Hey, what’s up Macarenos and Macarenas? 😉 Another month went by quickly and here I am again, updating my investment portfolio. I can’t believe that this is already my forth portfolio update, when it seems to me that it all started yesterday, time flies!
Unfortunately, my investments during this month haven’t flown as time has but fallen off by a shocking 64% in just a few days. If you read my last post “Hola Net Worth” you already know what I am talking about, if you didn’t, you’ll soon find out. This March has been the toughest month since I seriously started investing my money back in 2017, and my first time experiencing and accepting a loss.
That’s how the game works and it comes to most of us sooner or later, some will lose more money than others, but it is an experience that we’ll eventually encounter on the journey. In a way, I am happy that this has happened to me now and not close to my retirement age. I’ve learnt a huge lesson and paid hard for it, but trust me guys, I will remember it the whole of my life. Also, I am happy because I’ve sensed how losing money squashes me down, and survived from it.
Writing about it helps immensely, and the support of some of you guys is hugely helpful. Thank you so much! After this experience I feel ready to go through a market downturn while not panicking and being rational minded, and most importantly, being confident that I will never give up with this journey! So, when I look at it from the positive side of the coin I am even grateful. From now on, I proclaim myself as a volatility-proof person 😉
Without further ado, fasten your seat belts, DON’T off your laptops, tablets or mobile phones and relax during the landing numerical charting show!
Table of Contents
Monthly Highlights
- Portfolio value: 73,722€ (-64 %)
- Monthly Transactions (Deposits – Withdrawals): +3303 €
- Monthly earnings: -125,474 €
- Passive income: 359 €(-1.6%)
Leaving on the side the minus symbol, it’s impressive, isn’t it? It’s impressive how the algos have fuc**d up all the cummulated gains and part of my deposits over a year in just a few days. Algotechs and its innovative leading algotrading technology is indeed on the top, on the top of leading others towards losing money.
As a result my portfolio value chart now resembles the Portaventura Dragon Khan roller coaster, combined with the feeling of Hurakan Condor (middle guys). Cheers Algotechs!
Yep, this is my investment porftolio and not the S&P 500 at the end of 2018.
My new portfolio allocation
Good news is that my new portfolio allocation looks sensible now.
Look at that! The beauty of almost a symmetry! 🙂
Passive income
Algotechs extinction hasn’t affected my passive income though, which essentially all comes from my bond funds, real estate crowdfunding and P2P lending. I no longer focus on hitting my target of 700€ per month by the end of 2019, as after filling up my Net Worth balance sheet I realised that alternative investment takes the 10% of my total assets. When considering the risks, this is the maximum I want to put in.
EU FI-bloggers passive income chart
This is an idea that Eelis@thewealthyfinn came up with recently, and I loved it. As a big part of our FI journeys depend on our passive income, what a better way to create community than sharing it together? The final chart will have between 10-20 bloggers, so if you are a FI blogger and it looks appealing to you, I am sure Eelis will be happy to hearing from you. This chart shouldn’t be considered as a competition, but supportive and a community builder.
Monthly earnings by platform
My ISA has grown +2.2% this month, being the biggest move. The recent inverted yield curved has made investors purchase more bonds, lifting up the trading price of my bonds ETFs. In March, my best Real Estate crowdfunding platform is Crowd Estate (+1.1%) and my best P2P/B lending platform Envestio (+1.3%)
The GBP/EUR currency ratio stays at the same value as my last portfolio update – 1.16
| Platform | Inception date | Value February | Transactions | Value March | Earnings | Return March | Cumulative Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algotechs | 20/11/2017 | 126,455 | 0 | 0 | -126,455 | -100% | -100 % |
| Vanguard (£) | 14/03/2018 | 27,082 (31,415 €) | +2,000 (2320 €) | 29,672 (34,419 €) | 590 (684 €) | 2.18 % | 5.6 % |
| Property Partner (£) | 21/01/2018 | 5,866 (6805 €) | -500 (+580 €) | 5,366 (6224 €) | 0 ( 0 €) | 0 % | 7.1 % |
| Housers | 26/03/2018 | 6,630 | 0 | 6,661 | 31 | 0.5 % | 4.1 % |
| Grupeer | 19/05/2018 | 13,844 | -2,000 | 12,003 | 159 | 1.15 % | 13.3 % |
| Mintos | 05/08/2018 | 3,638 | +1,490.8 | 5,158 | 29 | 0.8 % | 6.6 % |
| Crowdestate | 16/08/2018 | 1,933 | 0 | 1,953.7 | 20.7 | 1.1% | 5.6 % |
| Envestio | 15/10/2018 | 3,048 | +2,075 | 5,163 | 40 | 1.3 % | 8.8 % |
| Fast invest | 29/10/2018 | 1,042 | 0 | 1,054 | 12 | 1.2 % | 5.4 % |
| Trading 212 | 03/2019 | - | - | 1,084 € | - | - | - |
| TOTAL | 194,810 € | +3,306 € | 73,722 € | -125,474 € | -64% | -44.7% |
Algotechs
Everything seemed to work just fine, my trading account was over 100K, reducing my succes fees, also, succesful withdrawals seemed to be back on track. until the 7th of March, when the game entered the danger zone. Since October 2018, the EUR/USD has traded between the range of 1.145-1.128 roughly. As I was told by the risk managment executive, Sebastian Nino, Algotechs increased the trades value as it was considered safe, due to the trading pair being stuck within the mentioned range for a long time. On the 7th of March, the pair dropped suddenly, taking the opposite expected market direction. This is something completly normal, it’s happened many times and the algorithm has always been able to get through profiting, but on this time I had no enough free margins to ride the wave, which in Forex translates into add more money or it’s game over baby. This is a massive Algotechs mistake and by no means I would add any single penny to a company run by a bunch of people with dubious skills.
