SPY held steady for this month, but QQQ corrected. I eek out a tiny gain, on reduced trading activity. Perhaps that is the new normal for my account, as this is the third report in a row with similar comments. Self-grade is B for the tiny gain.
I closed on sold puts on WMT and COST near their respective bottoms, but overall held my small positions during the shallow correction. QQQ is now down for the year.
There are swarms of newbies in the markets. This is usually a bad sign for bulls. A reminder that the news and outlook often look the rosiest at the top. Again, it is a very low percentage game picking tops, so I don’t try. However, I have been around long enough to be extra careful when the little fish are jumping into the pool.
Many of the new people are being “taught” by the one-year veterans, who are teaching them to buy every dip. What could go wrong?
Anyway, enough cynicism, here are ytd etfs:
IWM Russell 2000 15.8%
SPY SP500 4.2%
EEM emerging market 4.7%
QQQ Nasdaq 100 -0.2%
SLV silver -1.1%
GLD gold -8.5%
TLT US20 yr treasury -14.6%
My account up 3.2% for calendar 2021, up 0.2% of the month. Yeah, I know, sleepy times. However, after the beating (-42%) I took in 2020, I am even more cautious. Again, that might be my new normal.
