Catching Up on Recent Trading Activity

Well, the plan was to update this blog weekly, but it’s been over a month since my last post… so let’s catch up. Here is a snapshot of the portfolio as of today (11.20.24), I’ll start with the most recent activity and work backwards:

MicroStrategy (MSTR) – Yesterday, November 19th, I picked up 10 shares of MSTR as a fun gamble. Couldn’t help myself with this one, been watching it climb and climb everyday. Lots of chatter about it in all info mediums that I pay attention to so I decided to join the party. This will be one of those “buy high, sell higher”, plans. Though I’m not even sure how long I’m going to hold it. I initially said I wanted to hold it for a while, but I’m second guessing that a bit and may make it a quick turnaround. I am well aware of what this stock is and the rollercoaster it has been, and will continue to be. As of now I’m in for less than my 10% rule, so maybe I just strap in and enjoy the ride.

Rivian (RIVN) – On October 23rd, I bought 300 shares of Rivian. I didn’t have much of a thesis on this one other than I have been a huge fan of theirs from early on. I believe they sponsored “The Long Way Up” motorcycle road trip special where the support crew traveled in a Rivian R1T. That’s where I learned of them and took interest. I had been wanting to own this stock since IPO, but the valuation was so bonkers I could never bring myself to buy it. I figured being off 90% from its highs was a bit more reasonable, though probably still quite a bit overvalued. Even still, I really like the trucks and SUV’s they are making, plus they have the Amazon contract for delivery vans, so I took a small position. About a week or two later, VW announced they would be boosting their investment, which gave the stock a nice jolt, and made me happy. Then a couple days post VW news, another announcement was made, Trump and co. will more than likely kill the EV credit. Just as fast as the gains from the VW news arrived, they gave it all back and then some. Out of sheer annoyance, I decided to dump it on the way down. It’s now hanging around my original buy price. Maybe I jumped the gun on the sale, but that news just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Shopify (SHOP) – Booked a nice win with the SHOP options I’d been hanging onto since the beginning of the year. Market seemed to like their earnings call and the stock popped almost 20% (maybe more don’t remember exactly). I thought about hanging onto them into the spring, but I usually count on year end volatility and figured I’d just take my 200% and run. Can always re-enter if I feel like it.

Visa (V) – Made a small earnings play on Visa, day of. I was looking for a solid company that was on the earnings calendar that week. My calculus was, most of the financial stocks had been fairing well this earning season, and there were some decent sized moves happening in big cap stocks, so what the hell. I only bought one contract, but netted just about 40% overnight. For 15 minutes of thought before the bell, I’ll take it.

That about covers the time skip. Hopefully I don’t fall this far behind again. Until Next time.

Slow Week and Trade Cost Limits

Not a lot to report on this week. Positions are the same as last week, with about a 3% increase in value, so that’s positive.

Have been looking for something new to get into, but man, valuations seem pretty high for just about everything on my watchlist. Obviously this means I’m missing out by sitting on my hands.

Earnings calendar doesn’t look super exciting this week, just a bunch of financial stocks and NFLX. I usually don’t like to mess around with earnings events, but every now and again I’ll see something that is appealing to me. Most recently I jumped on MU calls and was successful.

Speaking of, that MU trade was a little less than 5% of portfolio value at the time. As far as this account goes, I’m looking to limit total trade cost to 10% of current portfolio value, earnings plays – no more than 5%. Generally speaking, I’ll open a trade for around 5% or less and then average in the rest of the way. Each trade doesn’t need to max out @ 10%, and most times they never will. For example, SHOP and DOCN are finally moving in a positive direction (famous last words), I probably will not add more unless they drop substantially, where I will reevaluate and consider adding more.

Based on that rule, and current available cash, I have room for 3 more positions in the account. I’m in no rush to fill up, but I would like to find something new one of these days…

First Post

Welcome! I decided to start this blog mostly to serve as a creative outlet. Writing has been something I’ve always wanted to try, but I don’t have any formal training, nor have I studied it at all. Like most acquired skills though, you learn by doing. I’ve heard that writing about your hobbies and interests is a good way to get started, so, here we go.

