monthly dividend and currently yields 4.49% as of this transaction. CBL & Associates Properties (CBL:NYSE) - initiated a new position by purchasing 10 shares of CBL at an average cost of $5.74 per share with no fees or commissions (Robinhood). This is another contrarian play the likes of GE. CBL is a B-Mall REIT that announced a dividend cut in November as a result of one quarter of disappointing earnings. The market punished the equity hard, and it currently trades at a very low 2.65~ times Funds from Operations (FFO). The fundamentals do not justify the harsh sell off in my view (down more than 50% YTD). Forward yield is 13.9% (.20 quarterly). All of the above transactions were funded by disposable income. New Certificate of Deposit Opened a new CD with $3,000 at a term of 13 mos. (expiry December 2018), at an APY of 1.75%. Funded from liquid cash balance. Precious metals After confirming amount possessed, added gold and silver bullion holdings to my portfolio list. PMs currently comprise approximately 24% of my portfolio. I have no current plans to increase these holdings. More details will be added to the portfolio during December.
I like your portfolio breakdown. I would like to know how do you know decide the % of each holding. I would also like to know if you have a monthly purchase on certain stocks/funds.
I allocate my holdings roughly equally as a % of my portfolio in the long term, although when I initiate new positions they are usually underweight compared to existing holdings at first. I purchase shares monthly, and also reinvest the dividends of most stocks when possible. Though this is not possible with all brokerage firms and/or is not supported for ADRs by Charles Schwab for example. Thanks to the existence of Robinhood, a commission-free brokerage, I can purchase shares even one at a time as my disposable income allows. Basically I purchase more in terms of market cap of an underweight position until it is roughly equivalent to my other holdings. I do not currently invest in any funds.
End of 2017 and December update: Trades: Ripple (XRP) - The highlight of the end of the year for my portfolio was the strong rise of Ripple (XRP), a cryptocurrency I purchased during 2017. With more than 1500% gains on my position (a gain equivalent to more than $20,000 USD), I sold approximately half of the position to secure some capital gains. Given that I have no way of reliably valuing this asset class on a fundamental basis, and the possibility of it being in a bubble, I feel comfortable with my decision to reduce exposure and take gains. Minor additions to existing positions - Added 4 shares to STOR Capital, 3 shares to Realty Capital (O), 3 shares to Ladder Capital (LADR), 2 shares to UFAB, 5 shares to CBL. Universal Corporation (UVV:NYSE) - Initiated a new position in Universal Corporation, one of the world's primary tobacco leaf producers. They do not produce any consumer products, but instead handle the production and distribution of tobacco itself to consumer-product producers using tobacco as an input. The company has a strong balance sheet, with very little debt, and has a long history of paying and raising it's dividend payout. I acquired 7 shares at an average cost of $52.42, with a forward transaction dividend yield of 4.2%. Pfizer (PFE:NYSE) - A well known global biotech company, I decided to initiate an underweight position despite Pfizer being near it's all-time high. The company is in good shape to take advantage of some exciting new developments in the biotech industry. I will accumulate shares at a slow pace. Bought 1 share during December at 36.30, yielding 3.75%. NTT Docomo Inc (DCM:NYSE - ADR) - A blue-chip Telecomm company operating primarily in Japan, I like Docomo because of their conservating operating history, strong dividend track record, and dominant market share. For those reasons, along with more in-depth analysis, I initiated a new position by buying 1 share at $23.82 via the NYSE-trading ADR, forward transaction yield of 3.73%. Dividends: Received a total of $316.13 in dividends during December from various positions. 1 share of XOM was purchased via reinvested dividends. 1.6179 shares of IRM were purchased via reinvested dividends. Good luck all in the new year ahead!
