Puru Saxena Profile picture
Oct 2, 2022 15 tweets 4 min read Read on X
1)Portfolio Update Sep-end -

$ADYEY $BILL $CFLT $CRWD $DDOG $DLO $GLBE $GTLB $LILM $NET $NU $OKTA $S $SNOW $SOFI $TOST $TWLO $ZI $ZS

Short #NQ_F

Return since 1 Sept '16 -

Portfolio +353.82% (28.24%pa)
$ACWI +32.59% (4.75%pa)
$SPX +65.17% (8.60%pa)

Contd... Image
2) YTD return (2022)-

Portfolio (-)40.20%
$ACWI (-)26.69%
$SPX (-)24.77%

Biggest positions -

1) $GTLB 2) $DDOG 3) $SNOW 4) $CRWD 5) $NU

Since 30 Sep, portfolio is net short via #NQ_F Image
3) Commentary -

September was a tough month for stocks and despite hedging in 2nd half of the month, my portfolio suffered a big drawdown.

Earlier in the month, Dow Jones Industrials, Dow Jones Transportation Average and NYSE Composite breached their June lows and on Friday...
4)...the NASDAQ100 and S&P500 also decisively breached their June lows and confirmed the breakdowns of the other indices.

IMHO, over the next few weeks the stock market is likely to remain under pressure and the indices might decline another 10-15% before hitting *the* low.
5) In order to capitalise on the last leg down of this bear market, I've increased my NASDAQ futures shorts on Friday and my portfolio is now net short.

On the portfolio front, September was a quiet month and I made just one change...
6) After the executive departures at $SHOP, I sold my shares and invested the proceeds in $SOFI.

$SOFI had a fantastic quarter and despite the moratorium on student loan repayments, the business announced solid operating results. When this moratorium is lifted in 2023...
7)...$SOFI should see an acceleration in its business and at the current multiple (Price to book of just 0.82!), I believe this business is significantly undervalued. Notable that earlier this year, $SOFI obtained regulatory approval to become a national bank and this has...
8)...lowered its cost of capital (a major plus).

In terms of my portfolio performance, I am disappointed by my large drawdown this year and although the entire market is come off significantly this year, I should have done way better.

You will recall that late last year...
9)...I repeatedly warned about the looming bust in risk assets so it is unforgivable that my portfolio has declined so much this year!

Not selling near the highs/going into cash and buying back too soon (Russia/Ukraine conflict didn't help) are the reasons behind my drawdown.
10) This bust has once again etched into my brain something which I already knew but failed to implement in this cycle.

In investing, what matters is how much you make after the completion of the entire cycle (boom & bust) and profits must be booked towards the end of the boom.
11) "Buy and hold forever", "Never sell", "Long-term investing is the holy grail"....all this is total nonsense.

What matters is portfolio CAGR and reduction of portfolio drawdown; and in this regard profits must be booked at the top of the stock market/business cycle....
12) Going forwards, I will try to sell of all stocks/book gains towards the end of the next credit cycle and will either stay in cash or net short during the subsequent bear-market. Big lessons learnt during this cycle.

Finally, at the moment, a lot of haters are floating...
13)...on FinTwit and they are mocking growth investors.

They might look smart over the near term, but over the long run the high quality compounders will crush the indices, and they are now on the bargain table.

In the investment business, the only thing which matters..
14)..is performance and in this regard, despite my large drawdown this year, my CAGR over the past 6+ years is ~30% whereas the indices have compounded in the mid to high single digits.

Hopefully, this will show you that despite setbacks, investing in quality compounders works.
15) Macro -

The 10Yr/2Yr UST spread has been inverted for almost 3 months now and historically, such a persistent inversion has *always* been followed by a recession.

If the coming recession is severe, then $SPX EPS will contract + that will put more pressure on stocks.

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More from @saxena_puru

Jan 28
1/ - 🧵- Cutting out the "noise": Systematic hedging strategy

Nobody can consistently predict what the stock market will do but trend following allows one to exploit the trends in the markets.

Buy & hold works over long periods of time but this approach comes with...
2/ ...anxiety, gut-wrenching volatility, large drawdowns and secular bear-markets which can last for 10-14 years.

