Investment Journal

Sold remaining ECNS position ECNS one of the lowest-yielding positions in my retirement account. Additionally, it's an ETF which I don't like. Additionally, the dividends of its earning are subject to foreign taxes. I've been trying to liquidate all of my ETF positions and replace them with holdings in individual stocks, but I have found fewer high yield stocks to be particularly bullish about in recent years than growth stocks, so I still hold some ETFs in my IRA. Since I decided that right now is a good time to take a position in a particular high yield stock that has been on my watch list, I liquidated my ECNS position today. Bought IBM I should have put a lot of money into MSFT when its horrendous failure of a CEO was replaced by someone competent in 2014. I knew that this had happened in 2014 because Satya Nadella was already spearheading Microsoft's adoption of Linux and open source technologies, and someone has to be good to get away with doing this at Microsoft....

Bought a stake in Miso Robotics This is my first ever seed investment. This looks like a company that has the potential to eliminate a lot of jobs. That's the future of robotics. The future is about earning money in jobs that robots can't do yet, and generating profits off of jobs that they already do well. This is a relatively early startup. Pre-money valuation of $80 million. There is always the question of execution for this sort of investment, and a high risk of losing all the money invested, but I think there is also 1000x or more potential for this company. I've looked at quite a few crowd-funded startups over the years, this is the first one that has stood out to me as obviously executing well on an obviously good business plan. Had a bunch of options expire Most of these expired out of the money. I ended up liquidating the majority of my ownership in CVNA which expired in the money, and expanding my position in LTHM a little. My CVNA position had grown to be one of ...

Replaced GXG with CIB I think Colombia and Vietnam are two of the countries that have the best prospects of future growth. I haven't found an opportunity to take exposure to Vietnam that seemed worth taking. There is an ETF which tries to give exposure to Vietnam but it is composed almost entirely of foreign companies doing business in Vietnam, and it is not particularly correlated with the performance of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, so I've never taken exposure to Vietnam. I bought GXG a couple years ago and have now liquidated it at a significant loss. My core thesis remains in tact as far as I'm concerned. I still strongly believe in the growth of the Colombian economy. However, I really don't like ETFs. They are structurally bad ways to own stock. I only ever buy ETFs to pick up exposure to foreign countries where it's hard for me to do the research. Even then, I'd be better off picking at random than investing in an ETF if I could efficiently do that, but s...

I sold January 2021 FSLY put at 55 I'm bullish FSLY. Right now, I'm net long with a covered call expiring in January 2020 at 90. Both of these options sold for about 10. Though I think it is likely to be very volatile. I sell puts at prices where I will be happy if they get hit. (I sell calls hoping I'll be a penny above the expiration price.) I've thought about increasing my position several times. I've thought about reducing it a few times. The symbol is very volatile. I'm willing to take a profit if it bounces around or keeps rising. I'm willing to extend my position at an effective price of 45. I wrote a little bit about my thoughts on FSLY yesterday, I think. Quick summary is I really like its revenue growth, but I'm less fond of its expense growth. I'm net bullish, but I expect it to be pretty volatile with a low Sharpe until it starts sustaining profitability. I see some risk to the business being made obsolete before it achieves profitability...

I've been trading much more actively, and I'm going to start keeping a journal of every trade I make on the day I make it with a quick summary of my reason behind each trade. I sold my stake in FMC. I don't think FMC is either overvalued or undervalued. I also don't think it's particularly volatile or likely to become one of those two things any time soon. I'm increasingly looking to generate income off my portfolio by selling covered calls. (I also sell some naked puts.) My stake in FMC was an odd lot which is unsuitable for selling covered calls. Its appreciated significantly since I purchased it in absolute terms and also relative to valuations metrics (i.e. its P/E and Price/Revenue are inflated relative to what they were when I purchased, and I thought it was undervalued when I bought it, so I think the increase was justified by the fact that it used to be undervalued, but I don't see anything that has materially improved.) I actually originally purchas...

Disclaimer: I own a position in the symbol discussed, and I am not offering investment advice, merely explaining my purchasing decision. Progressive Insurance is a company that has been on my buy list ever since I realized that I was a very bad driver. Every time I've looked at them, I've felt like they'd had too hot of a run recently, and that a better purchasing opportunity had to be coming up soon. The Covid-19 lockdown is the perfect storm and broad market sell-off is the perfect storm for them. I've considered buying stock in Geico (better known to investors as Berkshire Hathaway) on many occasions, but every time I look into it, I'm no longer convinced that it's still a great company. When I thought about stocks that I didn't think people would immediately realize benefited from the lockdown (after I realized that people would underestimate how much Waste Management was hurt buy the lockdown), Berkshire Hathaway became one of the first stocks I conside...