An update with what is in my stock portfolio? | 69% in QQQ...

I have covered my portfolio in quarterly updates but not really on the composition or what is the updated position except that I have Tesla. I wanted to record how the stock portfolio is looking in 2024 and compare it in the years to come to see if there will be any changes. Numbers are accurate as of 13 April 2024.

QQQ

Yes, the beautiful QQQ, it has grown pretty well this year with the AI rise, QQQ comprises a higher proportion of tech companies and places a larger emphasis on a selectively few so it has performed relatively well, of course, it depends what you are comparing it with, definitely not Nvidia as a singular stock but comparing it with my other holdings, it has performed pretty well.

The volatility of QQQ is much higher as compared to SPY or VOO since the holdings are slightly more tech and has a higher percentage on a select few so if the select few companies drop or increases, QQQ reflects that change more as we can see from the past few days.

QQQ currently takes up about 69% of my stock portfolio, I recently sold AMD at a profit and dumped it all into QQQ as I do not want to manage too many individual stocks. So this is my largest holding at the moment in my stock portfolio and most profitable position. Will definitely be holding this long term.

Tesla

Tesla has been a substantial portion of my portfolio all along. It went from in profit to a loss over the past few years. It is about 28% of my portfolio, dropped substantially because of the drop in prices. Overall, just holding onto this and seeing how it goes, sentiment has been negative due to delivery numbers and high interest rate environment being longer than expected. Short term, not much positive news but long term, if it can deliver on what was on the roadmap, then we do see growth for it. For now, not planning on selling or buying.

Bitwise Bitcoin ETF

I know it sounds ridiculous to hold BTC via a custodian when I can just buy BTC directly but I got into it when it was just released which was a good entry price because BTC shot up afterwards so the position is in profit. Don’t think I will be adding more but it was just a buy some while it was cheap, might sell it soon but it is a super small position since it was also more of a fun position. It is about 1.81% of my stock portfolio.

Things I am looking at and things I am not looking at

I am looking at adding VT to my portfolio in the remaining time of 2024. This is to balance out volatility as you can see from having QQQ and Tesla, the portfolio fluctuates pretty crazily. VT is relatively stable in prices, I had a position in VT from Covid period and I started picking it up when it was around $70 - $80 USD but sold them at around $101 USD to buy other stocks.

At the moment, I am not looking at accumulating any individual stocks but things might change along the way. Will look back on this in a few months or years and see if there are any changes made.

New Updates, writing this on 19 April 2024

Just a few days pass since writing this article and the stock market has took a dive due to the attacks and tension in the Middle East. Things don’t look very positive at the moment and the portfolio has suffered substantially but will be DCA-ing into index funds and see how it goes.

Percentages of the position hasn’t changed much so will keep it as such even though in value, it has decreased. Hoping for the safety of everyone and that the situation does not escalate any further. A lot of other things that are much more important than my portfolio so go out and live your best life!

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE

Interesting Article I read | My Nvidia Time Bomb (-USD141.5k Unrealised Loss & Counting), Why You Should Never Sell Naked CALL, The Danger Of Short Selling

This is an interesting take from Jason as it was such a personal and yet informative piece and encapsulated the actions and emotions of investing/trading. It is a piece that the author willingly shared with the experience of making a mistake and accepting that loss.

https://learninginvestmentwithjasoncai.com/2024/03/10/my-nvidia-time-bomb-usd141-5k-unrealised-loss-counting-why-you-should-never-sell-naked-call-the-danger-of-short-selling/

It is never easy to share your losses and in the article, Jason shared how he had 300 shares of Nvidia, that is not a small amount judging by the current price. He lost them at a lower price than today due to selling covered calls, he then sold 200 shares trying to cover the loss and sold naked calls as he thought that Nvidia was in for a correction but it went up instead. Since he sold a naked call, he is short of 200 shares of Nvidia to repay as the prices of Nvidia goes higher, he would accumulate more losses.

