2018 YTD investment performance thread

[Tallman4123]

-0.35% through April 30th. AA is 58/37/5 AA

[RobbieB]

As of April 30, up 1.2 %.

[Eastbayboy]

As of today +1.86. Thanks to AAPL and AMZN. Wesley is down 3% ytd which is half of my holdings. AA is 67/21/12.

[Lawrencewendall]

As of 4/30 - up 1.77% for the year
YTD - up 3.23%

50% in Willshire 4500 index, the rest is in monthly/quarterly dividends payers.
Love those dividend paying stuff!

[HFWR]

Down 3.7%, or about the amount I withdrew in January...

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound End of Jan: +5.79% YTD End of Feb: +2.06% YTD End of Mar: +0.63% YTD End of Apr: -1.09% YTD

End of May: +3.05% YTD

What goes up in May that I have: semiconductor, biotech, energy sectors.

What's down: Emerging markets.

AA according to Quicken: Stock 74.31%, Cash 22.34%, Bond 3.35%.

[pb4uski]

1.23% YTD at the end of May vs 6.89% YTD as of a year ago.

Also, quite a bit better than my benchmark Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Growth fund which was 0.26% YTD 5/31/2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski A whopping +0.37% at the end of April vs +0.12% at the end of March. What a difference from the +5.60% YTD as of a year ago.

[Freedom56]

+4.11% YTD overall (all accounts) including interest payments. Best performers are my high coupon Centurylink,Qwest, US West, Allied Capital notes, and Capital One Financial notes.

Higher investment grade bond/notes A- to AAA are still very overpriced relative to CDs and treasuries. Funds holding these low coupon high investment grade notes will continue to under-perform. Who in their right mind would buy Apple's 1.55% 5 year note (rated AA+) other than a bond fund. Lower investment grade short and medium term notes/bonds are starting to become more attractive but still not in the buy range.

[pb4uski]

So given that current investment grade corporate spreads are so poor, should I sell my target maturity corporate bond funds and reinvest in CDs?

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski So given that current investment grade corporate spreads are so poor, should I sell my target maturity corporate bond funds and reinvest in CDs?

What does it yield and what is it holding? Which fund?

[pb4uski]

Mostly BSCK (POWERSHARES BULLETSHARES 2020 CORP BOND ETF... 2.99%), BSCM (POWERSHARES BULLETSHARES 2022 CORP BOND ETF... 3.47%) and IBDC (ISHARES IBONDS MARCH 2020 TERM CORP ETF.... 2.79%)

These will distribute liquidation distributions in December of the years' indicated, but I would sell about a year earlier... hold BSCK and IBDC until December 2019 and BSCM until December 2021.

18 month CDs are ~2.55% and 42 month CDs are ~3.06% so I'm getting a 40-55 bp premium to CDs for A-BBB credit.

[robnplunder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robnplunder Pretty close to mine. I am down 0.1%. This will likely be a down year given the past years' performance.

Up 1.3%. Spent about 1% of that for 2018 budget hitherto. But the house value went up here in Bay Area, CA. I don't feel richer though.

[kgtest]

+5.5% for about the third or fourth time this year. Not bad for doing little to nothing.

Of course I would never complain if it were better

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski Mostly BSCK (POWERSHARES BULLETSHARES 2020 CORP BOND ETF... 2.99%), BSCM (POWERSHARES BULLETSHARES 2022 CORP BOND ETF... 3.47%) and IBDC (ISHARES IBONDS MARCH 2020 TERM CORP ETF.... 2.79%) These will distribute liquidation distributions in December of the years' indicated, but I would sell about a year earlier... hold BSCK and IBDC until December 2019 and BSCM until December 2021. 18 month CDs are ~2.55% and 42 month CDs are ~3.06% so I'm getting a 40-55 bp premium to CDs for A-BBB credit.

I took a look at your funds.

