Things are getting crazy!
The markets have been zig-zagging all over the place but, fortunately, it's what we expected and our Long-Term Portfolio sits at $723,544, that's up 44.7% and down $23,859 (3.3%) from our last review but, fortunately, our paired Short-Term Portfolio did it's job and protected us, finishing the week up 152%, at $252,003 - just shy of a cool million from our $600,000 start on 11/26/13 (up 66% in 18 months).
Our dual portfolio system allows us to be smart "buy and hold" investors in our large Long-Term Portfolio while navigating the choppy market waters in our much smaller (1/5th) Short-Term Portfolio, which hedges the LTP and lets us take advantage of short-term opportunities when they present themselves - like shorting Netflix (NFLX) at $700 last week - that was EASY MONEY! Setting up BALANCED portfolios is the key to our success and a few useful articles on the subject are:
- Setting Up A Hedged Portfolio Part 1 - Financials
- Smart Portfolio Management - The $25,000 Virtual Portfolio
- Smart Virtual Portfolio Management II – The $100,000 Virtual Portfolio
- Smart Portfolio Management – Part III – $1,000,000
Although we've been running our current virtual portfolios since Thanksgiving of 2013, we are constantly adding new trades and the key for all of us is to find that balance and take the new trade ideas that work to give us even better balance and add those. That's why, although we have dozens of trade ideas each month and almost a dozen Top Trades each month, very few of those picks end up in one of our portfolios. You can't play every game - the important thing is to learn HOW to play, so you can win when you do!
Top Trades began last October and all 3 of our initial picks (GSK, MAT, RRD) are well on track.
