Mark's Commentaries
Jan
7
2010
Fund Performance Period 13
by Mark
Overall Rating:
The mutual fund is now on schedule for a summer 2010 launch. If, after reading the blog content you might have an interest in participation, please consider reading why this blog exists.
Or if you are just here for daily market / economic commentary or stock trades to follow on your own, consider supporting the blog via donation (paypal buttons can be found on the upper right margin of the blog)
For those who read the content of the website via email or RSS reader, you can come to the website at any time and click on 'Performance/Portfolio' tab in the menu bar to get updated positions (weekly) and performance.
I will post an update of performance versus Russell 1000 every 4 weeks; we've moved over to a new tracking this year (Investopedia.com) as the old system would not allow shorting of individual stocks, among other "technical issues" that often came up. Hence while the website and portfolio began in August 2007, we're "starting over" in terms of performance with portfolio "B" as of early 2009. Detailed history on latter 2007 and 2008 can be found on the above mentioned tab. Under the new tracking system, our thirteenth 4 week period is now complete. (Data is through last Friday's closing prices)
(click to enlarge)
Our yearly goal of beating the index we track against by 15% was successful in 2009 although we struggled in the last 4 week period. Neither absolute performance (making money) or relative performance (outperforming the market) were achieved in the period.
*** Long/Short Discussion below
General: Period 13 was a struggle - very little movement occurred most days, and what little there was, mostly happened in premarket or the first 15-30 minutes of the day. This only helped those positioned overnight and with a high cash position that was not us. Then the rest of the day was a lot of churn which only helps quant traders trade amongst themselves and collect rebates; while we sat blankly staring at the wall. Buying "breakouts" on the market overall failed in this period as it did in period 12; something that helped performance greatly in the summer and fall of 2009. With that said, no great mistakes were made - it was simply a period where the market was so range bound, and so many stocks were range bound - there were very few opportunities to exploit. A late day selloff on the very last day of the period (Dec 31st) pushed us from slightly positive for the period to slightly negative, which was unfortunate.
Week 1: The S&P 500 was in week 5 of the "box", we began the week high in cash (75%), 21% long, 4% short. Our short exposure was mostly not "real" shorts but long volatility and long the US dollar; but due to market behavior we classified them as short.
And so dip buyers came back in, once more.
Week 2: The S&P 500 was in week 6 of the "box", we remained mostly sidelined 80% cash, 17% long and the rest short but mostly pseudo sort via "long dollar" (UUP calls).
Week 3: In progress.
Week 4: In progress.
/
[Mar 2, 2009: Fund Performance Period 2]
[Mar 30, 2009: Fund Performance Period 3]
[Apr 27, 2009: Fund Performance Period 4]
[May 28, 2009: Fund Performance Period 5]
[Jun 21, 2009: Fund Performance Period 6]
[Jul 20, 2009: Fund Performance Period 7]
[Aug 17, 2009: Fund Performance Period 8]
[Sep 14, 2009: Fund Performance Period 9]
[Oct 13, 2009: Fund Performance Period 10]
[Nov 9, 2009: Fund Performance Period 11]
[Dec 8, 2009: Fund Performance Period 12]
- [Jan 2008: Reader Pledges Toward Mutual Fund Launch]
- [May 2008: Frequently Asked Questions]
- Our story in Barron's [A New Kind of Fund Manager]
- [November 2009: General Updates, Questions]
Or if you are just here for daily market / economic commentary or stock trades to follow on your own, consider supporting the blog via donation (paypal buttons can be found on the upper right margin of the blog)
For those who read the content of the website via email or RSS reader, you can come to the website at any time and click on 'Performance/Portfolio' tab in the menu bar to get updated positions (weekly) and performance.
Total Portfolio Value, as maintained by 3rd party, can be checked here each day with 20 minute delay vs real time (starting value $1,000,000 or $10.00 NAV)
I will post an update of performance versus Russell 1000 every 4 weeks; we've moved over to a new tracking this year (Investopedia.com) as the old system would not allow shorting of individual stocks, among other "technical issues" that often came up. Hence while the website and portfolio began in August 2007, we're "starting over" in terms of performance with portfolio "B" as of early 2009. Detailed history on latter 2007 and 2008 can be found on the above mentioned tab. Under the new tracking system, our thirteenth 4 week period is now complete. (Data is through last Friday's closing prices)
(click to enlarge)
This period was holiday heavy with the latter 2 weeks shortened by holiday hours. The first 2 weeks and most of the 3rd the S&P 500 remained range bound in the same range it was stuck within almost all of period 12; we called this "the box" (S&P 1085 to 1115/1120). At the end of week 3, and through week 4, Santa Bernanke Claus descended on the people, and in light holiday trading a breakout ensued. News flow was very quiet and unlike previous periods the dollar was strong, not weak. However this did not lead to a selloff in the general market, although it struck precious metals hard. Small caps, after struggling versus large caps for months, finally began to show signs of life in the second half of the period. However, despite the small breakout - many gains in this period happened "off hours" - especially premarket. The Greek fiscal situation was a source of concern during this time frame, but not enough to derail the market.