BSCK Distribution yield is 2.08% and 1 year return is +0.6%
BSCM Distribution yield is 2.55%, 1 year return +1.0%
IBDC Distribution yield is 2.10%, 1 year return is +.94%

I would not go by SEC yield since it assumes that the bonds would be held to maturity and all income is re-invested. An ETF cannot guarantee that it will hold a bond to maturity due to fund outflows. It's also difficult to compute the liquidation NAV for the same reason.

An 18 month CD yield is about 2.55%, BBB rated corporate is about 3.33%, B
A 3 year CD is now 3.0%, BBB rated corporate is 4.33%,
A 4 year CD is now 3.1% BBB rated corporate is about 4.7%,

You need to look at your entry price for these funds to make an informed decision on what to do.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 ..... An ETF cannot guarantee that it will hold a bond to maturity due to fund outflows. ....

What you wrote here makes no sense at all... the only fund/ETF outflows are for interest distributions... these are more like a CEF and not a mutual fund... there are no redemptions... existing shares are traded in the open market.

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski What you wrote here makes no sense at all... the only fund/ETF outflows are for interest distributions... these are more like a CEF and not a mutual fund... there are no redemptions... existing shares are traded in the open market.

You called them ETFs the funds call themselves ETFs. If they are true CEFs, you should be able to compute the liquidation price.

Just be aware of what you bought:

The PowerShares BulletShares® 2020 Corporate Bond Portfolio (Fund) is based on the Nasdaq Bulletshares® USD Corporate Bond 2020 Index (Index). The Fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets in corporate bonds that comprise the Index. The Index is designed to represent the performance of a held-to-maturity portfolio of US dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate bonds with effective maturities in 2020. The Fund does not purchase all of the securities in the Index; instead, the Fund utilizes a "sampling" methodology to seek to achieve its investment objective. The Fund and the Index are rebalanced monthly. The Fund has a designated year of maturity of 2020 and will terminate on or about Dec. 31, 2020. See the prospectus for more information.

Fluctuation of Yield and Liquidation Amount Risk. The Fund, unlike a direct investment in a bond that has a level coupon payment and a fixed payment at maturity, will make distributions of income that vary over time. Unlike a direct investment in bonds, the break down of returns between Fund distributions and liquidation proceeds are not predictable at the time of your investment. For example, at times during the Fund’s existence, it may make distributions at a greater (or lesser) rate than the coupon payments received on the Fund’s portfolio, which will result in the Fund returning a lesser (or greater) amount on liquidation than would otherwise be the case.The rate of Fund distribution payments may adversely affect the tax characterization of your returns from an investment in the Fund relative to a direct investment in corporate bonds. If the amount you receive as liquidation proceeds upon the Fund’s termination is higher or lower than your cost basis, you may experience a gain or loss for tax purposes

Liquidity and Valuation Risk. It may be difficult for the Fund to purchase and sell particular investments within a reasonable time at a fair price, or the price at which it has been valued by the Adviser for purposes of the Fund’s NAV, causing the Fund to be less liquid and unable to realize what the Adviser believes should be the price of the investment. Valuation of Fund investments may be difficult, such as during periods of market turmoil or reduced liquidity, and for investments that may, for example,trade infrequently or irregularly. In these and other circumstances,an investment may be valued using fair value methodologies,which are inherently subjective, reflect good faith judgments based on available information and may not accurately estimate the price at which the Fund could sell the investment at that time.These risks may be heightened for fixed-income instruments because of the historically low interest rate environment as of the date of this prospectus.

[street]

I always like to take a look at the end or start of each month. For the first 5 month's of 2018 I'm up 5.10%. I'm not complaining and have done better then what I have expected with the yo yo markets. LOL

[sengsational]

In the plus column for the year... Not by much 0.6% (spend-adjusted, all-in).

[NYEXPAT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYEXPAT 11.04% YTD on a 95/0/5 portfolio.

+11.99% on a 95/0/5 portfolio.

[Lawrencewendall]

4.33% YTD for end of May.