Portfolio Update March 2024 (up 7.3% YTD)
Here is an updated look at my portfolio after a volatile February.
February lived up to its reputation
After a great start to the year, February was a tough month for global markets, with the month living up to its reputation. While the month started off great, with markets maintaining their great momentum from January, sentiment quickly worsened toward the end of the month. The cause?
Trump pushing ahead with his tariff plans. (It turns out those aren’t so great for the economy, let alone a global trade war… surprise)
Mounting worries over economic health. (Again, tariffs, but also inflation ticking up more than expected in January… not so great)
Some entiment gauges are showing their worst numbers since the 2008 financial crisis. (Bears are now clearly getting the upper hand in an overheated market.)
All these factors came together by the end of the month, and Wall Street responded (rightfully so), with technology stocks particularly getting hit hard. The Nasdaq turned a 4.1% gain halfway through the month into a 2% loss by March 1st. Yes, that is six percentage points out of the window in about seven trading days.
Eventually, this led to another month of underperformance for the U.S. benchmarks, which registered declines between 0.5% and 2%. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks enjoyed some renewed enthusiasm for Chinese investments, leading to the Hang Seng Index actually gaining more than 13% in February. Furthermore, European stocks also continued their 2025 outperformance that started in January, reaching new all-time highs and gaining 3.3% in February (Trump’s tariffs are actually hitting the U.S. the hardest, as expected).
Over the first two months of the year, the largest European benchmark has now outpaced the S&P500 by a whopping 8.5 percentage points, which is a rare sight (congrats to those investing in Europe, your conviction finally pays off).
Here is the YTD performance from leading benchmarks:
S&P500 → +1.24%
Dow Jones → +3.05%
Nasdaq → -0.61%
Euro Stoxx 600 → +9.77%
Hang Seng → +16.12%
Overall, despite a challenging and volatile February, 2025 has had a good start.
Furthermore, a minor reset, especially for technology stocks, was much needed, if we can even call it that.
More importantly, while not what we hoped for in February, this worsening in sentiment, although arguably more than justified, did offer some great buying opportunities. While I believe the broader market is still grossly overvalued, a general sell-off always brings the gems right with it, giving us some nice opportunities to pick up great businesses at fair prices—a discount if we are lucky.
So, yes, I must say I quite enjoyed February. Ultimately, my portfolio still outperformed the broader market, ending the month flat-ish. But more importantly, in the last week of February, I was able to pick up shares in many great businesses, strengthening some of my key positions.
On that note, let me get into my portfolio performance!
Alright, before getting to my portfolio performance, here is an overview of all my February posts, in case you missed any:
ASML Holding N.V. – Current fear-driven weakness is a gift to investors
ServiceNow, Inc. – I bought the post-earnings dip. Here’s why!
The Trade Desk, Inc. – Time to buy shares amid a 30%+ sell-off?
MercadoLibre, Inc. - Showcasing its quality with a strong Q4 report
Booking Holdings Inc. – One of the best-managed businesses you'll find!
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My portfolio was flat-ish in February
My portfolio once more outpaced U.S. indices in February, though I trailed the better-performing European benchmarks (67% of my portfolio is invested in the U.S.).
My portfolio value declined by 0.1% in February. Some heavyweight positions' poor performance and the strengthening of the euro weighed on my performance during the month. Since I am located in Europe, I calculate my returns in euros, while I invest mostly in U.S. stocks. This gives me some FX exposure, which fluctuates between a headwind and a tailwind. In February, this was a negative.
Meanwhile, the overall portfolio actually did really well, with 14 out of my 24 holdings actually ending the month with a gain. Here are the worst performers:
ServiceNow ($NOW) → -20.5%
Synopsys ($SNPS) → -13.1%
AMD ($AMD) → -12.5 %
These were the top performers:
Starbucks ($SBUX) → +15.4%
Deutsche Telekom ($DTE) → +12.8%
Monday.com ($MNDY) → +12%
Here is a performance overview by month and year for my portfolio, of which every detail is disclosed in these updates:
As visible above, my portfolio return YTD is now 7.32%, well ahead of the 1.24% return from the S&P500, but trailing the 9.77% return from the Euro Stoxx 600. However, considering my heavy exposure to the U.S., I am still quite pleased with this performance so far.
Also, since the inception of this portfolio in January 2022, it has returned 54.52%, outpacing the S&P 500 by a whopping 30 percentage points and the more tech-heavy Nasdaq by 28 percentage points.
In other words, my portfolio has averaged an annual return (CAGR) of 15.5% over the last three years, which definitely isn’t all too bad. I am quite pleased with this. This is all visualized below.
On that note, let’s move to the actual portfolio.
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