2018 YTD investment performance thread

[Ed B]

I am up to a sizzling 1.11%.

I have about 1/3 of my port in a stable value fund on pace for a 2.2% return this year. The Stable Value fund does not lose money and makes at least a few $$$ each day. The rest is in VTI, VOOG.

[marko]

At least my month-end dividends and interest came in 8 percent above normal last night.

[NYEXPAT]

11.04% YTD on a 95/0/5 portfolio.

[littleb]

Ytd -1.399 %

[COcheesehead]

Treading water...0.7 %

[redduck]

Quote:

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

That's impressive: what's leading the parade for you?

[24601NoMore]

Down 0.5% YTD on the retirement part of my portfolio and up 1.0% overall if I also factor in cash reserves and company stock (up 23% YTD). With the way the markets are today, tomorrow's # will no doubt be worse.

Biggest surprise is my trusted Wellesley fund. Down 2.9% YTD..bottom 6% of all funds in it's category. Very unusual for VWIAX..

[Totoro]

New month, somewhat better picture:

• Index tracker world: -1%
• Index tracker non-US: +2%
• Individual stock account, incl. cash drag: +3%

All accounts in EUR, total return since Jan. 1st 2018. It seems to become a wash this year. No complaints.

[NYEXPAT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by redduck That's impressive: what's leading the parade for you?

I was up 18.5% for the first quarter on mostly Chinese internet stocks (Tencent,Baidu,Momo,JD), This last month has actually been piss poor.

[pb4uski]

High risk begets high reward.... good for you.

[Golden sunsets]

First posting for the current year. Up .21%. I tend to not look at any of this stuff when it isn't pretty. I know it could be a lot worse.

AA 53/42/5

[Freedom56]

+3.69% YTD overall (all accounts) including interest payments. The best performers - Centurylink 7.5% 2024 notes, Qwest 7.75% 2031 bonds, U S west 6.875% 2028 bonds, General Electric 6.75% 2018 notes, and Allied Capital 6.875% 2047 notes. I bought more of the Centurylink, Qwest, and U S West issues in early December 2017 and it's working out well so far (The Level 3 management will turn things around). I have a lot of cash waiting to pick up bargains. As bond funds continue to sell due to redemptions, I am waiting with low ball bids. It's a matter of time before equities really tank due to PE compression. The coming rate inversion also won't help. We've all seen this movie before.

[24601NoMore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 I bought more of the Centurylink, Qwest, and U S West issues in early December 2017 and it's working out well so far (The Level 3 management will turn things around).

I hope you're right. Storey and Patel did a great job at LVLT but CTL was a mess and declining in a big way before the merger. Old CTL CEO Post should have been shown the door years ago and it was good to see him hand things over to Storey long before it was otherwise planned. We have a good chunk of the common stock and the dividend (currently north of 11.5% [!]) is going to be a nice income stream in ER - IF it doesn't get cut (which CFO Patel insists it's not..we shall see..)

If Wall Street ever figures out CTL is not another FTR or WIN, Katie bar the door. Could be a very solid upside play (mid 30s - 40s easy) that also just happens to kick off quite a nice div (currently $2.16 or a stock trading in the mid 18s).

[redduck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYEXPAT I was up 18.5% for the first quarter on mostly Chinese internet stocks (Tencent,Baidu,Momo,JD), This last month has actually been piss poor.

Nice going on the year-to-date. While at times tempted, I find that I don't have the courage to invest in individual Chinese stocks. ( I mean why do that when I can get hammered with my AT&T right here at home?).

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetireSoon I hope you're right. Storey and Patel did a great job at LVLT but CTL was a mess and declining in a big way before the merger. Old CTL CEO Post should have been shown the door years ago and it was good to see him hand things over to Storey long before it was otherwise planned. We have a good chunk of the common stock and the dividend (currently north of 11.5% [!]) is going to be a nice income stream in ER - IF it doesn't get cut (which CFO Patel insists it's not..we shall see..) If Wall Street ever figures out CTL is not another FTR or WIN, Katie bar the door. Could be a very solid upside play (mid 30s - 40s easy) that also just happens to kick off quite a nice div (currently $2.16 or a stock trading in the mid 18s).

I don't have any common stock. I prefer to be further up the food chain. Confusing this company with Frontier and Windstream is stupidity. Centurylink is profitable. The interest coverage ratio improved after the merger. Qwest/U S West and Level 3 are tier 1 ISPs. With the combined company, Centurylink is the largest tier 1 ISP and has the largest internet back-bone on the planet. In other words, everyone who uses the internet pays them indirectly. Storey and Patel are smart managers. I know several small business owners in the Los Angeles area who are subcontractors to telecom companies. Prior to the merger, they rarely had to drop prices for Level 3 work and their quotes were always accepted. Since December 2017, they are forced to drop their bids by 25-30% if they want the work. Many planned projects in not so nice areas in Los Angeles have been cancelled. They stated that investments would be zip code focused for demographics that have the ability to pay for services and not blindly rolling out fiber everywhere. They also have stopped investing in consumer cable TV development and have focused investment in business services and streaming video delivery. Their Q1 earnings are coming out in just over a week and given that the common stock has been creeping up slowly since the end of the last quarter in a down market, I would speculate that the street is expecting evidence of a turn-around. We shall see.

[Alan]

XIRR -2.69% as of May 2nd

AA 48/47/5

[CardsFan]

YTD: +0.11% (after adjusting for spending)
AA: about 55/35/10 (cash includes CD's)

Not going to complain about a sideways year, if that is what we get. Total portfolio is 21% more than retirement day (1/1/16), even after spending.

[marko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardsFan Not going to complain about a sideways year, if that is what we get. .

Me neither as dividends/interest keep filling my spending bucket, BUT...I wish I better understood the 'why' of this stallout. Earnings are good/great, unemployment is very low, overall economy is in good shape.

There's the 'excuse of the day' (tax cuts, interest rates, Apple's dramas, political nonsense, etc) but earnings should be the driver; once one excuse of the day passes another excuse crops up.

[kgtest]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Glad to know someone else also has MMM. Do you have FCX (Freeport McMoRan) too? They gave up the gain of 2017 in a hurry. Darn! Valero (VLO) is the star of my portfolio last month. Just do not have enough of it.

I do not own FCX I'll have to run it through the screener. I picked up MMM right before some innovation center announcement in the news. I'm emotionally attached since so many people I know have or do work for MMM here in town.

Then again, over in Charlottsville where everyone works at GE it seem much less rosy. Maybe buying opportunities if anything else. I'm in MMM for at least another 13 years.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko Me neither as dividends/interest keep filling my spending bucket, BUT...I wish I better understood the 'why' of this stallout. Earnings are good/great, unemployment is very low, overall economy is in good shape.

I think most of those are already baked into the cake...