As we start a new year, every investor should ask themselves this question: Did you beat the market in 2016? According to an article on CNBC “Most investors didn’t come close to beating the S&P 500”. The rationale is discussed as:
“Bad market timing and poor stock picking kept most investors from fully reaping the gains of the bull market last year. “The average investor held too much in cash, was too concentrated in stocks that didn’t perform well and avoided financial stocks that rallied last year,” said Hart Lambur, co-founder and CEO of Openfolio, a social network with more than 70,000 members who share their investment portfolios.
The average investor on Openfolio had a gain of roughly 5 percent in 2016. That lagged the nearly 12 percent total return of the S&P 500, which includes dividends, by more than 7 percentage points last year.
Part of the lag can be attributed to investors having a diversified portfolio. That is a good thing because it smooths volatility and can improve returns over long periods. Yet when you consider that a balanced portfolio of 60 percent U.S. stocks and 40 percent U.S. bonds would have generated roughly 7 percent last year, Openfolio investors still fall short by 2 percentage points.”
How can investors beat the market?
Our newsletter beat the S&P 500 handedly in 2016 with a 27.8% return! In reviewing the results we obtained from the perpetual covered call strategy during the past year. In terms of total return as tracked in the monthly spreadsheets, the average across all positions was 27.8% during 2016. In the past year ending 12/17, the S&P 500 only returned 12.75% and the DJIA returned 16.8%. Therefore, we more than doubled the S&P and beat the Dow Jones significantly while generated significantly more income. The average monthly income across our open positions was $152 for each position with 100 stock shares! AND this includes the cost of having a long put to protect against downside risk on each position.
The average cost of 100 shares across all positions was $5,278 which generated an average of $152 of income each month. A $50K portfolio will generate an average of $1500 per month while a $100K portfolio creates $3,000 every month! This is proof our income strategy works. We target a 2-3% return per month on average.
