The Covid19 Sheep – Our Investment Holdings

Changes to Our Investment Portfolio since December 2019

The arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic has altered the landscape for investors. Each new event that has a significant impact on investments is an opportunity to step back, survey the damage and make changes based on the evidence. There was no panic selling in our investment portfolio during the past three months, but the mix of investments has changed since I published our list of investments at the end of 2019. This update is more extensive, as I am including some additional information about our investments. In addition, I have the full list of investments available using links at the end of this post.

The scope of this data includes only the five Fidelity Investments accounts owned directly by my wife Cindie and me. This is the only brokerage we are currently using.

I completed trades for our grandchildren in their UTMA accounts in the last three months. Through no special foresight (before Covid-19 struck), I sold some of their DVY shares to lighten up on that position in each of the six UTMA accounts. I then started to make purchases, some after the coronavirus hit. These sells and buys are not part of this analysis.

January and February 2020

Because my trading activity in January and February 2020 were not under the coronavirus umbrella, I won’t discuss those trades either. In January I completed a total of 73 buys & sells. Most of these trades were additions to existing holdings, but I also bought some new positions and sold some as well. In February I completed 74 trades. There were some new additions and I decided to lighten up on AAPL as well. I wanted to have more cash available for trades later in the year. I still have some shares of AAPL.

March 2020

In March I cut back on trading because the volatility was just to crazy to find a good entry price. I completed 51 trades. Eight of the 51 were sells, so the balance were buy orders. The positions I sold were companies that I believe will have a difficult time recovering in 2020. This included SLB, RHP, JBLU, DRI, APLE, CVI and CCL. Most of these are related to the restaurant, hotels, airlines and cruise line industries. They have been hard-hit and some of these cut their dividend. When they did, I sold. I did not sell every position that suspended their dividend. For example, I continue to hold my shares of Ford (F).

April 2020

Thus far in April I have completed six trades, so my trading activity has slowed some more. Three of the six trades were to sell all our shares of EPR in three different accounts. EPR falls into the same category as the ones I sold in March. All the March and April sales were at a loss, but it frees up cash for better choices in a post coronavirus environment.

During March I focused on adding to our positions in VYM, SCHD, AES, AVB, STAG, HPE, MAIN, MRK, ETN, HBAN, CFG, MPW, SVM and NEWT. Here are some examples of some of the information you will see if you go to the links below. Bear in mind that not every investor should buy the investments I buy and hold. However, you can get ideas for your own investments from my lists.