2015 YTD investment performance thread

[robnplunder]

How are you all doing? What is working YTD for you? What changes do you plan to make?




With S&P 500 index down for January, most of the members should be outperforming the index given the "balanced" nature of the members' portfolio. I am no different. I am up 1% as of 1/28 due to good YTD performance from Gold, Global & Emerging market funds, Bond funds, and a bit of short term trading with my "gambling" money. It's a welcome change (?) from last year when my portfolio underperformed the index the entire year. I may continue to trade given the choppy market condition.

 

[2B]

No changes planned. YTD return as of this morning - 0.0%

 

[utrecht]

As of the 1/28 close, the SP500 is -2.6%. Our portfolio is +0.6% which makes me feel REALLY good considering we just retired and our portfolio is stable even while the market slowly sinks. Its almost like I know what I'm doing.

 

[HFWR]

Around +0.4%

 

[SumDay]

-.002 Not sweating it. No changes planned. Just had a tune-up in December, and will reconsider this coming December.

 

[Big_Hitter]

my best estimate at this point is that it's a number between -10% and 10%

 

[Beldar]

My portfolio is slightly positive for 2015 so far, but I don't track it as a percentage per se. I did realize investment income during 4QTR14 gretaer than my entire 2014 w*rk salaried earnings, so I'm not too apprehensive of the near term at this point.

But, past performance doesn't .....

_B

 

[Gazingus]

Well, speaking as someone who holds 70% in domestic equities (ETFs mostly, some small/mid/value/growth and individual diversity) and 30% cash, beating the index on a temporary basis during a market lull or downturn seems like a hollow victory.

I will use the cash to ride through a major bear or do some dirty market timing during corrections. I've held 90% domestic equities for the last 30 years and I think I'm ahead of the game because of it.

I've never been concerned with smoothing out the curves at the expense of the long run.

Of course, I am still employed and contributing, but I'm getting very close to ER and that's why I created the 30% cash in December. I can retire even in a bear and have six years before I need to sell anything.


I may be wrong, because I don't read much about this simple strategy on this forum.

 

[robnplunder]

If your strategy works (and worked for 30 years), stick to it.

 

[Cobra9777]

I'm flat YTD (actually just barely positive at 0.02%).

The equity portion is down 1.5%, but international holdings are nicely offsetting some of the losses in US large caps, especially my recently-increased position in emerging (VWO), which is up 2.5%. Wish I had bought more.

Fixed income is up 1.9%, a bit higher than the broad indexes due to a large position in LQD (investment-grade corporate), which is up 3.2%. High-yield corporate (HYG) continues to lag, but at least it's positive at 0.6%.

Real estate is the bright spot, with VNQ up 8.7% YTD. But it's a fairly small holding. I also include two steady-as-she-goes rental houses in this category, which will be fine on the year, but don't look so good one month in. Same for my cash reserves which are at Ally earning 0.99%.

Not really planning any changes as a result of this. However, performance is lagging a bit due to NOT rebalancing last year. The AA is still about 5% high on equity and low on bonds, vs target. Just couldn't bring myself to buy bonds. I may be re-thinking that over the next few months.

I've also got some new cash sitting in the taxable account from exercising and selling the last of my vested Megacorp stock options. Tentative plan is to buy more VWO (emerging) with most of it. I'm light on international compared to the conventional recommendations. I've also got a SV fund teed up to replace AGG if I see interest rates start to rise. But that's looking less likely at this point.

 

[braumeister]

I really don't like to track things on less than a quarterly basis, and I don't pay much attention to anything less than an annual basis, but just for grins, I looked at it and I'm down about 1.1% YTD in a 60/40 portfolio.

 

[Lsbcal]

I hold a portfolio which is nonstandard, so have to accept tracking error. Coming to grips with this is kind of a lonely process I have concluded.

 

[MRG]

Quick back of envelope calcs. Up about .75%. But too early to cheer.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[RockyMtn]

down .26% ytd. What's working...VNQ, AAPL, LULU. What's not...xle, slyv, kmi.

 

[marko]

Down .22% as of tonight.
Not losing any sleep over it...got 11 months ahead of us.

 

[Readyforachange]

Up a bit over 1%. Doing well: REITs, utilities, precious metals, consumer staples (except PG), bonds. Not doing so well: energy, industrials, financials, cyclicals. Quite the reverse of what I would expect for a healthy economy.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[audreyh1]

What?! Not even looking at this until mid-year. And even then I don't really do anything about it.

The market volatility this Jan makes it rather pointless at the moment.

 

[calmloki]

Just looking at the stuff in Morningstar we are down 0.78% YTD, after 6PM today. On the good side, a purchase order for BRK-B went through a day or so ago for a lower price than we had paid so far this year, so that's nice, even though we are -2.57% on the BRK overall. The Alibaba shares are now down 23.72% since purchase and feeling like the GM shares we rode down to the end.

Keep paying that rent, tenants.

 

[KCGeezer]

Made me look. Absolutely flat.


Scared but excited

 

[gcgang]

I see Jack Ma, Alibaba, lost $1.4B yesterday. Puts my -$75k two days ago in perspective.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[wingfooted]

YTD 2015 plus 5.5% as of close 1/29/2015 (yesterday) based on time weighted rate of return.

Overweight AAPL, which reported positive earnings surprise on Tuesday.

Encouraging of course, but very early in the year to start taking any victory laps. Long ways to go in 2015.

As far as changes, I am thinking about hedging 1/2 my AAPL position by writing the 130 JAN 16 leaps, which are selling now for $8 per share.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[jfn111]

Just peeked. Up 1.58% so far in my 401K
Transferred some money from fixed income to equities during the dips.

 

[big-papa]

-0.5% as of yesterday.

 

[Totoro]

In euro I'm actually up 5% (with a rough 50/50 allocation), but that's due to the exchange rate drop. In USD I'm actually down 5% or so.

Now, given that my costs are in euro too it seems I'm ahead?

I won't be in the seven comma club in USD for a long while though now, it seems.

 

[braumeister]

I won't be in the seven comma club in USD for a long while though now, it seems.

Well, that would need to be at least one sextillion dollars (10 to the 21st) to have seven commas. Probably not within the reach of most of us.

Still, don't give up hope:

The highest numerical value banknote ever printed was a note for 1 sextillion pengő (1021 or 1 milliard bilpengő as printed) printed in Hungary in 1946.

Names of large numbers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia