End of the Month Summary – May 2021

I think May was a record for inactivity in my account. I made no trades, had no options expire, and didn’t even have any dividends. I’ve been expecting a bit of a correction for the past couple of months and when I saw the first couple of percentage point losses, I thought we might get a solid 10%. So far, I’m wrong. I actually lost a little money on paper since I only have 100 shares of QQQ. I ended May with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $132,979.58 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending April with a balance of $133,385.58. That gives me a loss of $406 (~0.3%) on paper. Since I didn’t have any exposure outside of QQQ, I decided not to sell a covered call on the position so I’d have more upside potential. However, QQQ dropped while the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Russell 2000 gained slightly.

Quicken reported that I have an account value of $132,979.58 which is the same as what IB says. It’s harder for the balance to be off when there is no activity in the account. I’m only 25.14% invested in this account as of the end of May. I have $99,547.11 left in uninvested cash and will make a bigger effort to get some of that cash put to work in June. I’m having another surgery (my third) on my back in a few weeks and don’t expect to put much energy into my own account in July, at least not the first two weeks of the month.

This is my asset allocation in my IB account as of the end of May 2021:

• Large-cap ETF: 25.14% (Only QQQ for now)
• Mid-Cap ETFs: 0%
• Small-Cap ETF: 0%
• International: 0%
• Individual Stocks & Other Sector ETFs: 0%
• Bonds: 0%

Here’s how I compare to the major indexes:

• Dow Jones: YTD change +12.82%, 12-month change +36.03%
• S&P 500: YTD change +11.93%, 12-month change +38.10%
• NASDAQ Composite: YTD change +6.68%, 12-month change +44.88%
• Small-caps: YTD change +15.52%, 12-month change +58.97%
• Mid-caps: YTD change +13.85%, 12-month change +48.24%

My return according to Quicken through May 31, 2021:

• YTD change: +6.38% (not annualized)
• 1 Year change: +21.85%

The VIX ended the month at 16.76 and the VXN ended at 21.44. The VIX peaked on May 13, when it hit an intraday high of 28.93. The VXN peaked a day earlier at 32.72. Outside of those short-lived spikes, both volatility gauges are relatively subdued compared to recent history. I missed my opportunity to sell options when volatility was up, but I know I’ll get another chance before long and will probably sell at least one naked put before long even if volatility stays on the lower side.