by Anura Guruge
on August 5, 2023

Earlier this year I had, atypically, some cash sloshing around. Given that 90% of my portfolio, for a very long time, had been made up of: AMZN (by far my largest holding (as of 2012), GOOG, NVDA, TSLA & AAPL, I wanted to diversify. I had also maxed out in terms of the CALL OPTIONS I could write against this stock. So, I looked around for other options.

Saw a lot of posts & YouTube videos for SCHD & JEPI. That alone made me leery. I was concerned that they may be ‘pump & dump’. I did a lot research on my own. I also discovered a FEW EXOTICS — i.e., HIGH, RLY & SIXH. (Above)

I wasn’t going to go crazy. Too old for that. I was going to try out all of them — with small investments. I did. I gave them all a few months — SCHD the MOST to see if it would recover.

HIGH, RLY & SIXH did MUCH BETTER than SCHD or JEPI.

In effect they made up for the disappointing & POOR performance of SCHD & JEPI.

I think SCHD & JEPI are DOGS.

I would not recommend them to anybody that I even remotely like. Great ETFs to tell people who annoy you, though!

IF someone really, really insists, I would tell them about HIGH, RLY & SIXH. They did OK by me. I have not checked how they have performed since — say May 2023.

So, that is IT. Stay away from SCHD & JEPI. They are DOGS.

by Anura Guruge
on February 13, 2023

I do NOT remember ever making any money with ETFs. So, I have not owned any ETFs in 4 or 5 years (maybe longer). I have had a fair amount of luck with individual stock (mainly FANG but starting over a decade over) & some Mutuals. For the last few years I have been exclusively in individual stocks — in part because that facilitates my option trading addiction.

This year, with market conditions being what they are, I wanted to diversify a bit. Not much. Under 5% of my portfolio. I have realized that I have become too old, too impatient & too crotchety to deal with all of the minimum investment, 30-day hold etc. etc. requirements of Mutuals. So, I decided to give ETFs a try again.

So, I started doing some desultory research. Of course it didn’t take me long to stumble upon ‘JEPI’ & then ‘SCHD’. Wow. Kind of felt stupid that I didn’t own these already! So, I rectified it — albeit with v. small holdings. But, I am never comfortable with just ‘famous’ investment holdings (other than my long-term ownership of AMZN). So, I did more digging. Came across HIGH, RLY & SIXH. They looked interesting. But, I didn’t check them out to death. They might, given my usual luck, prove to be total, utter DOGs. So, I am not in any way or shape recommending them. I have only owned them for less than a week. During that time, of course, they have done diddly.

Just wanted to tell YOU about them. IF you are interested, check them out. They might AMUSE you. SMILE.