Go For Broke

Tuesday, May 31, 2022 -- $20,250.22 (-$276.56, -1.35%) Monday was a holiday and today KIND was down more than 3%, up more than 3% but ended up down just over 1%.  All in all a rather subdued day for KIND.

Friday, May 27, 2022 -- $20,526.78 (+$622.63, +3.13%) Wow!  A three-day winning streak!  It almost makes me forget that the portfolio is down over 78% since inception ... NOT!  But in life we take the bad with the good or, in this case, the rare small good with the frequent large bad.  But hope springs eternal so here's to better days ahead!

Thursday, May 26, 2022 -- $19,904.15 (+$691.81, +3.60%) Up again.  Unfortunately, due to the margin sales to meet margin deficits, more than half of the KIND shares were sold so the portfolio does not benefit as much.  Being forced to sell positions when they are low is one of the biggest risks with investing on margin and you can see how it has played out here.

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 -- $19,212.34 (+$1,037.71, +5.67%) The streak is dead!  Long live the streak!  (The new one).  While I might attribute KIND actually going up to its increasing resistance to going down as it nears its "cash" value, it might have simply gone up in "sympathy" with the broad market, which was up today.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022 -- $18,174.64 (-$1,521.97, -7.73%) The streak is alive!  At this point, KIND's market cap is approximately $981 million and it has about $700 million in cash on hand so the drops should probably start slowing down.

Monday, May 23, 2022 -- $19,696.61 (-$675.00, -3.31%) Just because it is always good to keep a streak going, KIND dropped again so the portfolio has set another new all-time low!

Thursday, May 19, 2022 -- $20,371.61 (+276.72, +1.36%) KIND dropped like a rock again and is, again, at an all-time low!

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 -- $20,094.89 (-$4,207.22, -17.31%) KIND dropped like a rock again and is, again, at an all-time low!

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 -- $24,302.11 (+$1,924.26, +8.60%) KIND had an up day, and the portfolio mirrored the past two day's 8.60% increase with another one today.  Unfortunately, because the portfolio was in a margin call position, over 4,000 shares of KIND were sold in a margin sale and so the full benefits of KIND's price increase were no realized.  Again, please note that this is one of the reasons to AVOID investing on margin! 

Monday, May 16, 2022 -- $22,377.85 (-$1774.51, +8.61%) Please note that I skipped an update on Friday so the portfolio shows an increase despite KIND being down today--this increase was the result of KIND going up on Friday.  Because the portfolio was in "deficit" there was a margin call and since I did not affirmatively sell to meet the margin call, part of the portfolio was simply sold by the broker.  A total of 4,081.92771 shares of KIND were sold at a substantial loss.  This is a vivid illustration of one of the dangers of investing on margin--when you get a margin call and are forced to sell, it is typically at a substantial loss.

Thursday, May 12, 2022 -- $20,603.34 (-$320.00, -1.53%) The portfolio was down today, but it was only down a modest 1.53%.  But the account now has a margin deficit of $1,2906.66.  This is a "margin call."  If I don't sell something soon, parts of the portfolio will be automatically sold.  When you are investing and you are down dramatically, there is an emotional tendency to want to stick your head in the sand, but this generally is not a good idea.  It is sometimes helpful to remember that you can't change the past, you can't change the present, you can only change the future. Lamenting one's losses is only useful it if helps improve your behavior/decision making in the future.

Wednesday, May 11, 2022 -- $20,923.34 (-$2,860, -12.03%) It is starting to feel like the beating the portfolio is taking will never end.  It is not back in a margin call position.  KIND, again, dropped precipitously and the portfolio is, again, at an all time low.  This feels like a very painful version of Groundhog Day, but at least the maximum additional loss is now under $21,000!

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 -- $23,783.34 (+670.00, +2.90%) KIND was down a little more than 4% but due to the vagaries of pricing, the portfolio shows it is up a little bit today.

Monday, May 9, 2022 -- $23,113.34 (-$7,520.00, -24.55%) I guess we are back to brutal days.  Down almost 25% in a single day, the portfolio is on life support.  On the bright side, the most it can go down is now less than $25,000!

Friday, May 6, 2022 -- $30,633.34 (-$6,070.30, -16.54%) So a merely brutal day follows a devastating day.  The portfolio plummeted more than 16% today.  The resulting margin called forced me to sell 2,000 more shares of KIND.  The portfolio is, again, at an all-time low, less than one-third of its starting value!

Thursday, May 5, 2022 -- $36,703.64 (-$8,300, -18.44%) A devastating day.  The entire market was down, possibly in a delayed reaction to the Fed's increasing the target interest rate by 1/2% yesterday, but KIND was down more than 11% and the portfolio was decimated--down more than 18% to a new all-time low of less than $37,000.

Wednesday, May 4, 2022 -- $45,003.64 (+$1,560, +3.59%) Despite being down around 3% to 4% most of the day, KIND surged in the final 90 minutes of the regular trading session to close up over 2%!

Tuesday, May 3, 2022 -- $43,443.64 (-$1,850, -4.1%) KIND was down just over 2% and the portfolio was down just over 4%.  Again, not much going on other than a war in Ukraine that could grow into WWIII and a Supreme Court decision was leaked that shows the court is on the cusp of overturning Roe. v. Wade.

Monday, May 2, 2022 -- $45,293.64 (+$1,160.00, +2.63%) As expected, the SPY options expired worthless, thank goodness!  Not much happened today, and, frankly, I am not expecting much to happen for at least a couple of weeks.