VIXGold
Edited
Dear copiers, First up, let me wish you all a ๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฎ ๐™๐™–๐™ฅ๐™ฅ๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™š๐™ฌ ๐™”๐™š๐™–๐™ง ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™š๐™ง๐™ค๐™ช๐™จ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ! ๐Ÿฅณ I hope you celebrated well, and were able to spend the holidays with friends and family. May all your dreams โ€”both financial and personalโ€” become a reality this year! With the new year also comes an evaluation and realignment of my portfolio. Keen observants will have already spotted some big changes in the ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ผ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป vs last year. I will explain my logic and evaluate our ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ over 2024. Our total return was ๐Ÿฑ.๐Ÿณ๐Ÿณ%. Nothing too spectacular, you may think, but as is usually the case with numbers, it is important to see the narrative behind them. I am extremely happy that this return came with a max drawdown of only -2.14%. A drawdown number of less than half the yearly return is always a very good number. This means there was an almost total ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜ƒ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†, and this shows in the positive feedback I have received from you all. Not to mention the overall lack of panicky questions and comments. Don't worry, I always strive to keep it that way ๐Ÿ™‚ Our average monthly risk score remained ๐Ÿญ throughout the year, once again putting me firmly in place as the ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ธ Elite/Elite Pro Popular Investor on the platform. The max risk score that was registered was only a 3. Extremely good numbers! It's difficult to benchmark yourself when you're such a low-risk investor, but I tend to always compare myself to generally risk-free investment vehicles. Did I outperform them? Considering that the highest grossing risk-free funds over 2024, which were rolling short-term bonds, netted (before taxes) a total of 5%, I can say yes. High yielding ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜-๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜€ remain a staple in my portfolio and they have contributed to our returns nicely, even after dropping half of them in the second half of the year. But my ๐—ฆ๐—ฃ๐—ซ๐Ÿฑ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ directional-strategy was the clear winner. I have been trading the SPX500 for many years now with low amounts in both directions, with a high degree of success. Over 2024, this was no different. 58% of these trades ended in a profit. Trust me when I say that this is a very healthy number. It is my strong belief that you can ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ returns and maintain a low-risk portfolio using active and well-timed trades. But is an outperformance of 0.77% enough? Some may say that for a very low-risk portfolio it is ok, but I strive on bringing added value to my copiers, so for my liking, it was not enough. So, what limited the portfolio returns last year? What are the lessons learned? And what changes have I implemented for 2025? Looking at my stats, you can clearly see a differentiation between the first half of the year and the second. Around August, I switched part of my portfolio from short- to mid-term and long-term bonds. Though never risky, the timing was not the best, as since then, yields have gone up substantially, eating away at the value of the bonds. Another change I did to the portfolio was to provide some exposure to the Euro. The Euro has since imploded and is reaching near parity level again with the Dollar. Good news for Europeans copying in dollars, but bad news for the Euro-denominated funds I was holding. Removing these 2 factors would have resulted in the portfolio performing much better, around 15%. Have these positions reached a tipping point though? I honestly don't think so. After careful consideration, I have thus dropped a large chunk of these positions from the portfolio going into the new year. Given the prospects of inflation, higher treasury yields, and stabilizing fed funds rates, combined with geo-political evolutions, it makes further investments in these products too risky for my liking. ๐—ฆ๐—ผ, ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ? Bonds will remain the backbone of my investing strategy. I will focus on actively managing short-term bonds (keeping a minor exposure to the Euro), which I strongly believe will continue to thrive in the current environment. I have also expanded upon my short-term SPX directional-strategy. Self-evaluation is not always easy but is a must if you want your trading strategy to stand the test of time. This year marks my ๐Ÿต๐˜๐—ต ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ on the platform and we're still going strong! Let's make it a good one! ๐Ÿ˜Š ๐Ÿ™Œ ยกยกยก๐™ƒ๐™š๐™ง๐™š'๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™– ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™š๐™ง๐™ค๐™ช๐™จ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™๐™š๐™–๐™ก๐™ฉ๐™๐™ฎ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ!!! ๐Ÿ™Œ
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