New dog. Old tricks. Monday Money.

Things change. Take a glance at the cover photo of this blog, the one with the semi-veiled moon and a mountain in the lower left corner. The mountain is part of an horizon very familiar and dear to me. 

I never knew its name before… it was simply taken for granted as likely the most majestic piece of a specific… deeply fulfilling panorama. Last week a large chunk of it began to break off and slide into the valley. If you look again at the photo, the smallest hump on the furthest right of the mountain. (I haven’t seen it in person for a long time - though I do miss it very much and hope to return to it before the autumn of this year. And will do my best to do so.)  Kleiner Nesthorn, the name of the crumbling mass. Permafrost is thawing, forces shifting. Unimaginable things can not only happen but are happening. Right now.

Even in this practice game: I bought - and sold - an option, something I never did when I was doing this to make a living. (In case: 1 option is equal to the rights on 100 units of whatever the option refers to, eg. 1 option to buy shares in Apple means the right to buy 100 shares of Apple at a specific price on a specific future date. You can acquire the rights to buy or sell the shares - you risk only that right, much less than having shares. But if you’re wrong - you can lose everything you risked to acquire the right.) Only 1 mind you: the right to buy SPY ‘spiders’ or an S&P at much less than it was and is currently. 

It’s already been sold though I will most likely re-buy similar shortly - because it rose as much as I was expecting and was using it as a tiny hedge. That pocketed 269 dollars, a 28.8 % return in 48 hours. 

SPY2519U545

1

Options

$9.3500

1.00

05/20/2025 - 10:02

SPY2519U545

-1

Options

$12.0400

1.00

05/22/2025 - 10:27

Cool. Not quite a mountain collapse. Then again. 

So… results so far: portfolio up 11.77% with beta or more what I would call downside beta, what most people actually care about… I don’t know. I could ask Grok to do the calculation or draw a graph but it’s lower than :

vs. the S&P, up 6.76% and volatility kind of like:

A good bit of trimming and taking hedges off during the volatility. And staying… oh dear… CALM, Cal-Maine foods. A bit more expensive than maybe it could be - eggs, basically - but inevitable. In great shape and if it falls back enough… to be bought more heavily. It’s been a very obvious investment for at least 15 years, egg production, and remains so.

And SOYB, yes, soybeans. Another nearly no-brain-er which could also get cheaper and also be bought again. For pretty much most od the reasons you might already imagine both longer and transient, like eggs. 

There are also a couple more healthcare stocks which I’ll cover next week instead of this one, and also put a first talking head video summary…. 

And,as usual: disclaimer:   for now, I've none of these things - those who know me know the primary cause. He did actually steal literally every thing. Just suggestions these and no conflicts of interest. For now.)