Portfolio Updates

Portfolio Update October 2021 – Roaring Back to All-Time Highs

Calvin Lo

The market came roaring back with a vengeance in October, posting a convincing recovery after a pretty scary correction in September. The S&P 500 was up +6.9% for the month, more than compensating for the -4.8% drop the prior month. And with that, the market is back to hitting all-time highs.

All portfolios benefitted although to vastly different extents. The highlight of the month was definitely Tesla’s crazy breakout, with the stock up +44% for the month, closing out the month at $1,114.00/share!

See my portfolio holdings and strategy on my Portfolio page.

Family Portfolio

  • October performance: +7.5% vs SPX +5.9% vs NDX +7.5%
  • YTD performance: +4.9% vs SPX +24.7% vs NDX +25.3%
  • All-time performance (since Aug 2016): +14.2% (+16.7% including dividends)
  • September dividends: S$20 (-82% yoy)
  • Bought: VT, PYPL, SE, PLTR, FB
  • Sold: TSLA, MA

Nothing much to say about VT, just regular buying since markets were down in the beginning of the month.

I added to my existing positions in PayPal (PYPL), Sea Limited (SE) and Palantir (PLTR) opportunistically.

I decided to add back to my PLTR position at around $24 after trimming some last month. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy at lower prices since I’m pretty excited about their prospects. PLTR seems to be trading in a flattish band between $21-29 for some time now.

This month I initiated a new position in Facebook (FB), after a long period of consideration. Finally pulled the trigger after a big drawdown. In my opinion, FB just seems to be becoming stickier as a social media platform. They’re also pursuing growth on many different areas like social commerce (FB Marketplace), videos (FB Watch), AR/VR (Oculus). This was even before I knew about the name change and pivot to metaverse. Well actually Mark Zuckerberg was already dropping big hints. Anyway I like the direction FB is going so hopefully they can execute on their new vision well.

I exited my position in MasterCard (MA). I’m now less sure whether the consumer will be back spending with credit cards at retail outlets at a similar level to pre-pandemic so soon. Even so, maybe other payments services and e-wallet providers got a huge tailwind boost from the pandemic, while MA had to play defence. I’m concentrating on PYPL and SQ instead for the payments space.

My big mistake for the month was selling Tesla (TSLA) right before the breakout rally. Luckily, I only sold 1 share but it still hurts to miss the gains. I missed out on +40% and counting from my sale price of $795. Ouch. Just because I wanted to lock in some meagre gains. Reminder to self: Don’t sell winners!

In future, I’ll try my best to limit taking short-term profits to the other portfolios.

No change to the number of individual stock holdings at 22. Exited MA but initiated a new position in FB.

Personal Portfolio

  • October performance: +38.7%
  • YTD performance: +45.7%
  • All-time performance (since July 2020): +91.66%
  • October dividends: None
  • Bought: PLTR, DIS, TWTR
  • Sold: None

Tesla (TSLA) is now 90+% of this portfolio after the surge this month. So basically, the performance of this portfolio will largely track the performance of Tesla. Tesla continues to be a multi-year holding for me so I’m not inclined to trim it.

I added back to Palantir (PLTR) position in this portfolio too, and also bought smaller stakes in Disney (DIS) and Twitter (TWTR) on weakness. I bought these mainly because I signed up for a Moomoo trading account and need to log 5 trades within 60 days to get my free Apple (AAPL) share. However, DIS and TWTR will likely be swing trades for me instead of long-term holdings.

I’m still hunting for the my next big conviction stock after Tesla. Let me know if you have any suggestions and why. So far, Palantir seems to be #2 but I haven’t mustered up enough conviction to go in bigger.

Social Portfolio

  • October performance: +3.03%
  • YTD performance: +3.80%
  • Check out my eToro account for trade activity: https://etoro.tw/3rLL9tX

I’m still struggling with setting stop loss levels on short term trades, with many of them triggering like on Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Pinduoduo (PDD), Fiverr (FVRR), PayPal (PYPL) and Alphabet (GOOG). Maybe I’m spreading myself too thin trying to cover so many names.

The rally in Bitcoin and Tesla (TSLA) and other growth names saved this month’s performance.

With the Family Portfolio mostly settled, I shall focus a bit more on short-term trading in this account.

What have you been buying or selling in October?

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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.

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