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2) 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) [Ignore Annual Return in the link as it is prorating short periods of time over longer periods of time] [Please note: in the link "cash" is not true cash but long positions netted versus short]
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3) Last updated November 13, 2009: Full Portfolio updated weekly via screen captures. Please note "total gain/loss" in dollars, and percentage only pertain to the open portion of the position - not to any previous part of the position sold earlier. For more details please see this post.
Long Positions (click to enlarge - 1 photo file)
Short Positions (click to enlarge)
Option Positions (click to enlarge)
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4) Weekly Fund Position Changes / Strategy outlined here
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I've changed over from Marketocracy.com (used from August 2007 to December 2008) to Investopedia.com as a 3rd party tracking vehicle for multiple purposes; most importantly I could not run a hedged portfolio (individual long and short positions) nor use limit stop orders in Marketocracy.com. Even with those limitations and only using half my strategy I was able to beat the S&P 500/Russell 1000 by approximately 24% in my "year 1" (August 2007 through July 2008) [Aug 2, 2008: 'Rising Tide' Performance Year 1]
When last I checked in August 2008 [Aug 21: 'Rising Tide' Performance v Peers] my performance would of ranked #1 in the "mid cap growth" mutual fund category (approx 1860 peers) with a 10.9% return (9.2% after fees). The median of peers was -7.8%. Out of all 6000+ or so equity mutual funds across all categories we would have been the equivalent of "top 10". (note: not top 10 percentile, but literally in the top 10) I'm confidant with the carnage that the mutual fund industry suffered in Sep-Nov 2008, the fact we held high levels of cash (the industry standard is 0-5%, while we've held anywhere from 20-40% during that time) and some "Ultrashort ETFs" would have led to further out performance although our return most likely would of turned from +9.2% to closer to zero (or perhaps somewhat below 0%). My biggest error of 2008 was staying too long in the 'commodities trade' (about 6-7 weeks of serious pain in late summer/early fall) as these stocks fell off a cliff.
My weekly discussion of performance since early in blog life can be found here (or under label 'fund performance'). In the fall of 2008 after growing increasingly frustrated with the platform's inability to realistically track how I'd manage a portfolio - along with a few days I was unable to trade ETFs (which were the majority of my portfolio at the time), I essentially gave up on the Marketocracy.com system (lots of potential there but not the right fit for my style). I was not happy about this since it threw away well over a year's worth of work, but have essentially decided to 'start over' on performance metrics with the Investopedia.com platform.
So if you are new(er) to the website... this has been our journey thus far and where we're headed in the future.
//
20 comments:
Sorry, I screwed up my first comment so here it is again:
Congratulations on the ***SUPERB*** past performance and best of luck and success in the future.
serge.
I am curious if you are still following your initial plan of running a mutual fund? I ask because of the diversity requirement restrictions and the "no shorting" rule. Are you now leaning towards a hedge fund style of trading (in other words anything goes) or still leaning towards the Mutual Fund idea? I ask because I understand that the ability to short stocks is very value adding if used properly but would provide false returns under a Mutual Fund model.
Aldo, the current set up is how I plan to run the mutual fund. You can be short in a mutual fund; 99.9% choose not to be. You can be non diversified. 99.9% choose not to be. The rules I was working with before were specific to marketocracy.com - that is all. As long as you spell things out in the prospectus you can do a lot of things. One thing you cannot deploy in a mutual fund is leverage. Also you cannot do things like sell options (for income) versus positions you don't own (cannot be called away for example)
I love to read your blog and thank you for your hard work. Have you thought of starting a trading advisor firm as Cara did below?
http://caracommunity.com/
Won't be better than running a mutual fund?
Lei
Hi Anon,
Thanks for your words. Since I started the site a good amount of people have asked the same question and made me think about different options. I have the same issue in either venture - raising capital and finding investors is the trick.
"Better" is all in the definition - my goal is to manage money - the ends to the means is relatively open conversation. But all ends to means have same roadblocks :) Thanks
Mark,
One of my friend became a full-time day trader. He also traded and managed money for many people graduated in the same class as him in college. He simply works from home with multiple computers. That is why I thought that it may need less capital to start a trading advisor firm. However, he only trades Chinese market and there are different regulations/cost structures in China comparing here.
