Investing

What's your YTD Performance?

  • Last Updated:
  • Jan 19th, 2015 10:14 pm
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Jr. Member
Jan 13, 2014
130 posts
24 upvotes
Toronto, ON
My YTD Performance is 10.94%
Out of that: Capital Gain: 8.02% and dividends: 2.85%
As 57% of my money is is USD$ stocks/ETFs, exchange rate change has 3.39% impact on my capital gain growth, so actually my stocks rose 4.63% but because CAD$ fell, total capital gain calculated in CAD$ is 8.02%.
I am addicted to my investment numbers and very happy that I can see them any day in such detail...
At the start of the year I was in 39 positions. Now I hold "just" 21 different stocks/ETFs - I am simplifying and moving to Canadian Couch Potato strategy.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 11, 2001
9475 posts
1610 upvotes
I currently hold a 80/20 (equities/bonds) portfolio. All index funds with pretty low fees. YTD is about 11%. I'm going to scale back to about 70/30 probably in 2015

I haven't really changed much of anything over the year, I re-balance about 4x per year (all free), no set date really... when i'm not lazy, lol.

I'm not really affected too much by the market swings, then again I don't have 7 figures in the market like other users so that would probably affect me a bit :) (hard to swallow 5 digit swings imho)
...zzz...zzz...zzz...

www.heatware.com
Member
Sep 9, 2012
372 posts
120 upvotes
TORONTO
YTD ~9%.
My annualized rate of return (XIRR function on Excel) is ~12%.

I'm invested in a low-cost, index-tracking, ETF portfolio.
Newbie
Dec 2, 2013
40 posts
6 upvotes
Oshawa
33.8% plus some dividends and whatever gains I made from the better USD/CAD exchange.
Newbie
Nov 6, 2014
77 posts
20 upvotes
For what I'm actively investing I'm tracking on Morningstar.ca portfolio. CDN account total return 1 year trailing 15.9%, personal return 16.35% not including some of the dividends I received in cash. Much smaller US account 9.75% trailing 1 year return.
I'm not finding it easy to track returns. I have a couple of GICs I didn't include because it shows as 0 return on my account holdings while they're actually earning interest.
What are folks here using to track returns?
Newbie
Nov 6, 2014
77 posts
20 upvotes
truthing wrote: 33.8% plus some dividends and whatever gains I made from the better USD/CAD exchange.
That's quite good! What type of investments do you have?
Jr. Member
Jan 10, 2007
107 posts
16 upvotes
End of the year is almost here, I'm 10.87% YTD
Deal Addict
User avatar
May 25, 2008
1615 posts
945 upvotes
Toronto
Only 8% this year....energy stocks :-(
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 14, 2010
7113 posts
9300 upvotes
Total return of all portfolios (investing and trading) for 2014: 20.02%


Breakdown:

2014 return on my Cad$ investing dividend portfolio (37.5% of my total portfolio)
Number of securities: 49
Total return: 19.11%
(Benchmark (XIC.TO): 10.4%
Best return (ENF.TO), including dividend: 71.48%
Worst return (CWB.TO), including dividend: -13.84%
Number of securities that increased dividend: 47
Dividend increase (average): 12%
Most dividend increase (SJ.TO): 40%
Least dividend increase (BEI.UN): 3.03%


2014 return on my US$ investing dividend portfolio (37.5% of my total portfolio)
Number of securities: 63
Total return: 16.77%
(Benchmark (SPY): 16.1%)
Best return (SIAL), including dividend: 49.17%
Worst return (TUP), including dividend: -28.94%
Number of securities that increased dividend: 62
Dividend increase (average): 11.75%
Most dividend increase (NOV): 76.92%
Least dividend increase (AAPL): 1.23%


Return above reflects how the stock performed from Jan 1 to Dec 24, of stocks that I already had / added this year, including dividends.
Actual return is higher, since I only add when they hit EMA(200) (and 15% lower thereafter), provided they are fairly valued or undervalued. If there is extra cash and a company is undervalued or fairly valued (even if it's not at EMA(200)), it might be added as well, to minimize the amount in cash waiting to be invested.

The only stock that I sold on this portfolio was LIQ.TO, due to weak fundamentals. That was sold for 16% loss (at $11.76), but since that position was only 2.8% of this investing portfolio, the loss is equivalent to -0.45% of the investing portfolio, which represents a total portfolio loss of -0.17%.

Dividend investing plan for 2015 remains the same, (adding at EMA(200) and 15% lower thereafter if fairly valued otherwise just buy more when fairly valued) and never sell unless there's a dividend cut / financial sheets don't look good / payout ratio gets over 100%.


2014 return on my trading portfolio (25% of my total portfolio)
I started with 3 types of trading, allocating 50% of this trading portfolio for the small cap undervalued growth (around 12% of total portfolio) and 25% for xiv and market neutral type of trade style below (so around 6% of total portfolio):

Total return: 26.25%

Breakdown:
XIV trading (until June, then I added the funds for the market neutral model): 13.5%
Market neutral (undervalued S&P500 stocks fully hedged with SH): 25% of trading port until June (7.54%) and 50% of trading port from June to Sep (5.29%), then I switch to the undervalued SP500 stocks model without market timing and without hedging);
SP500 undervalued: 16.04% (from Sep to eoy).
Small cap undervalued growth (High Sharpe model with market timing based on VIX for mkt cap > $100M): 17.46%
I also started trading the "flip-flop" model (market timing model) on my tfsa with hsu.to and xlb.to in Oct: -2.5%

For 2015, for trading, I'll continue to focus on reducing drawdown and reduce slippage instead of simply seeking higher returns by chasing performance. I think this will give better results in the long run. I'll be trading 50% of the port on undervalued large caps and 35% on the market neutral (undervalued defensive sector stocks hedged with bonds) port. I'll be also trading part of my tfsa (15% of the trading port) on the "flip-flop model" with hsu.to and xsb.to. I`m also working on an automated model to trade XIV, but it`s not ready yet.