Fortunately, one can reduce the drawdowns and volatility of a long-term investment portfolio by utilising trend following which does not require any forecasts...
3/ ...or the use of predictive fundamental or technical indicators.

By adopting a systematic trend following hedging strategy (zero discretion), one can totally remove emotions from the investment business and significantly reduce drawdowns and volatility.

Hedging means...
Read 17 tweets
Dec 15, 2023
1/9) -- Setting the record straight ---

Lately, numerous trolls are incorrectly claiming I've been wrong about everything all year long, so this thread will set the record straight.

Yes, it is true that I've been discussing the prospects of a recession since late 2022...
2/9) ... and my expectation was that a downturn would start in 2023 and in this department, I have been proven wrong.

However, up until recently, I haven't traded off my macro views and have only recently liquidated my growth stock portfolio and started protecting my...
3/9)...capital from the elevated risk of a hard landing. Even now, I'm tactically trading index futures on both the long and short side (as stated in my Pinned Tweet).

In April, I posted the below which turned out to be correct.... Image
Read 9 tweets
Apr 23, 2023
The post-COVID bull market was the first cycle when stocks peaked several months *before* the end of QE.

Between '09 and '20, stocks peaked after the end of QE, but in '21 the speculative stuff peaked in Feb, junior growth stocks peaked in Aug/Sep, tech peaked in Nov...
...and $SPX peaked in Jan '22 whereas QE ended in Mar '22!

Interesting to note that the growth stocks ETF $IWO bottomed in Jun '22 (four months before lows in $NDX and $SPX) and many growth names bottomed between May and July.

At the end of the last bull-market in '21...
...the stock market clearly discounted the Fed's tightening several months before the event (end of QE in Mar '22) which is why stocks peaked whilst QE was ongoing (a first)!

Given the price action in $IWO and many growth stocks plus strength in $NDX and $SPX...
Read 4 tweets
Mar 30, 2023
Up until 11 March, the Fed was reducing the size of its balance-sheet and draining excess "liquidity" from the system. On 12 March, it suddenly decided to inject new "liquidity" into the banking system...an abrupt U-Turn.

Over the following two weeks, Fed's balance-sheet...
...expanded by ~$400 billion and this undid 8-months of liquidity drainage via QT!!!

Since the Fed's intervention, the financial markets have rallied sharply...bitcoin, silver, gold, tech stocks - the usual suspects have all benefited from the Fed's balance-sheet expansion...
So, whether one calls this "QE" or "NOT QE", this dollar creation is impacting the financial markets (similar to the "NOT QE" reverse repo operations in 2019)!

I'm aware that technically this isn't QE as the Fed is not buying assets, it is lending against banks' assets...
Read 6 tweets
Mar 28, 2023
Labour cycle and $SPX -- 🧵--

Many are convinced $SPX bottomed last October and we are now in a new bull-market. If this is a labour cycle and unemployment rate is set to rise, then history shows the bear-market low lies ahead...

1/ $SPX during 1969 and 1973/74 cycles -
2/ $SPX during 1980 and 1981/82 cycles -

$SPX declined when unemployment rate rose and only bottomed after rate cut(s) by the Fed (just before the peak in the unemployment rate)
3/ $SPX during 1990 cycle -

$SPX declined when unemployment rate rose and only bottomed after rate cut(s) by the Fed
Read 5 tweets
Mar 25, 2023
1/ Fed's balance-sheet expansion - 🧵

Over the past 2 weeks, the Fed has created $400b out of thin air and injected this new liquidity into the banking system...via loans.

These newly created dollars are neutralising the natural deflationary forces (preventing liquidation)...
2/...within the banking system and economy, therefore these operations are inflationary.

Granted, this new liquidity has not seeped into real spending yet (via loan creation by banks) but its affects are already showing up in the financial markets!...
3/ Since the Fed started expanding its balance-sheet (creating new dollars to lend to the banks), amidst the escalating banking crisis, asset prices have gone up (see below chart from @ycharts)!

This rally in asset prices is clearly due to the Fed's expanding balance-sheet...
Read 4 tweets

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