If you read through his blog, this is definitely not the first time he is facing such a huge loss: https://learninginvestmentwithjasoncai.com/2022/06/20/if-you-are-feeling-depressed-from-losing-lots-of-money-in-the-stock-market-heres-an-article-for-you/

It is a great read as the amount is heart wrenching and serves a valuable lesson and insight to those who are starting out in options trading. I am no guru and just wanted to share this article that I read.

My options journey

I am a newbie in options and I would like it to stay that way, I mostly do covered calls and once in awhile cash secured puts, I like available cash to be invested so I haven’t done much cash secured puts but I think it is a great way to purchase shares that you want at a lower price and at the same time, earn a premium on it.

I just started covered calls in the later part of 2023 so not a long time of experience but I like that it brings in some form of premium, although some times it is not worth especially when earnings call or CPI or FOMC meetings are around the corner as the volatility can make the stock go substantially up. I keep a sufficient margin between the strike price and the current market price so far, I have hit the strike price about twice, mostly last year. But the difference of my purchase price back is not huge as I usually buy like a 20 to 30 days time period.

Overall still learning and believe that managing your emotions is important when experiencing the price going near to your strike price. You suddenly get a shot of adrenaline thinking of ways to reduce the loss and if it shoots higher, what will happen? My portfolio has increased substantially due to the premiums I am earning as I reinvest them back in, keeping it up with the covered calls until it’s too volatile then I might take a break.

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I Buy my Cryptocurrencies:
►Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/evwynu4g57 or code: evwynu4g57 to sign up
►Gemini: https://gemini.com/share/558gylyhg use my code and we'll each get $10 USD of Bitcoin.
► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE

Q1 2024 Portfolio Review | Crypto is back and running!

Here we are recording the financials for Q1 2024, feels like the year just started a few days ago with CNY and in the blink of an eye, we are at the end of Q1 2024. The markets have been crazy with AI and cryptocurrencies leading the pack. My portfolio is not so oriented towards AI however I do hold a small position in Bitcoin and Ethereum, with that, the value of the portfolio has increased substantially. I am a small holder of Bitcoin and Ethereum so I can only imagine how insane for those who hold a large amount of cryptocurrency in their portfolio.

The portfolio performed pretty well in Q1 and I am rather satisfied with how it is, the recovery of crypto especially with the BTC ETFs have helped the portfolio propel to new highs, although going into Q2, prices have dropped slightly.

Stocks Portfolio

Stocks portfolio was rather flat and instead downwards since Tesla hasn’t performed well in Q1 and the numbers released so far is showing that not as much cars was sold as expected. There are also rumors (not confirmed?) that Tesla will not have the model 2 which is the low cost EV. But there is an announcement that there will be a robo-taxi being announced/shown on 8 August 2024 so that will be something to look forward to.

Another position that I had was AMD, my average price was about $110 and I sold it for a profit, moving it over to QQQ. AMD will be coming out with their results but I just wanted to take profit and move it over to QQQ. I was previously doing covered calls with Tesla and AMD but now, will just occasionally do it with Tesla.

I like to build up a position of QQQ before venturing into individuals stocks. Great that my AMD position was in profit, allowed me to take profit, Tesla is still underwater for me and so we shall see how it goes. I usually record the numbers either on the last day of first day or the new month hence explaining why it records till April numbers although Q1 ends on March.

Although Tesla was down, QQQ did well and so here is the value of it:

Cryptocurrencies

Amazing quarter for cryptocurrencies as they were pumped up with BTC ETF and the exposure expanded with memecoins and NFTs making a comeback. And when the interest builds up, it attracts a lot of attention as we see individuals gain unimaginable profits within a short time.

The anticipation of BTC ETF was predicted to be huge as people saw that there would be huge inflows towards the ETFs since individuals who wanted exposure but found it troublesome to create an account in an exchange and having to buy and store it in the exchange or cold wallet.