For the 13th "four week" period the fund returned -0.4%, versus the market's +1.1%, so an under performance of -1.6%.
On a cumulative basis the fund is now +77.5%, versus the Russell 1000's +21.0%, so an out performance of +56.5% for our "year to date" if you will. (thus far 52 weeks)
Please note we did not start this year on Jan 1st... so this is not an apples to apples "year to date" performance but obviously close.
Our yearly goal of beating the index we track against by 15% was successful in 2009 although we struggled in the last 4 week period. Neither absolute performance (making money) or relative performance (outperforming the market) were achieved in the period.
*** Long/Short Discussion below
General: Period 13 was a struggle - very little movement occurred most days, and what little there was, mostly happened in premarket or the first 15-30 minutes of the day. This only helped those positioned overnight and with a high cash position that was not us. Then the rest of the day was a lot of churn which only helps quant traders trade amongst themselves and collect rebates; while we sat blankly staring at the wall. Buying "breakouts" on the market overall failed in this period as it did in period 12; something that helped performance greatly in the summer and fall of 2009. With that said, no great mistakes were made - it was simply a period where the market was so range bound, and so many stocks were range bound - there were very few opportunities to exploit. A late day selloff on the very last day of the period (Dec 31st) pushed us from slightly positive for the period to slightly negative, which was unfortunate.
Please note on the right margin of the blog is an archive in which you can see all these events in chronological order, clicking on any link within the sentences below will take you to that transaction - a summary below:
- Top holding AsiaInfo Holding (ASIA) bought out a competitor right before an IPO and started the week off well, with a 25% gain, we sold half our position into that strength.
- After quite substantial drops in both gold and silver we began a very slow rebuild of the positions (that we had cut to nearly 0% exposure), but we were not willing to add more until we saw how these precious metals would react once they hit some support levels. Essentially I was adding 0.3% into both gold and silver every few days during this week.
Dip buyers have been rewarded non stop for 9 months straight, so we'll see if the Pavlov dog response appears again. Until the pattern blows up (and it will someday), traders will keep repeating what works - creatures of habit.
Another reminder, until we exit the box.... the longer the base, the stronger the ensuing move. I am now expecting a move of 7-10%ish on the index, one way or the other, once we leave this trading range.
And so dip buyers came back in, once more.
- TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) was trimmed, on a failed breakout.
- Almost all of our EnerNOC (ENOC) was sold for a 11% gain in 1 week; as it had run into resistance and I wanted to lock into gains in case it fell back.
- Closed one of our "short" positions - that was a long volatility position we had on iPath S&P 500 VIX Short term Futures (VXX) for a tiny gain. Our timing was perfect on this as we bought it ahead of Thanksgiving and the underlying instrument we were trying to capture, the VIX was 17% higher the day we sold. But due to the poorly designed ETF we only received 1%... very disappointing.
- Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS) dropped 10% on news we could not find, so as it approached a support level we added exposure....
- .... which we were stopped out of the very next morning as the stop continued its free fall.
Week 2: The S&P 500 was in week 6 of the "box", we remained mostly sidelined 80% cash, 17% long and the rest short but mostly pseudo sort via "long dollar" (UUP calls).
Week 3: In progress.
Week 4: In progress.
/
[Mar 2, 2009: Fund Performance Period 2]
[Mar 30, 2009: Fund Performance Period 3]
[Apr 27, 2009: Fund Performance Period 4]
[May 28, 2009: Fund Performance Period 5]
[Jun 21, 2009: Fund Performance Period 6]
[Jul 20, 2009: Fund Performance Period 7]
[Aug 17, 2009: Fund Performance Period 8]
[Sep 14, 2009: Fund Performance Period 9]
[Oct 13, 2009: Fund Performance Period 10]
[Nov 9, 2009: Fund Performance Period 11]
[Dec 8, 2009: Fund Performance Period 12]
Tags: fund-performance | fsys | vxx | tqnt | enoc | asia
