Dunno if I should post my YTD return.
The last time I did it for April 30, it prompted the following exchange.
You double digit folks are nailing it. Lol I hope it continues.
I thought I nailed it in Jan 2018.
Unfortunately, my nail did not have holding power, and it came loose in Dec 2018.
In April, I had a wonderful gain from my semiconductor stocks, and did not think that would last, so wrote many out-of-the-money covered calls on them. The price went way past what I thought was already a high price, and I had to sell many shares below the market price in late April.
If I just sat in cash as I originally intended to do to reduce my stock AA, I would keep my gain. Instead, I got greedy and sold a bunch of May put options to buy them back at the price I sold. I was in Europe, and had Internet access, so thought I would do a few trades. Even if the stocks dropped, I still got cash from both the call and put options, and was still ahead compared to doing nothing and just holding the shares. Right?
When the honcho guy lowered the axe on Huawei, the effect was an H-bomb being dropped on the semi sector. ARGHHH! Major pain! I remained firmly on the positive ground and still made good money YTD, but look at what I lost. A few hundred $K gone, just like that.
I did not sell, but would not want to buy more. I already had too much exposure to this sector as it was. I hang on, and the shares are now recovering, but need to go a bit more to get back to where I was at the end of April.
I started to write some covered call options again, but this time if they get exercised I will sit in cash. And indeed some June options got exercised, and my stock AA is now 66% instead of 70+% as at the end of April. I left some money on the table, but still remember the lesson learned just last month.
So, I shall restraint from bragging about YTD return here. It will offend the market god, considering also all the "Wh***" that were proclaimed here.
Looking to writing more out-of-the-money covered calls in the days ahead, and reducing stock AA further.
PS. The gain I have had so far this year is really nothing to brag about, considering that 2018 was a bad year for me.
PPS. It's not just stock AA exposure, but exposure to the more volatile sectors that drives the portfolio to exceed or trail the market. Not for the faint of heart.
. Much more action than we've seen in June for a while