HOW WE GOT HERE

The primary focus of my musings will be an investment account I opened sometime in early 2017. At the time, I was engaged, no children, and not much to worry about in terms of financial obligations. Earlier that year, I decided it was time to replace my beloved 2004 Acura RSX Type S. I loved that car. It was the first car I purchased brand new, but after 13+ years and 176k hard miles, it was time for a change.

Each year I put away a little money for auto repairs and maintenance, but despite all the proper abuse inflicted upon a car that revs to 8k, aside from standard maintenance and a new clutch, the car was damn near bulletproof.  The money I set aside all those years for repairs just turned into a healthy down payment for my next car, a 2017 VW GTI.  

Prior to actually buying one, I gave serious consideration to trading the RSX for a GTI, twice! Ultimately, my preconceived notions about Volkswagen quality and reliability stopped me from pulling the trigger.  As they say though, the third time’s a charm.  Exhausting all my saved maintenance money for a downpayment, I took home the VW on Groundhog’s Day 2017.  I now had 3 years/36k miles to rebuild my repair and maintenance fund that I was absolutely sure would be necessary this time around.

The seed money for the new repair fund would come from the sale of the RSX. I listed it on the almighty Craigslist and had it sold for $4,400 the same afternoon.  This time however, I had a fresh idea.  The savings account that housed my auto repair fund paid some dog sh!t rate like .35%. Instead of sticking it in the bank and rotting for the next bunch of years, I opened a new investment account and planned to grow it that way.  Continuing my $25 weekly contributions, I was off and running. Hoping to rebuild in time to meet my first catastrophic post warranty VW repair head on.

FLASH FORWARD

A little over 7 years has gone by.  Thanks to new car shortages, Carvanna’s big brain mission to massively overpay for any and all used cars on the market, and a couple new additions to our family, the GTI is long gone.  The repair fund was left mostly untouched, and I stopped contributing to it about 2 years ago.  Growing much larger than its intended purpose, I didn’t feel the need to continue adding to it (at least until further notice).

In 2022 and 2023, I also dialed back much of my market participation. Young kids require lots of attention and focus, and I just didn’t have the energy or desire to actively participate in the stock market to the degree I have for the majority of my adult life. This year though (2024), I am slowly getting back to it, with a plan to use this blog as a creative outlet to keep me on track and interested again.

CURRENT HOLDINGS AND WHERE WE’RE GOING

As it stands today, the fund holds 4 positions and has a market value of $59,768 on total contributions of $10,900. Pretty successful run up.  Let’s not be fooled though, the bulk of these gains came from a few very favorable trades, and there have been some fairly stomach churning swings along the way as well.

Before I close, I’d like to touch base on these 4 open positions, you’ll see that BRK.B and CRWD were purchased quite a while ago. I don’t really pay too much attention to either one, as I don’t have much intention of liquidating those positions anytime soon. Obviously things can turn on a dime, and CRWD has been a rollercoaster multiple times since purchase, but that is very much part of the fun for me.

In regard to the two options positions. Much of the gains in this account were built by SHOP shares purchased in the early days of this portfolio. As such, I maintain a bit of a soft spot for that company, and wanted to capture more of its fast moving rips again. Unfortunately, it’s been mostly dips since I jumped back into it… DOCN is a stock a friend of mine mentioned to me a bunch of times, and I had also seen it pumped a bit in headlines by, I think, Motley Fool (LOL). I honestly don’t know much about it other than they provide cloud services, which I’m generally a fan of. I watched it move for a month or two and decided it was as good a vessel as any. Hasn’t exactly gone my way since purchase, but we’ll see where it goes. Both positions are finally green again as I write this, so that’s nice for now.

As time goes on you’ll notice that my strategies can be fairly unorthodox and not all that intuitive. I plan to talk more about my investing/trading theories and methodologies as I make new live trades. For now though, I am going to conclude this maiden post.