Go For Broke

  Monday, February 28, 2022 -- $84,501.54 (-$800.00, -0.94%) Despite the extreme sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and the cratering of the Russian stock market and Putin threatening nuclear war, the U.S. markets have been up although KIND dropped about 0.5%, it still is holding up well.

  Friday, February 25, 2022 -- $85,301.54 (+6,380.00, +8.01%) For some reason, while the war continues to rage in Ukraine, the markets are going up and KIND is following suit.  While everyone expects the overwhelming Russian forces to prevail, some reports are indicating that the Ukranians are putting up a brave defense.  We have not seen significant Russian cyber attacks, but that could be coming.  In any event, it would not be unexpected to see continued and significant market volatility.

  Thursday, February 24, 2022 -- $78,921.54 (+$8,004.56, +10.14%) In order to meet my margin call, I sold 2,900 KIND for $5.25/share.  As it often seems to turn out, margin call sales often seem to be forced at inopportune times and that was the case here.  As it turns out, KIND closed the day at $6.05/share so I would have made $2,320 more by selling it at the end of the market day. I wouldn't say this is a case of "all is well that ends well" but I would like to point out that whenever you sell a portion of your position, you still want the remaining position to increase in value, so KIND going up more than 15% after I sold it is not, in an of itself, a bad result. This was a good day after several very bad days.  Hopefully there are several more in the near future.

  Wednesday, February 23, 2022 -- $70,916.98 (-$12,450.00,-14.93%) The market downturn and KIND's implies that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not baked into prices.  As you can see, the today's portfolio plunge has resulted in the portfolio being in what Robinhood calls "Account Deficit" which is another name for there being a margin call.  Because the securities underlying the margin borrowing have dropped in value, the amount that can be borrowed has dropped below what has been borrowed so either securities will need to be sold or a deposit needs to be made.  I will go ahead and sell some KIND tomorrow, assuming that Robinhood does not do it first.

  Tuesday, February 22, 2022 -- $83,366.98 (-$339.23, -0.41%) It has been over a month since the portfolio had such a sedate day and moved less than 1%.  So far the Russian invasion of Ukraine has not significantly further weakened KIND, but we are still early in the process.  There were no changes to the portfolio and yesterday (Monday) was the Presidents' Day holiday so the markets were closed.

  Friday, February 18, 2022 -- $83,706.21 (-$14,398.56, -14.68%) Another market day, another crushing loss.  As the market tumbled the portfolio went into margin call position so I sold 1,000 KIND while all 9 of the $9 KIND Put options that I was short on were executed forcing me to purchase 900 shares of KIND at $9 each, despite its present price being just over $6.  This is a another lesson in how portfolio concentration, leverage and options are the kinds of things that can lead to a 25% loss over the course of two days!

  Thursday, February 17, 2022 -- $98,104.77 (-$14,990, -13.25%) Thank you Vladimir Putin for crushing the portfolio today with your moving closer to the brink of war with Ukraine!  The world is, collectively, holding its breath, to see whether Russia invades Ukraine.  Meanwhile, global markets are panicked by the possible economic effects of a war in Europe.  For some inexplicable reason, KIND dropped almost 8% today while the broad markets were down only 2% to 3% ... or perhaps it is explicable because KIND is much more volatile than those indices and because KIND had already run up more than 40% in the past couple of weeks.  I am still holding, hoping for the best in Ukraine, but it is not at all unlikely that I will be issued a margin call shortly and have to sell out of some of my KIND position.

  Wednesday, February 16, 2022 -- $113,094.77 (-$2,008.00, -1.74%) Not much happened today other than KIND dropped $0.07 (about 1%).  I wonder whether I should sell some KIND and buy some RBLX which plummeted to its lowest level since it IPO'd nearly a year ago as a result of a poor earnings report.  Or, since I believe that one way or another, we are just about done with this pandemic, maybe I should hold off as RBLX was one of the beneficiaries of kids spending more time at home.  I will need to ponder this.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 -- $115,102.77 (+$9,787.07, +9.29%) With the additional cash from my sale of my last Ethereum, I was able to sell KIND 9 Call options expiring on Friday to concentrate the portfolio even a little bit more.  On the expiration date I will either own 900 more shares of KIND, because the price closed at more than $7.50 shares per KIND had a good day and so the portfolio also jumped and set a record-since-inception high!  As you can see, most of the gains are coming from the shares of KIND rather than the KIND options even though both control about the same number of shares.  Options tend to change price less, per share, than the underlying stock prices change.

