Six Months In

Posted on Oct 10, 2025

On March 17th, I began trading in my own investment account. I started on March 17th.

CFA Portfolio and Performance

The portfolio consists of 9 securities that are a diversified mix of equity and balanced funds. There are a few individual stock positions. Some of the better forming holdings include the Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF (DFAU), the Goldman Sachs US Equity Dividend & Premium Fund (GVIRX), and the American Balanced Fund (AMBFX). Additional diversification includes Columbia Contrarian Core (SMGIX) and Columbia Select Corporate Income (SRINX). It’s moderately growth-oriented with a tilt towards U.S. equities.

Since March 17th, 2025, the portfolio has grown by 13.3%.

My Portfolio and Performance

My portfolio started out as a collection of ETFs representing a point-of-view on macro events:

  • Continual growth in American companies (VOO, SPYG)
  • A specific focus on a few sector-specific industries: Semiconductors (SOXX), Robotics (ROBO), and Infrastructure (PAVE). This was sized smaller than VOO, essentially reflecting how I though Trump’s reshoring goal would go
  • A longer-term bet on India (INDA, SMIN), reflecting my observation of a simmering resentment of Indian’s success in America, coupled with India’s increasing PCI, as well as a yonger population.
  • Some inflationary hedges, including Gold (GLD)
  • Some more foreign investments, including oil and energy ETFs

This mix of the portfolio generally did not change for a few months, and protected against some of the downturns in April. There was a time it was outperforming S&P, NASDAQ, etc. but only briefly. Around this time, I migrated some Google shares from another account into this one, which made me worry about concentration in tech. At the time, GOOG was the majority of my portfolio, as well as VOO, SPYG, and SOXX. Doing some analysis on the ETFs, I felt over-exposed to tech witht his mix, and went forward a dramatic re-organization. This included:

  • Selling half of my GOOG to lower its concentration
  • Selling all of SPYG, SOXX, ROVO, and PAVE
  • Deciding to trade options in companies whose products I use or understand well enough to want to own shares in them (APPL, DXCM, ENPH, etc.). This was the beginning of the Wheel Strategy which I will describe later.

My current portfolio a high-conviction, growth-oriented mix centered on large-cap technology stocks, complemented by broad market, international, and alternative exposures.

Since March 17th, 2025, the portfolio has grown by 22.24%. This has outperformed both the CFA and the S&P indices over the same time frame.

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Going Forward

Now that I have outperformed my CFA (at least for now), my goal is to stress test my Wheel Strategy (which is a program I will release) for the next year. Like many others, I have been liquidating some positions because a possible AI bubble. I will keep a few keep ones but because trading in smaller batches, which a full tilt when the bubble breaks.