Macro Traxx portfolio now fully invested

One T-bill plus four "swing trading" positions make up my account...for now

My new Macro Traxx portfolio became fully invested on Tuesday, as I rounded out the 3 existing ETF positions and added 1 more. In the shared research deck, paid subscribers will see this sub-portfolio, which represents 10% of the total Sungarden Institutional portfolio across 4 separate strategies. Together, they make up about 80% of my liquid net worth.

I am a big believer in “showing my work” to the greatest extent possible. On a daily basis, we update a tracking sheet showing the positions in each of the 4 strategies by percent of that sub-portfolio, as well as each position’s composition within the entire Institutional portfolio. For the benefit of both current and “considering it” subscribers, here is a snapshot of what the Macro Traxx portfolio looks like in “model” format.

Since Macro Traxx is potentially the most active, yet simplest of the 4 sub-portfolios, showing my current holdings is a good way to let everyone get a glimpse of what goes on “under the hood” in a service that goes well beyond a standard “newsletter,” and thus is intended only for investors who truly want to learn to manage their own assets at a high level.

Here is that snapshot, as of Tuesday’s close:

These are approximate target positions for the 5 securities I own there. The ETF positions are “in play” if you will on any market trading day. That is, my focus is on making money a high percentage of the time, and not waiting around for an ETF holding to cycle up and down in price by 10-20%. The other 3 strategies (YARP Income & Growth), CORE ETF and the new YARP Growth portfolio I run for myself all have that common thread, just to different degrees.

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Hey wait, back up a minute. What is Macro Traxx?

I wrote a full description of Macro Traxx when we debuted it earlier this month, but here’s the “skinny” on it:

• 80% is invested in a 1-year T-bill which earns about 5%. So for every $100 invested, $80 goes to the T-bill and it should be worth $84 in a year if I hold it to maturity.

• That frees up $20 of every $100 in Macro Traxx to try to grow as much as I can. There will again be a time when buying and holding works for most assets, but this is not that time. So I am willing to have a “short leash” on holdings, both when they rise and when they fall. I could lose 20% of that $20 and turn it into $16 over the next 12 months before the full account would lose money. That’s because the $80 will turn into $84 when the US Treasury pays me back for owning the T-bill for a year. This is risk management at the outset, that allows me to be MUCH more aggressive with the rest of the money, knowing that even if I lost most of it (not planning to!), I’d still end up well ahead of how a “traditional” balanced portfolio does in a bad market year.

• Whereas the other strategies involve stocks or a wide array of ETFs, this strategy is “macro” in that I am simply “swing trading” a limited set of ETFs that represent major markets. For instance, Nasdaq 100, Bitcoin, Emerging Markets equity and small cap stocks are the current 4. Importantly,

  

  Photo by Christian Papaux on Unsplash

  2 of those are “long” in that I aim to profit if those asset classes go up in price. But the other 2 are “short” in that I bought ETFs that are designed to go the opposite direction of an asset class.

• This all means that if a market segment is trending up or down at different times, I can try to make money in either case. I will likely introduce leveraged ETFs (2x and 3x) into this portfolio soon, as that allows me to commit less capital for each idea.

Sungarden: not your typical subscription research service

We will keep this post in a spot where it be easily reached by subscribers, since it is essentially a “primer” on what I’m doing with this strategy. We aim to be as transparent as possible for investors considering this specialized subscription service. It is certainly not for everyone, and while anyone can subscribe to it (it is a research service, NOT personalized advice) we designed it for those who have at least $400,000 in assets, given the $300 a month cost of the service.

As we see it, $3,600 a year on $1mm portfolio is 0.36% a year, for what we consider to be hedge fund-like investment sophistication, delivered in a straightforward, highly communicative, educational manner.

We’ll be doing some live sessions on this service in July and August. If you have questions about this, or wish to receive more information about Sungarden Institutional, let us know.

In addition, if Macro Traxx or any of the other sub-strategies I manage for myself have piqued your interest, let us know. At some point, we may consider offering one or more of the sub-strategies “a la carte” based on the feedback we receive.

Best regards,

Rob Isbitts

Founder, Sungarden Investment Publishing, LLC