Coming back from sabbatical, I feel refreshed. That being said, I did manage to contract Covid, so theres that. However given that. I won’t be traveling again any time soon since, well, I have to pay for this trip, what better time to get my blog focused back on its original intent, Finance, and my plan for early retirement.
I’ve somewhat let this topic go lately as my financial projections have gone downhill this past year, as I am sure they have with most people. I feel though that I was probably able to sidestep the worst of the 2022 market declines because I was spread out among enough areas that the declines have been somewhat less than they would have been otherwise, and I am still able to maintain a degree of optimism about the market as a whole, and that there is always money to be made somewhere.
I still though had a lot invested in tech stocks going into this year. Three of my largest positions at the start were Microsoft, Apple and Amazon, which I have pretty much held on to, or slightly expanded over the course of the year.
Now that my sabbatical is done and over with however, I can start investing my money back into the market. For now, I feel that I am probably not ready to do what I want to do and jump in head first. So, I will instead dip my toes into options trading using a paper account provided by my broker IBKR, where I start with 1 million dollars and try to grow it from there. Truth be told, I probably shouldn’t need to use anywhere close to that one million, so I’ll wait and see how much of that magic fake money I actually utilize.
Also, by using fake money, I can learn from what goes wrong and right without having any ‘real money’ at risk.
Right now, I am focusing options on the stocks in my current portfolio, these are the companies that I know, and am familiar with their current conditions. Given the uptick in the market over the course of my sabbatical, in October and November of this year, I think the market, particularly the tech stocks are probably due for a decline, hence, my first ‘paper purchase’ is to take a bearish position in Microsoft.
I will log my positions as I enter and exit them in a trade log, here.
Disclaimer: Investing involves risks, and nothing in this post should be construed as financial advice. Risk of investments includes the loss of principal, which I can’t assume liability for. Please consult with an actual financial advisor for advice.
And here I go..... 