Imagine being in your 60s and looking at FTX collapse, I don’t think I would trust any other exchanges. But the name Blackrock changes everything since they would manage the BTC ETF so I guess for some, the BTC ETF is a great way for exposure to Bitcoin.

The prices have been steadily increasing with some dips along the way, I am not adding any huge positions but might continue to buy a small amount of ETH as my paycheck comes in monthly. But I guess I will see how it goes after the BTC halving roughly around 20 April.

Syfe REITs

REITs have seen a slight recovery at least in the case of Syfe REITs, it has been dropping and dropping so a slight recovery is good to see although we don’t know when it will recover back to it’s usual prices before the interest rate hike, with the slow DCA I have been doing monthly, just $200 monthly, it has build up to a pretty nice amount, including dividends, I would have some profit but overall still a loss since I did start when interest rates were just being cut.

Not stopping that small amount monthly, I will be putting in until some time and I will have the dividends do it’s job with no addition from me until a certain age then I will activate the payouts.

Going into Q2 2024

The rates cuts are anticipated but no one can really confirm when it will start. We shall see how it goes anyway there will be some rate cuts starting this year, trying to keep some cash on the side but a bad habit of mine is that I like every available cash on hand to be invested as I have this fear of missing out.

Not a very good habit because when the market falls, I find myself not having spare cash to invest (not touching my emergency funds). Also, this causes me not want to sell shares as I am afraid that the moment I sell it, it goes up. I need to be more detached and take profits when there is a need.

Keeping schedule of my monthly contributions and making sure I am staying invested are my 2 priorities at the moment, other than that, learning to work and enjoy life at the same time is also what I am working on. Wishing for a new ATH for Q2 2024.

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I Buy my Cryptocurrencies:
►Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/evwynu4g57 or code: evwynu4g57 to sign up
►Gemini: https://gemini.com/share/558gylyhg use my code and we'll each get $10 USD of Bitcoin.
► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE

It is my birthday month! | Last year of my twenties

We are now into the month of March. Time flies, I wanted this out in the early part of March but it has dragged on for quite awhile. March is quite a special month as it is my birthday month! It is always an exciting month as you meet up with friends and family but for about 1/3 of the month, I will be spending it overseas. It will be the first time I visit this country and first trip of the year so pretty exciting but a lot of preparation works.

Last year of my twenties

I have repeated this multiple times but it’s hasn’t fully registered in my head, it is my LAST YEAR OF TWENTIES! Never really thought about how I would feel entering my thirties soon since I didn’t keep track of my age ever since I was 24 then the pandemic snatched 2 years from me, making it so comfortable staying at home and being alone.

But I still want to make this year fabulous and amazing so not too sure how it will be but going to be doing things that 5 years later/10 years later me would thank the current me for starting.

Having more fun

Taking things more lightly from here and spending more as I think it is maybe time to loosen a little and relax. Planning a few trips this year and hoping to find time to do interesting things. Of course, investing would still be my core but not like super important as I think it is like a milestone, having lived out my twenties so time to spend a portion and enjoy life.

Taking more care of my health and fitness

Having the flexibility to work from home has made me relatively lazier and leading quite a sedentary life, I can feel myself getting lazier and unhealthy. I have signed up for a gym membership and so far has been diligently going in a few times per week. Took a break for a week since I was overseas but hoping to make it a habit and continue.

Financially

I am happy with how my finances are although in Singapore, money is never enough, the inflation these few years have made me realised that growing your money and increasing your income is so important. Nothing is going to stay constant, Singapore is still relatively affordable in terms of daily necessities as compared to the western counterparts but if things continue in it’s current state, it can become really tough to sustain with no income increase and more commitments in the future eg mortgage.

I hope to be able to free up more cash to invest, I have been rather lax recently and burst my spending budgets for some months especially with the end of year festive period and CNY followed by an overseas trip.

Making it all about the present and enjoying the moment as much as I can

I want to live more in the present, stop thinking of what others think of me. Not in a too crazy way but in a be myself way. Taking one day at a time and making it great!