July 2016 was a good month for the LH Portfolio, I managed to consolidate some positions, finally had my first full month with Interactive Brokers since I switched to their services, and had quite a lot of Options activities, on which I will comment later in a separate post.
Markets were a bit more stable than June, which is good, I lost an opportunity with the pound hovering briefly around 0.86 against the Euro but I believe that it might come back down to those levels as we digest this Brexit stuff more and more.
LH Fund
The Long Haul Fund closed the month with a 2.61% gain, a small increase compared with last month (2.57% in June), but it touched heights of 3.01% in the intra-week performance, so I guess that I cannot complain.
Composition of the Fund is as follows:
BOND – 30.60%
STOCK – 57.58%
CASH – 11.83%
No big changes since last month.
DCA/Increased Positions
None traded.
New Positions – Sold Positions
None traded.
If you are reading this blog you will find out that this is the first month where I had no real activity in buying/selling stocks. This is because I am going deeper into options with my trades and also because there was really no decent opportunity out there for the equities that I have in my portfolio. So right now I am keeping my assets liquid and use them to trade cash secured options (calls or puts), maybe even hoping that some put will get assigned (in that case I will buy stocks). August is going to be a similar month unless there are some major changes or market crashes that might get me to change this plan.
Stalflare 
Ciao Stal,
I think everyone is feeling the same – there are no opportunities out there 😦 When will they come? I don’t know, but it will happen at some point. Good luck over the coming month with your portfolios.
Tristan
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Same here… Waiting and in the mean time writing options…
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Ciao Tristan and ATL,
I’ve got some names “down” but the entry prices are not good enough in my opinion. Options are nice but they require a minimum of followup and management, in recent weeks I have been traveling quite a bit and it was hard to trade on daily bases as I like to do with options… Oh well, we’ll see what happens!
cia ociao
Stal
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Hi Stalflare. You’re not alone. I had very little activity in July as well. Markets are just too hot for my liking. So I’m waiting it out. Actually, I’m going to sell a few positions. I’m excited to hear more about your transition to Interactive Brokers. I think I’m right behind you. I’m tired of the absurd fees my broker charges me.
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Ciao IH,
So far the transition to IB was quite quick and I have to say that I am rather happy at the massive decrease that I am enjoying in fees and the like. I believe that it’s going to be beneficial under many aspects. It takes a while to get accustomed to the new interface (very professional) and to the fact that every bit of market data must be paid (a negative point this one), but in the end as I am not engaged in day trading I do not care if I have delayed data coming my way. Customer service is very quick and I cannot complain about it. I’d definitely recommend it!
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Hi Stal,
Looks like you had a good month to me – I’m interested in how the options are going, so am enjoying your articles about those.
Best wishes,
-DL
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Ciao DL,
Thanks fo stopping by! As options are fairly new in the PF management I need to work on how to do proper reporting on them, July and August, typically low months for dividends, were quite high thanks to the Option writing activity, so it’s clear from the start that they are and can be quite important. At the end of August I had the first setbacks, will be writing about those too pretty soon…
ciao!
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