Google, in which I day trade a bit posted excellent quarterly numbers and hit an all time high in the month of October. So was it a profitable month for me as well? Let’s find out.
What did I do
Still patiently waiting on the expiry of my AB inbev puts (December). Ahold Delhaize finally moved in the right direction price wise but it looks like I will need to roll this one a bit more before making a profit on it.
I did close down the position I had in UVXY puts I bought in September for a profit of 1 252 USD. This was a 10,6% return in less than a month. I will be deploying way more money in UVXY puts in the future. Last month I explained why.
And then there was my day trading. I literally closed my last position 2 minutes before starting to type this post. Total profits in October are 1 100 USD.
I try not to get hung up on the profits I leave on the table while day trading but this month was very difficult. First off: I left A LOT of money on the table. And then there is the girlfriends portfolio…
The girlfriends portfolio
As I mentioned last month I do, on occasion, day trade in her portfolio as well. Last month I even made more money in her account than in mine. This month, well, this month was worse. Total day trading profit came to a whopping 1 830 USD! This is the second month in a row I did better in her account than in my own, and the difference is getting bigger! It shows I should work on my discipline and enter in fewer, but more profitable, trades when day trading. Lesson learned.
Off course the point of me managing her stash is to build it up as good as I can so the more money I make in her account the better. I do not think it would be very good for or relationship if I pulled the plug and she still had to work. But I have to be honest, it does sting a bit that my biggest day trading profit didn’t happen in my account. O, the fragile male ego!!
But all in all it was a pretty good month (especially because we were still on holiday for the first week of it). All of the above is generated by using leverage or using cash which was previously generated by using leverage. We haven’t added any extra money into our investments accounts for the last 7 years (all savings eventually going to home renovations). It is an extra on top of the growth of our old investments. And those old investments are doing pretty good also. I bought my very first Berkshire Hathaway B shares on 19 January 2006 at around 60 USD a piece. I did a lot of stuff in between (my trading overview is 12 pages long at present, and that is without my day trading) but never sold those shares and now am fully invested in Berkshire Hathaway.
The girlfriend bought GBL at 60,5 euro in September 2010 and never sold those…
Choose your stock well, and you only ever need to do 1 trade. It was what originally attracted me to investing. It is the only thing I have found where being lazy can bring in a lot of money. It is off course very boring. Which explains all of the above, because let’s be honest, this shit is downright fun to do!
You should become a money manager! Your yield is actually beating the market.
Well that is the point of being an active investor. If you do not beat the market you are better of buying index ETF’s and finding another hobby that doesn’t cost so much money! I already am a money manager with managing my own money, the girlfriends money, my parents portfolio and the mother inlaw. Their might be a godfather portfolio added if one my friends decide to make me godfather of his, as of yet, unborn son. Kind of looking forward to that one: can we get all the noses in the same direction (parents, grandparents and godmother) and achieve FI for the little rascal before he finishes university or not? Probably not, but I should get damn close …
That would be an amazing start to life, now would it not?!
It would be! Conservative numbers (2.000 euro savings a year and 7% return) would mean a starting stash of 100.000 euro by age 22. But if the returns are a bit better and the contributions a bit higher …
I like that girl…! When we meet, I will guide my etf portfolio for her!
Why is your ego hurt with more profit in the girlfriends portfolio? It is your work that generates the profit!
Yeah, but is not my money … I have a strange mind.
Agreed ?
I’m new to option trading and was thinking to test the water with the an UVXY put.
How do you chose the strike price and date? Do you buy them when volatility is low (atm it’s up)?
It might be a bit hard to believe with all my postings about options but I am actually not a big fan of trading options as in buying and selling options. My preffered way of using options is more how I described it here: https://financialfreedomsloth.com/2017/11/02/using-options-dividend-growth-investor/
For most of the options I did this year this was the approach I used. I would not have minded to own the shares of ADM, AB INBEV or Ahold Delhaize at the strikes I sold the puts. I was just pretty confidend they would not be exercised and I could keep the premium. Belgium also has a 0,35% tax on buying or selling stock so I really do not want to have to buy and sell shares. It was a bit bored and wanted to catch some extra premium income. But I really do not see it as option trading. The advantage of this approach is that time works for you as the time decay is part of your profit.
Big exception to all off the above are of course the long term puts on UVXY. That is indeed trading. And the only reason I do it is because the underlying decays so fast in value that I do not mind time working against me. Because timing is another weak spot in trading I go for the longest expiry possible (01 2019 at the moment).
For the buying I still follow velociraptor’s lead (velociraptor.cc). I am starting to get a feel for when to step in (and selling is just taking a 10% profit and getting out). I read everything velociraptor wrote about UVXY puts and then started testing the water with a few contracts. I strongly advise you to do the same …