PhilstockWorld May Portfolio Review (Members Only)

$1,800,221 – that’s up 300% from our $600,000 start on our paired portfolios back on 11/26/13.

We haven’t made too many changes in the past 30 days but we still gained a very nice $47,535 since the April Review ($1,752,686) on our paired Long and Short-Term portfollios.  While $47,535 is 8% of our original, it’s “only” 2.7% of our April total so yes, we are playing a bit too conservatively for this market – despite putting up some very impressive numbers.  

The S&P 500 was at 2,360 on April 9th and now 2,433, so it’s up 3.1%, which means we’re now one of those funds that is underperforming the S&P 500, right?  But that’s not the purpose of our portfolio strategy – clearly we outperform the S&P over the long haul and that’s because our hedges keep us (mostly) from losing money in the downturns.  Being safe from downturns has a price though, when the market is gaining at an 18% annualized pace – we aim for a more conservative average than that.

Since April 9th, we’ve added new longs on ABX, DIN, EWZ, IMAX, SEE, SKT, TLRD and VZ and, if you are having trouble recognizing some of the symbols – well that’s my point – we’re running out of cheap stocks to buy at these days, so we either have to drink the Kool-Aid and buy high and hope to sell higher or we can wait PATIENTLY for a pullback that gives us better entries on better stocks.  

Going back to last July’s review, when at S&P 2,120 I asked “Are We Too Bullish?“, we were at $1,519,454 so we’re up about 20% from that total but keep in mind we still trade the LTP like it’s a $500,000 portfolio with 80% of our money in CASH!!! and gaining $300,000 on $500,000 is 60% – that’s why our growth is slowing now, the way we’re plaing it, 20% a year is just fine!  The key is to learn how to CONSISTENTLY get those 20% returns, so they can compound over time.  $500,000 compounded at 20% for 20 years is $19,168,799 – that should be enough to paper anyone’s retirement, right?

The trick is to…

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.