Monday, February 14, 2022 -- $105,314.80 (+$3,629.99, +3.75%) I sold my last Ethereum, so this portfolio is officially all KIND!

Friday, February 11, 2022 -- $101,684.81 (-$4,691.51, -4.41%) After a very nice run for KIND, it gave back a little ground today.  I realize that I can make this portfolio, at least for a little while, even more concentrated if I were to sell my 1 Ethereum and purchase more KIND.  I am seriously contemplating doing this next week.

Thursday, February 10, 2022 -- $106,376.32 (+$8,967.82, +9.21%) Ethereum's modest decline and the overall markets' larger decline--the broad markets were down between 1.5% and 2% today--did little to dampen today's upward surge of the portfolio.  As KIND continues climbing and is up almost 10% for the third day in a row!  The portfolio is now up a pretty spectacular 61% since hitting its low about two weeks ago!

Wednesday, February 9, 2022 -- $97,408.50 (+$10,261.02, +11.77%) I purchased another 40 KIND $7.5 Call options expiring in September to somehow make this portfolio even more concentrated and even more leveraged.  Fortunately, today at least, it paid off with another up-more-than-10% day!  The portfolio is now back above its blog-inception value and between direct holdings of KIND and being long Call options.  Right now the KIND options are about $1.00 "out of the money" meaning that KIND will have to go up another $1 to get above the exercise price of $7.50 and if it does so before the options expire in September, then, assuming I maintain the current positions, the portfolio controls 33,000 shares of KIND!

Tuesday, February 8, 2022 -- $87,147.48 (+$8,647.85, +11.02%) There were no portfolio changes today and KIND was up big which gave the portfolio its 5th up-more-than-10% day in its short history.  Given that there have now been 5 days on which the portfolio has gained more than 10%, how is it possible that the portfolio is still down since the inception of this blog?

Monday, February 7, 2022 -- $78,499.63 (+$619.61, +0.80%) There were no portfolio changes today and was up a little less than 1%.  But, Ethereum continues its upward trajectory while KIND seems to be going nowhere.  I hope it was a good move to sell out of Ethereum and go almost all-in on KIND.

Friday, February 4, 2022 -- $77,880.02 (+$6,574.01, +9.22%) The portfolio had a good day.  KIND shot up over 10% and Ethereum also went up about 10%.  I sold 1 Ethereum and am holding only KIND and 1 Ethereum.  This is a highly highly concentrated and leveraged portfolio.  Any financial advisor worth their salt should strongly advise against this type of asset allocation.

Thursday, February 3, 2022 -- $71,306.01 (-$6,358.38, -8.19%) Because I am only posting on days in which I made a change to the portfolio or on which I think there is something to comment about, the change in valuation noted above is not necessarily a one-day change.  Today, since I have not posted since Tuesday, it shows the net change after two days. I added 20 more KIND $7.5 call options that expire on 9/16/22.  KIND has dropped since Tuesday causing my very KIND portfolio to fall substantially as well.  This is truly a "swing for the fences" or "go for broke" type of portfolio--highly leveraged, very concentrated, with many options.  Even if it does work out well, just like "betting everything on red" on a roulette table, it does not mean this is a strategy that anyone should pursue.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022 -- $77,664.39 (-$740.74, -0.94%) A rather ho-hum day for the portfolio value, but active for the portfolio holdings.  I am, temporarily at least, going almost all in on KIND.  I sold 4 more Ethereum, leaving just 2 left in the portfolio.  I used the proceeds to purchase another 2,100 shares of KIND and 100 KIND 9/16/22 $7.5 call option contracts.  In order to not lose everything on the call option investment, KIND will have to be at $7.50 or higher on the 9/16/22, the expiration date.  And, because my average price was $1.18, I will only make a profit if KIND is above $8.68 at the expiration date.