We're on the road to nowhere.
As you can see from the S&P chart, we haven't missed much in cashing in our Long-Term Portfolio back on 3/24 as the markets have not really gone anywhere since. And, of course, we didn't cash everything out, just our winners and positions we weren't sure about – the remaining 12 picks plus the stocks we added since have gained $69,275 (13.8%) for the quarter, protected by our generally bearish but opportunistic Short-Term Portfolio, which has gained a virtual $28,058 (28%) over the same 3-month period.
While our Short-Term Portfolio is margin-intensive and aggressive (with a $100,000 base), the Long-Term Portfolio runs our patented "BE THE HOUSE – Not the Gambler" protocols (just put "Be the House" in Google and that's us!), aiming for steady, reliable gains in a low-touch environment. The LTP had a $500,000 base on 11/26/13 and is currently up 47.9% at $739,470 but, because we SELL risk and don't buy it, we are still sitting on $753,430 in cash and using just $325,500 of $1.5M in margin.
Could we have made more money if we had been more aggressive? Sure we could have – as long as we were more aggressive at the right time! As it is, we are teaching the BALANCED approach to portfolio management with the bulk of our investing capital (83%) going into conservative, long-term investing strategies (and staying mainly in cash so we can scale into losing positions if necessary) while the other 17% ($100K out of $600K) is for our "fun" day-trading and, more importantly, as a bearish hedge to our bullish long-term picks.
Let's face it, those bullish long-term trades are self-hedged and our system, though brilliant, is like watching paint dry while we wait to grind out those returns. The short-term trades don't just protect our LTP but they help keep us sane and it gives us something to do on those volatile days OTHER THAN MESSING WITH OUR LONG-TERM POSITIONS. That's right, it's kind of a trick I developed over the years because the hardest thing to teach new Members at PSW is PATIENCE.
Patience is what people have trouble with as those LTP returns are a
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