Month End Summary – June 2019

June came back as a strong month for stocks after May’s disappointment. I didn’t replace my expired MSFT call from May and it cost me a little missed opportunity while the markets were rallying.

My account ended June with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $92,636.34 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending May with a NAV of $87,870.63. I had a gain of $4,765.71 (~5.42%) on paper for June (less than the S&P 500’s 6.89% gain for the month and the Dow’s 7.19 gain). I had $512.48 in net realized gains, which includes my three closing trades (XLF shares, XLF $27 covered calls were rolled into my share price since they were assigned, and my MDY $355 naked put), $85.30 in interest and $134.96 in dividends (IWM and FEZ).

Quicken reported that I have an account value of $92,542.64, which is the same as what IB shows after I add in the $52.14 in interest accruals and $41.56 in dividend accruals that IB credits in advance of the actual payment.

I’m 77.94% invested in this account as of the end of the month, 5.83 percentage points below the end of May. I have $16,315.07 left in uninvested cash. I have no excuse for not being invested more once I saw the turnaround seemed to have legs. I simply just didn’t make time to trade my own account. I’ve spent my days trading my clients’ accounts and trying to get more exercise. I’m having another back surgery in a couple weeks and movement helps my pain. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t have taken a few minutes for another trade and 30 minutes to write it up, but I didn’t prioritize it, so I missed some potential gains. I’m going to try to find the time to make another trade in this account before my surgery, because I won’t be able to be at my desk for long stints after that.

This is my asset allocation in my IB account as of the end of June:

• Large-cap ETF: 20.16% (including QQQ)
• Mid-Cap ETFs: 38.32%
• Small-Cap ETF: 16.79%
• International: 4.13%
• Individual Stocks & Other Sector ETFs: 0.0%
• Bonds: 0.0%

According to Morningstar, here’s how I compare to the major indexes (including dividends) through the last trading day, May 31, 2019:

• Dow Jones: YTD change +15.4%, 12-month change +12.20%
• S&P 500: YTD change +18.54%, 12-month change +10.42%
• NASDAQ Composite: YTD change +20.66%, 12-month change +6.60%
• Russell 2000: YTD change +16.98%, 12-month change -3.31%
• S&P Midcap 400: YTD change +17.97%, 12-month change +1.36%

My return according to Quicken through May 31, 2019:

• YTD Return: +10.74% (not annualized)
• 1 Year Return: -9.15%

The VIX ended the month at 15.08 and the VXN ended at 19.76. The VIX finished June 3.63 points lower than the end of May. The VXN finished 3.47 points lower. The VIX peaked on June 3, when it hit an intraday high of 19.75. The VXN peaked on the same day at 25.01. These aren’t bad levels to sell volatility. They aren’t great either. We are well above the trough levels of low volatility while also far below the peaks. Over the past couple of years, we’ve stabilized at slightly lower levels. If that history is going to repeat, we could see stock prices remain sideways to higher for another month or two.