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.