Full disclosure: I’m a very active investor. And I trade. This doesn’t make sense for everyone. It’s a lot of upkeep, and you have to truly enjoy it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good index fund/ETF, but 2020 brought about some knowledge I didn’t have in previous years.
I started trading in 2020. Read: NOT DAY TRADING. I have not the knowledge nor the stomach for that. Plus, most people don’t win at that game.
What I learned this year is more a combination of swing/portfolio trading. I’ll throw a few hundred at a speculative stock now and then for fun, but I’m mainly trading established companies (think Pfizer, Exxon, AT&T, etc.)
I separate the trading from buy and hold, but my Roth this year started more as a trading account. Now, I’m shifting it to buy and hold because I have my brokerage account.
Anyway, my rollover IRA did well because I was all cash at the beginning of 2020. A decade of investing plus a little luck went a long way when I rolled over old 401(k)s into that account and hadn’t decided what to do with it by the time the market crashed in March.
THIS WAS ALL COINDCIDENCE. I did not know the market would crash, and neither did anyone else (unless you’re a conspiracy theorist, then you might think someone was in on it). My trading reflects this too- I don’t try to predict movement…. my trades are reactive based on a few factors. There’s no crystal ball, and we’re not as smart as we think we are.
Right around February/March, I discovered trading with the IG account @fullauto11. I modeled my buy and hold (rollover IRA) somewhat off of his buy and hold portfolio. It has done well.
Having some technical chart-reading background I feel has helped me stock up on the “lows.” On occasion, I’ll even take some profits in buy and hold accounts, primarily the rollover IRA because I’m not actively funding that. For instance, Ford (F) did really well mid-year, so I scraped a little off the top to buy more dividend-paying stocks.
Anyway, the accounts have done well.
The TSP has far fewer fees than a lot of 401(k)s, but it also has less investment options. It’s more conservative than my Fidelity accounts.
I’m good with this too.
Some of my top single-stock performers:
-DFS Discover Financial Services (don’t bother, you missed that boat)
-ROKU Roku
-AIR AAR Corp
-UBER
-LYFT
-GE General Electric
-ARVN Arvinas Inc Com (spec play)
And don’t worry…. I’ve got index funds too!
-K