Outside of my FB naked put, July was a good month overall. However, FB’s drop killed most of my profit for the month. While the S&P 500 gained 3.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 4.71%, my account only eked out a small gain. The gain in GS made up for 66% of my FB losses, while my options losing time value helped leaving me with a loss. I expect FB to recover. It might not jump higher in August, but I’m not worried about keeping my put in place and accepting the option assignment.
My account ended July with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $101,710.10 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending June with a NAV of $101,664.02. I had a gain of $46.08 (less than 0.01%) on paper for July and had $2,667.82 in net realized gain from seven closing trades, including the opening and closing of my FB September $195 naked put for a profit of $372.70. Had I not rolled this put up so early, I wouldn’t have had quite as much of a paper loss from FB. I received $70.66 in interest ($8.85 less than last month) and no dividends. Quicken reported that I have an account value of $101,633.32, which a penny more than what IB shows due to a rounding difference and the $76.76 in interest accruals IB is crediting for me.
I’m only 91.39% invested in this account, 1.75 percentage points above the end of June. With $8,754.73 left uninvested, I need to find another investment I like. Maybe with the World Cup and Tour de France over, I can concentrate on my account more. It’ll also help having my teenage son go back to school in a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll find another distraction, but without those in the way, I’ll definitely have more time on my hands.
This is my asset allocation in my IB account as of the end of July:
– Large-cap ETF: 0.0%
– Mid-Cap ETFs: 0.0%
– Small-Cap ETF: 15.83%
– International: 3.93%
– Individual Stocks & Other Sector ETFs: 75.92% (most of this is large cap really with AAPL, ADI, FB, GS included here)
– Bonds: 0.0%
– Short ETFs: 0.0%
According to Morningstar, here’s how I compare to the major indexes (including dividends) through the last trading day, July 31, 2018:
– Dow Jones: YTD change +4.07%, 12-month change +18.75
– S&P 500: YTD change +6.47%, 12-month change +16.24%
– NASDAQ Composite: YTD change +11.15%, 12-month change +20.87%
– Russell 2000: YTD change +9.54%, 12-month change +18.73%
– S&P Midcap 400: YTD change +5.31%, 12-month change +14.50%
These are my returns according to Quicken through the end of July 2018:
– YTD Return: +1.71% (not annualized)
– 1 Year Return: +5.22%
The VIX ended the month at 12.83 and the VXN ended at 19.17. The VIX finished July 3.26 points lower than the end of June. The VXN finished 1.71 points lower. The VIX peaked on July 3, when it hit an intraday high of 16.23. The VXN peaked the same day at 21.82. The VIX has eased back enough to make selling options less profitable, but at least we have the VXN at decent levels still.