My Portfolio April 2019

It is this time of the month again when I share my portfolio with you and what my plans are for the month.

Let’s get into it:

Cash And Cash Equivalents (Savings Account) – 75.04%

Apple (AAPL) – 8.23%

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B) – 4.80%

Bank Of America (BAC) – 4.20%

AT&T (T) – 4%

Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VFEM) – 3.74%

Total Portfolio Value +5.04%

New Positions

Apple

Last month I started accumulating Apple once again, but it started going up too quickly and I stopped buying at $185/share. If it drops once again I am ready to add to my position and have no problem Apple going to around 15% of my portfolio. It’s bussines model is solid, the balance sheet is amazing and they have one of the biggest moats in the world. They also have the potential for amazing dividend growth and I am a big fan of that.

Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF

I see a great long-term growth opportunity in the emerging markets and it was a good chance for me to open a position. I plan to increase that position over time to at least 20% of my portfolio.

RDS.B/BAC/T

I added a bit to all three of those stocks at different points in the month. I am happy any of those positions being 5% of my portfolio. Solid companies with very good dividends and potential for good dividend growth in the future.

What Are my Plans For This Month?

• Reduce My Cash Position

As you can see I am still very cash heavy with 75% of my portfolio sitting in a savings account. My plan for a while has been to reduce that to 50%. It is a bit hard for me right now because I don’t really see much companies at a fair value. In the last 3 months the economy and the stock market have been going in different directions and that is causing a disconnect between prices and fundamentals, at least in the short term. We see companies with slowing earnings going up every day. For this to be justified either we have to see the economy turning around or the stock market will have to come down.

• Wait For The Earnings Season

Beginning this week is the month when most of the companies in the S&P 500 are reporting earnings. This is going to be interesting for two reasons. First I am very interested what is going to be the situation with the biggest companies earnings-wise. Second I am very interested how the markets will react to those earnings. In the first quarter we saw a big run up for (in my opinion) not really good earnings. What is even stranger is that most of the companies lowered their guidance and they still went up a lot. I think that most of the eventual good news are priced into the market and it is going to be fairly hard for stocks to make the same kind of a run this quarter. Time will tell if I am right or wrong.

• Increase my ETF Positions

My plan is to have at least 50% of my portfolio in ETFs at some point. I have already started adding to the emerging markets ETF position and will probably continue to do so this month. What I want is to add an S&P500 index fund to my portfolio. As of right now I just do not feel okay adding it with 1.6% dividend yield. It is way too low historically and do not feel that this is a fair value at this point.

Conclusion

I feel like we are in a very strange economic situation and I know that such a big cash position seems strange to a lot of you. This is my personal choice and it is the way I feel most comfortable right now. Still my plan is to reduce it down in the coming months and I want to eventually bring it down to 10%. In the current economic and stock market conditions this might take some time, but I am not in a rush. I am certainly not selling any of my positions, but I am extra cautious opening new ones right now.

Hope you guys had an interesting read, do not forget to subscribe if you want to receive updates on my journey.