Rod
Newbie
Jan 23, 2014
25 posts
Toronto
YTD return is 38.5%

My capital is split evenly across two strategies
1) momentum based - returned 33.05% with 1.86 sharpe ratio, completed 7 trades. Majority of gains driven by ZIV, TLT and EDV
2) statistical arbitrage -returned 43.9% with 2.41 sharpe ratio, completed 67 trades across the same number of stocks

As always I am looking to chase performance and minimize drawdowns, which ranged 10% to 12% across my strategies this year.

I am looking to allocate 10% of capital for speculative positions. No penny stocks but an underdog name, any suggestions? Was thinking of opening up a futures account to trade SP 500 eminis but don't think I'll be able to given compliance issues.
Deal Addict
Dec 3, 2014
2348 posts
1840 upvotes
Ontario
up 22% for 2014 (mostly thanks to big positions in AAPL + FB, and nothing in the oil)
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 19, 2009
6135 posts
1981 upvotes
Scarborough
Will recalculate soon. Probably in the neighbourhood of around 7-10%
Deal Addict
Sep 5, 2010
2352 posts
382 upvotes
Toronto
rodbarc wrote: Not true.

Simple example that anyone can implement:

Http://www.mojena.com


Rod
Curious, what is that website for exactly? I checked it quickly and all I can see are some calls to buy or sell etc. But it is not very user-friendly.
My Signature is empty. My signature space is not for sale. You may not contact me to advertise your RFD-related activities here. I repeat, this signature-space is not for sale, unless it is a ......day
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 14, 2010
7113 posts
9300 upvotes
Woodbridge905 wrote: Curious, what is that website for exactly? I checked it quickly and all I can see are some calls to buy or sell etc. But it is not very user-friendly.
Richard Mojena is an academic that developped a proprietary mathematical model to time the market. When the model is on "sell", one is supposed to sell the index (SPY) and be on cash or product alike. If the model is on "buy", one is supposed to be long (buy) SPY. They also have the stats for their aggressive model, which is long leveraged (2x) via SSO when the model is on buy.

The interface is not the most user-friendly, but the site has a lot of info, check the link on the menu on the left.

Performance is being tracked for the last 25 years here.

More about the model can be seen here.

You might also want to check their FAQ, their credentials and their disclaimer.

This is just one model, updated free. There are other models, better optimized, available at a fee.

Like investing, the hardest part is temperament: sticking with a strategy and being patient. A good timing model will win over time, not overnight.

Rod
Deal Fanatic
May 31, 2007
5018 posts
2175 upvotes
Stocks up 14.78%, (XIRR) outperformed market by 0.5%
Networth up 19%
Spending up 42%...
Real estate up 9%
RESP up 9%, not included

Wild ride this year, faced two dividend cuts in one portfolio, then TFSA was underperforming TSX, managed to come back for year end. I hung on and did not buy or sell, during the dip. 13 years in the market now and staying invested.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 19, 2009
6135 posts
1981 upvotes
Scarborough
My modified Dietz return for 2014 is *Drumroll please* 10.23% :)
September and December were a bit shaky, but the rest of the months were mostly positive. This is incorporating a mostly Couch potato portfolio while branching out into a bit of Technical analysis trading, but that only started in November.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 11, 2001
9475 posts
1610 upvotes
Got my finalized numbers for 2014.

13.4%

Not too bad. Going a bit conservative in 2015 with about 35% bonds, but I'll see what happens in the next few months.
...zzz...zzz...zzz...

www.heatware.com
Jr. Member
Jan 13, 2014
130 posts
24 upvotes
Toronto, ON
You guys are reporting a bunch of number, but can your numbers be compared to each other?

Specifically, when you provide your performance, do you convert your all numbers to CA $ and then do calculations, or do you keep all data in original currency? For example last year currency exchange changes had 5.29% impact on my portfolio (positive) so that is a lot! And then when you compare your own performance vs index ("Market") performance, again, do you convert index to CA $ and then do comparison? Do you include dividends into your final performance? I believe that some companies announced, but not yet paid dividends for 2014.

Just wandering...
Deal Fanatic
May 31, 2007
5018 posts
2175 upvotes
My XIRR incudes all 2014 dividends calculated in CAD dollars from start to finish. It's benchmarked against the corresponding ETF total return (in cad dollar)

I used XUS to benchmark US stocks and XIC for CAD stocks. Both are calculated in CAD dollar, making it easy to compare. I got the total return off the website.

This year CAD stocks underperformed by roughly 1%, US stocks outperformed 4%. Portfolio is overweight CAD, resulting in a blended benchmark. Portfolio outperformed by only about 0.5%.

For the amount of risk I took buying stocks, I could have just bought the ETFs, for the same return. Our five year returns are showing the same results, pretty much matching the benchmarks, but with more risk doing stock picks.

In some years, we had great outperformance in CAD stocks, but underperformed US stocks. Net result would have been less risk, just buying ETFs. I expect to outperform with stock picks but so far in tracking returns by XIRR over five years, I am not getting meaningful outperformance.

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