But, has this happened simply because of a luck of skills? Or is there something else behind? I will tell you what, I will post the images and do some simply calculations and you tell me your conclusions on the comments down below, if you wish.
dashboard
Bealgo is the unregulated broker that Algotechs deals with and uses to run its ATS software. When logging in a dashboard is shown as follows:
Here everything looks cool, no negative values. The profit is over 96K prior Algotechs success fee, which with my current account value is 20%. I own Algotechs 19,219.36 €.
MT4 trading account
But then, when I head over to my MT4 trading account the perspective changes dramatically.
Such a coincidence! My open trades value has been decreasing just down to the value where my Equity almost equals Algotechs success fee. According to Sebastian Nino, if I decide to give up and trigger the order to close all positions, Bealgo would pay the success fee to Algotechs first and leave me the leftovers, less than 200€ at the time of writting! What’s inacceptable is that they would even get paid when their software has performed like a shit!
WTF is that?
After this exciting news, I decided to not close positions and keep tracking and sharing my real account experiences with my readers, that hopefully at some point will be anyone googling the word Algotechs or Bealgo – if they don’t vanish before I actually rank.
So, a few honest words to anyone reading:
Unless you enjoy using notes as a toilet paper, I wouldn’t recommend to invest in neither Algotechs or any unregulated broker / company, as the odds are that you will lose your money sooner or later and won’t have any regulation to protect your investments, you’ll end up just like me, totally fuc**d up.
Tony @ One Million Journey 😉
Lastly, the downhill mobile phone screenshot run:
Nice ride, innit?
Vanguard
The 2018-2019 tax year is coming to an end on the 5th of April here in the UK. My initial plan was to withdraw money from Algotechs to max out my ISA before the new tax year begins, but as this has been an impossible task to accomplish, I’ve only managed to add £8350. I made the last push and paid myself £500 out of my payslip and added an extra £1500. I used the free cash I had in my account and this new cash to buy more shares of the USD Treasury Bond UCITS ETF (VUTY) and I added a new ETF to my portfolio – the FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (VUKE)!, which I purchased prior the ex-dividend date and should cash me in the next dividend payment on the 10th of April, otherwise I would have to wait another 3 months, as it pays dividends in a quarterly basis.
Here is why I purchased it:
The British Index yields 4.5% and it has always been on my watch list, but I never made the move because of Brexit uncertainty. After googling for a while, I came upon with an excellent dividend-based valuation, which transparently calculates the FTSE100 intrinsic value and shows a clear discount. Also, it seems to be that some British companies are willing to rewards shareholders during this period of uncertainty by increasing their dividend yield, so a future 5 or 6% yield wouldn’t surprise me. To top it up, a drop in the Pound Sterling would impact the Index favourably, as The FTSE 100 generates about 70% of its revenues from overseas.
As a personal conclusion and opinion, I believe the FTSE100 index is an excellent long-term buy, as sooner or later investors will gain confidence again over the British market, lifting it up to its intrinsic value while cashing in a nice dividend on the way.
Remember, this is only my opinion and it shouldn’t be taken as an investment advice.
To conclude with, my account earns £590 (2.2%) this month against the 1.1% from the S&P 500 Index. Great! Some good news thank you!
So far this year:
- S&P 500 Index : +13%
- My 50/50 balanced Vanguard ISA: 5.07%
Vanguard is a portion of my little British Empire as an Expat
Property Partner
Property Partner has improved the way data is displayed on the platform, adding multiple tables that makes it easier to track and compare investments. I personally love this new addition, as first, it saves me time to track my investments, and second, it looks like a brokerage account. Until now, I’ve tracked my properties manually, making my own investments table and posting it on my Property Partner page, but this will no longer be required 🙂
In February I had two properties on a purchasing process. One of them was stopped as it could be subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), returning me £500 that I withdrew as the newest investment opportunity doesn’t look attractive to me. The other one was successfully completed last minute on Friday. For some reason (hope a mistake), I was changed Property Partner fees twice, which gives me a monthly net earnings of £0 LOL.
Investing in Property Partner is a long term investment, 5 years at least, as the initial 2% fees will take some of your rental dividends, same as if you would buy real estate on your own.
