The day started off strong and I waited a bit before getting rid of a small amount of the Proshares Ultrashort SP500 (SDS) hedge that I had–then unloaded that and did a little buying–nibbling.
My nibbles were mostly adding to my utility baby bonds and my utility and CEF preferreds.
The only new positions this week were 100 shares each of the Invesco Mortgage 7.75% perpetual (IVR-B) at $4.60/share and the Hersha Hospitality perpetual (HT-E) at $3.20/share. Purely speculative–not real income investments, but priced for bankruptcy. Both companies have suspended all dividends.
Today as we head toward the end of the day we need to see if this is a ‘buy the rumor’ ‘sell the news’ moment.
We know that we will see various aid packages soon from the government, but these do not solve the Covid 19 problem and the coming steam roller that will totally destroy profits in many industries–that is why I am just a nibble here and a nibble there–using a tiny amount of dry powder, but mostly keeping lots ready. We will still be dealing with the Covid 19 fallout 9 months to a year from now–maybe longer–so I see no reason to ‘back up the truck’–more like load my car trunk time now.