Mutual fund industry has done so poorly in general and the only options available in typical 401K plans are these funds loaded with high fees. I would think that people are looking for change.
Anyway, good luck and I wish your success.
Lei
Mark -
I am trying to follow your performance but am confused by the info presented here.
Specifically, I am confused re: spreadsheet that indicates your fund is up .2%; the "Total Portfolio Value" displayed by the independent third party link you provided is arpoximately $9.86. That's a loss of 1.4% (not a gain of .2%).
What am I missing??
Hi Anon,
as you can see above the performance is not updated this week. I am updating that top sheet on a rolling 4 week basis. That was last updated Jan 30th, as I highlighted in green. The value today is $9.86 or -1.4% as you correctly wrote. The value in the spreadsheet is not dynamically updated - to focus less on each and every week I am doing 4 week periods where I will update it.
Got it Mark. Thanks for the clarification.
I enjoy reading your blog. I agree with your conclusions much more frequently than I disagree and have bookmarked your blog for future reference. In any event, your approach to starting your own fund is innovative and, to be honest, ahead of its time. I think that with all of the Madoff and mini-Madoff frauds coming to light, this sort of transparency will add tremendous credibility to your efforts.
And it is nice to see an analytical discussion of the stock market given that so few investors actually take the time (or have the knowledge) to put forth the depth of analysis that you provide. There are far too many talk first think later CNBC types out there today.
I look forward to seeing how things turn out and will keep an eye on your performance with an eye towards investing.
All the best -- Jesse S.
Thanks Jesse. Both the stock market crash and the Madoff type activities have actually hurt my timeline to get this started, but this is the situation and have to adapt.
Agree on CNBC and frankly some of what they do is outright dangerous to the small guy.
Mark -
I also meant to mention that while I am now a business owner, until 2 years ago I was working as a corporate attorney at one of the most prestigious law firms in NYC. I did a fair amount of fund formation work at the time and, while I am no longer a practicing attorney (and can't give formal legal advice), I'd be happy to talk to you (obviously for free) if you wanted to bounce around any ideas or questions re: the legal ins and outs.
If this interests you, let me know and I'll send you an email with my contact info.
-- Jesse
Feel free to drop me contact info and I'll save it for future. I've pretty much done 95% of the leg work; just waiting on capital but potential for things to come up is always there. Thanks.
Hi Mark.
Looks like you're down about 18% year-to-date. I'd be interested in reading a post on what you think you've done well and what you think you would have done differently -- if anything -- thus far.
I was also giving some thought as to how you might monetize portions of this process without loosing site or your ultimate goal. What if you offered a web seminar -- maybe once a month - for example, on the importance of technical analysis in selecting entry and exit points.
Hi Anon
I'm down 1.8%
see this blurb
[Ignore Annual Return in the link as it is prorating short periods of time over longer periods of time]
For example if you are up 3% in Jan the service would prorate it over 12 months = +36%
and vice versa
I started with 1,000,000 so you can work backwards from that - current value = 982,000.
I will have an update up tomorrow
You can use limit orders on Marketocracy. I have done so since 2002.
Hi Chris, I left out a word - I meant limit stop orders.
Hi, what do you think of REIT funds, particularly Vanguard REIT? If someone has been in it for 2 yrs (down!), do you expect that REIT to go up as the market recovers? Your thoughts? Thanks. Giuse
have you thought that if you traded real money you would get different prices? I mean play money doesn't move the market.... I highly doubt you would beat the market if you had real money.... also there is a huge psychological difference... everyone knows real traders trade their own capital cause they make more money and mutual funds are just in business to collect fees.... if they over trade they risk trailing the markets to much and losing assets... and the mutual fund game is just an asset collecting game... good luck
While you're still in transition, you may want to try kaChing. It not only offers a better platform, but it may help you along your way of actually managing people's money.
Check it out:
kaching.com
-Jon
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