In April the next valuation round is taking place, so I will get a refreshed update on the value of my existing property shares. House price in England has fallen during the first quarter of 2019, London taking the hardest hit -3.8%. Most of my properties aren’t located in London and I shouldn’t see such a drop, but I am expecting a decrease on capital gains.
If you are a first time reader and feel curious about the platform, check out my personal review and results after one year of investing here.
Property Partner is also a portion of my little British Empire as an Expat
Housers
Housers, has also introduced some changes, redesigning the whole website and making it easier to navigate, especially on mobile phones.
My “Albufera” development loan is due after 12 months, but the repayment of the principal hasn’t been funded by the developer yet. Their argument is the delay on the building permit from the Alfafar town hall. However, a 12% delay interest will be paid to investors according to contract. (previously 10%).
Housers paid me the promised cashback last month after I reinvested the returned funds from the last buy-to-sell exited project on the 25th, after I had writen my Housers review and results after one year of investing. So, just in case you check it out, you will see a slight difference in the March numbers.
My 50 Estadio Nacional shares are still in the marketplace to sell.
Grupeer
Some more projects exited on time this month on Grupeer, allowing me to withdraw another 2000€ to improve my P2P lending diversification portfolio. This has been my fifth withdrawal without any issues at all. Looking forward to reading their financial statement that was promised to be issued in April.
This is how my diverfication process and Grupper chart looks now:
Mintos
Same as in January and February I deposited part of my Grupeer withdrawn funds to Mintos, 1490€. My total deposit on Mintos is slighhly over 5000€, which is the current limit I am happy to invest in a single platform for now.
Crowdestate
I’ve got not much to talk about Crowdestate this month, I had no issues, no deposits or exited projects. The only thing is that I have over 70€ of cash drag, which I can’t reinvest as the minimum is 100€. Crowdestate demands a larger amount of capital if we want to shorten the cash drag time. Next month I may deposit this extra 30€ to get rid of the drag, if any opportunity I like comes.
Envestio
I deposited another 2075€ on Envestio, same as on Mintos, that’s going to be my last shot here. The total deposited amount is 5000€.
Fast Invest
I have no plans to add any funds on Fast Invest either.
The magic of compounding is showing after the fifth month, getting a 12.2€ record earnings 🙂
How are my 2019 goals going?
On my first portfolio update I set several goals I would like to accomplish this year, it’s time to review how I’m progressing:
Increase portfolio value between 180,000 – 200,000€
→ € – Storms came and unless I succesfully rob a bank there’s no way I can get that. Next month I will set a new goal value
Increase passive income to 700€/month
Read at least 12 books
→ 2.5/12 – This month I’ve been reading “The science of getting rich by Wallace D.Wattles” (amazon affiliatte link). My next read: Principles, Life and work by Ray Dalio (amazon affiliatte link)
Become fitter, reduce body fat to 15% (21% now)
→ 19% (last month 21%)
Improve my writing and speed
→ Looooads to improve, although I feel a bit more confident with my writting. English is not my native language and it will take me a considerable amount of time to master it, if I never really archive it. On the meantime, I hope I am not making people blind while reading through my blog and grammar mistakes. Sorry!
Write 20 blog posts
→ 12/20 – I’m getting there! 🙂
Earn my first blog income and donate it to a charity
→ Archived! I am so happy about this one! Alegria! I got my first blog income! Someone joint Mintos through my referral link adding my first 5€. To whoever joined: A thousand thanks! As I said, by the end of 2019 I will donate the total sum of the OMJ blog income made throghout 2019 to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Next goal : Earn 25€ and donate it by the end of 2019.
Savings Rate
This is only my third month tracking saving rate, but I would like to introduce a small chart to represent how much of my income I save monthly, I know it still looks a bit odd but I just couldn’t wait anymore! After the Algotechs fall off I need upwards charts to give me positive feelings, so there it goes!
My target is to save at least 50% of my annual income. I will reach the target once the orange average line on the chart crosses the top grey line. My savings rate for this month is 49%, yaaa maan! 🙂
Until next time
This month has been terrific for me, I thought I would always remember the March of 2019 as the month of the UK leaving the EU and not me losing so much money, this mark will always remain on my investment portfolio value chart, a lesson that will never be forgotten. I am glad March is over now, and we are heading for a hopefully shiny Spring season, where Spanish songs are played more often on the UK radio and reminds me that I should go “despacito” rather than “rapidito” on my investing journey.
Lastly, I would love to hear what other people think I should do now, your advice will be honestly appreciated:
- Write a blog post about my investing experience with Algotechs/Bealgo.
- Ignore that and write about something else, like a FIRE plan.
- Start over again from scratch starting with a new domain name and blog.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
You can follow me on twitter where I share some thoughts from time to time and connect with other like-minded people.
Disclaimer: Some of the links on this post are affiliate ones and some others are not. If you join to a platform using my affiliate links you will get a bonus or commission and so will I. I’m going to donate any commission I get throughout 2019 to a charity. You can read more about the purposes of this blog here and where this money is going to go here