Due to current forum policy restricting editing of an existing post after 7 days (of which I was recently made aware), I am currently unable to update the position sizes of my portfolio in the first post. Hopefully that will change, but until then here is the January update for 2018: End of January, 2018 Update: January saw further gain in my cryptocurreny position (Ripple - XRP), but I decided to close the entire position amid signs of a forming bubble. I sold in several transactions after acquiring my ripple back during 2017 at an average price of approximately 240 won per (about $0.22 at the time), having purchased them on a Korean exchange. I took profits several times: once in the 2,800 won range, again around 4,200 during December, and then I closed the remainder of the position in January at around 3,300 won per token. This appears to have been quite a bubble, but I was fortunate in that it proved to be my largest gain ever on a single position: approximately a 750% gain in a span of about 5 months. I currently have no cryptocurrency positions any longer, and no immediate plans to initiate any more. During January I added to my Realty Income (O), Universal Corporation (UVV), Store Capital (STOR), Iron Mountain (IRM), and General Electric (GE) positions by a few shares each. The prices of each had declined to varying degrees since my previous purchase, allowing me to average my overall position cost down further. New positions: Owens & Minor (OMI:NYSE) - an international medical supplies manufacturer and distributor, OMI has solid financials and currently is the target of generally negative sentiment which I think will prove to be a current, long-term opportunity. The dividend yield of the company is at the highest point in it's history despite no material deterioration in the company's ability to pay the distribution being apparent. I have acquired 4 shares thus far and will continue to do so slowly. I initiated positions in the following four REITS: Brixmor Property Group (BRX:NYSE), Tanger Factory Outlets (SKT:NYSE), Sabra Healthcare REIT (SBRA:NASDAQ), and Kimco Realty Corp (KIM:NYSE). The overall REIT industry continues to see pain, so I am simply acquiring the most financially sound REITs I can find with the aim of benefiting from the eventual recovery in the sentiment towards this industry. I will continue to slowly acquire more shares of each of them as well. Dividends: Received $46.63 in cash dividends, credited to cash balance, during Janaury. 4.6467 shares of Ladder Capital (LADR:NYSE) were automatically acquired via dividend reinvestment at a price of $13.55 per. 1 share of Exxon Mobil (XOM:NYSE) was automatically acquired via dividend reinvestment at a price of $78.36. Current portfolio outlook: My portfolio outlook has not changed much, and I am not overly concerned with the downturn this past week. No matter the case, the beginning of a bear-market or a correction in what will continue to be a bull market for a bit, I will continue to accumulate shares at a slow but steady pace using monthly disposable income. As for the fundamentals of the market, I am fairly bearish over the next 1-2 years due to rising interest rates, the stated intentions of the Federal Reserve to shrink their balance sheet, and the current financial condition of the US consumer. Happy investing to all~
@WillardWolfcake - do me a quick favor here if you can and see if you got the edit button back on the first post here. thx.
Thanks to assistance from forum staff, my first post is once again editable. I have updated my positions by share count or dollar amount, where applicable, and updated portfolio value. I have decided to include precious metals value in the portfolio from this point forward, in the form of gold and silver bullion, and potentially exposure to the iShares Gold Trust or some other comparable vehicle. As a development for my strategy, I have decided to resume the accumulation of precious metals (gold and silver) in light of the recent congressional budget passed. Due to the combination of truths that: the official budget promises large further increases in deficit spending while the US Federal Government is already heavily indebted, that interest rates are continuing to rise (threatening to increase the cost of servicing said debt in the form of higher interest payments), as well as that the Federal Reserve has stated intentions of allowing their balance sheet to shrink via maturity and further interest rate increases via their target Fed Funds Rate, I have decided to resume the accumulation of precious metals into my portfolio. I will continue to accumulate shares of companies with strong balance sheets that pay well covered dividends, but at a somewhat reduced pace in US markets as some of my disposable income will be redirected for the above stated purpose (resumption of precious metals accumulation). I will also be looking for more opportunities abroad in jurisdictions with better fundamentals underlying their economies due to the perceived threat to the US Dollar. In other words, I am seeking to reduce my exposure to the US Dollar as a percentage of my portfolio, although I am not currently selling any of my positions. Merely reallocating where my disposable income will be deployed in terms of new acquisitions. Have a good remainder of your February to all.
Hi all, Just posting to let you know I haven't abandoned this threat. Rather, I decided to reduce the update frequency since I think there isn't enough exciting activity for me to do so on a monthly basis, given that I am a buy-and-hold investor and not a trader. I've decided to post updates quarterly or bi-annually instead, and will issue a portfolio update soon. I've been very busy and have gotten involved in some interesting investment and analysis projects, so will mention those too. Regards, WillardWolfcake
