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.

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…