Portfolio Update – June 2021

Growth stocks came back with a vengeance in June. That benefitted the portfolio since I’ve been swapping value stocks for growth stocks over the past year. However, the portfolio has not caught up to S&P 500 yet which is back to hitting all-time highs again.

The 10-year Treasury rate has stabilized below 1.5% for now which is great news for the bull run in growth stocks. That said, there’s still a real risk of the Fed becoming more hawkish than expected especially with Jackson Hole coming up in August.

Portfolio trading activity in June was relatively muted compared to May, with my only moves being accumulating index funds, letting go of a couple more value stocks, and a bit of de-risking by trimming growth stocks that have run up a little too much in my opinion.

On performance numbers, I’ve changed the way I calculate returns to the following formula from eToro website which I thought is a better reflection of returns. Instead of only monthly, I’ve expanded it to YTD and all-time performance calculations. Previously, I had erroneously just took period end P/L% minus period start P/L% which was totally off. This revised calculations takes into account cash flows which is important in providing an accurate picture of portfolio returns. As a result, performance numbers look much worse now 🙁

Source: eToro

Another goal of mine for 2021 is to figure out how to calculate portfolio cost and value at any point in history. Right now, I’m basically taking snapshots everyday of these portfolio numbers. If there are any errors or changes to the way I record portfolio numbers, I’m unable to update historical numbers. Thus, there might still be inaccuracies in performance numbers if historical figures are inaccurate. That said, it’s not a high priority for me, since I’d rather focus on the future than look back at the past.

Family Portfolio

  • June performance: +2.4%
  • YTD performance: +2.7% vs SPX +14.4% vs NDX +12.7%
  • All-time performance (since Aug 2016): +13.8% (+14.7% including dividends)
  • June dividends: S$207 (-63% yoy)
  • Bought: VT, QQQ, ARKK, ABNB, ATVI
  • Sold: SBS Transit (SGX:S61), WBA, PLTR, NVDA

Let go of another Singapore industrial stock SBS Transit. Last month, I decided to sell its parent ComfortDelGro (SGX:C52) and keep SBS Transit. However, after considering SBS Transit’s long term price action, growth prospects, and dividend cut, I felt that there were better opportunities elsewhere. Even as a recovery play, I would rather look to U.S. industrial giants like Boeing (BA), or General Dynamics (GD) which I’ve previously held. SBS Transit’s growth prospects are not as exciting and considering that it couldn’t even maintain its dividend despite being a major public transportation player, I don’t see the appeal in owning the stock any longer.

Took profits on Walgreens (WBA) since its price has appreciated quite a bit. At these prices, I feel that the risk-reward is no longer attractive. After all, I did enter into this position as a deep value and dividend play. WBA seems to also be in consolidation in the price range of $51-56 since mid-March. WBA is inherently a high volume, low margin business and their retail pharmacy has been affected by the pandemic too. With Amazon and Walmart entering the retail/online pharmacy space, I feel that competition will really start to bite.

I trimmed Palantir (PLTR) and Nvidia (NVDA) purely for risk management. After pretty nice run ups in high growth tech, my allocation to individual stocks has grown beyond my intended allocation so I just wanted to trim it down a bit.

Cash position has increased quite a bit to 26% because of net sales and regular contributions this month. Waiting for the next pullback to deploy proceeds into index funds, which are under-allocate for me at the moment.

Personal Portfolio

  • June performance: -2.9%
  • YTD performance: -5.9%
  • All-time performance (since July 2020): +20.1%
  • June dividends: None
  • Bought: None
  • Sold: None

Down this month mainly due to Tesla (TSLA), although offset slightly by the run up in Palantir (PLTR). I’m considering taking profits on TSLA and PLTR positions, mainly because I’ve added both in the main Family Portfolio.

PLTR seems to have grown up somewhat since its meme stock days with better coverage in social media. For TSLA, I might wait a bit for a better price to cash out.

Ideally, I’d like to reserve Personal Portfolio funds for more speculative high-growth potential stocks.

Social Portfolio

The tech rebound helped this portfolio recover much of the losses from May. I was hit pretty hard by the declines in crypto and gold. However, I did manage to make some profitable trades on Sea (SE), Zoom (ZM), Palantir (PLTR) Crowdstrike (CRWD), Tesla (TSLA), Teladoc (TDOC) and Nike (NKE).

Everyday I’m learning more about TA, especially from the FinTwit community on Twitter which is great. Hope to eventually reach a level where I can contribute back to the community as well.

What have you been buying or selling in June? Would love to hear from you.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not professional financial advisor nor do I work in the finance industry. Anything I write here is purely my personal opinion. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing into anything. All investments come with associated risks. Best to consult a financial advisor if you’re still unsure.