Link to 2017 portfolio details Last year was a great year for me--until the post-election rally wiped out 75% of my gains for the year. Who knows what to expect for 2017. Hopefully some volatility returns to help us short volatility folks. This portfolio (personal and corporate) is the plate-end of my 'barbell' portfolio and represents ~10% of my liquid assets. The rest is in my boring buy-and-hold portfolio (I still have to update the allocations) which I have no intention of doing anything with. With the help of this forum's engagement I hope to stay disciplined and actively update this thread. I've been carrying a fair bit of negative deltas over the past few months, so hopefully we get a bit of a correction.
So 90% in stocks and the last 10% in speculative options and futures positions? That doesn't sound like a Barbell to me
I've ignored cash and income. Cash represents about 15% of liquid assets. After tax- annual income currently represents ~20% of liquid assets (with a savings rate of 80-90%). I have a small portion of my portfolio in a bond fund which will remain a tiny part of my portfolio for the foreseeable future. My view is that we have reached the end of the three-decade bull market for bonds.
Current positions: PERSONAL: short 4 ES, short 6 puts of varying strike and expiry short 1 NQ short 2 TF, short 6 IWM puts short FB Jan27 125 straddle x 3 short AXP Feb17 77.5 straddle x 5 CORPORATE: short 6 ES, short 7 puts of varying strike and expiry long diagonal (long Feb17 2270p, short Jan27 2265p) x 7 short 1 NQ short 1 TF short 1 ZB, short 2 Feb 3 151 puts short FB Jan27 118 call x 4 long TSLA Feb17 225 puts x 8 (will calendarize prior to earnings) short HD Feb17 135 straddle x 4 long GOOGL Feb17 825 puts x 4 (will calendarize prior to earnings) short NFLX Feb17 140 straddle x 2 short AMZN Jan27 800 straddle x 1 MCD put ratio (long Feb17 125p x 2, short Feb17 120p x 6) short GS Feb17 230/235 strangle x 2
So how much physical cash do you have tied up in all of that bleed? How much cash are you using to support it? Or is this just a big bag of false wind? Basically, HOW MUCH MONEY ARE YOU USING TO DO THIS?!? Can it be done with a small trader account, say $10,000? I didn't think so.
Short options for your 'barbell' is like directly opposite what Taleb says. You limit your upside and have an unlimited downside.
For the sake of thread credibility--I dunno...call it $1.1 million (but CAD)? However, I have no intention of calling in the reinforcements. I just find things a little expensive to buy in the core portfolio which is why I'm looking for a little pullback.
True. I guess I'm thinking relative to a benchmark. A more conservative bar (portfolio w/ beta < 1) with an aggressive end (this portfolio).