An open kitchen since October 2024
How I cook it
Every trade, every mistake, unfiltered towards food freedom
I’m an ordinary salaried worker from Singapore with a passion for good food. To keep that passion from breaking the bank, I set out to invest my own money. To better understand my journey, I have decided that at the end of every month, I’d write down what I bought and sold, what I was thinking when I did it, and whether it paid off. So step into my kitchen and have a peek into my unhinged mind as I attempt to one day achieve “Food Freedom”.
Before you ask, I’m not selling anything here. No course, no signals, no affiliate links (At least not yet heh). Everything you see here is my own money, and you’ll see exactly where it went, including the parts I’d rather you didn’t. More about me here.
Portfolio today
$61,293
From zero, at IBKR
Entries published
17
Nothing deleted
Worst mistake
−$15,900
Still on the table
Where the money is
Pulled from Interactive Brokers · 28 August 2026 · NAV $61,291.87
Stocks · $51,441.08 · 83.9%
Core Index ETFs
CSPX, VWRA, WSML
$18,851.08
30.8%
Strategic Overlay
SOFI · one name, 17.2% of NAV
$10,560.00
17.2%
Tech & Growth
AMD, NVDA, PLTR, NET, AMZN, TSLA, SKHY
$9,514.30
15.5%
Yield Engine
MSTY, CONY, ULTY · winding down
$8,745.30
14.3%
SGX Satellites
AWX, 5DD · S$3,224 at 0.7870
$2,537.43
4.1%
Commodities
CPER, SLV
$1,232.97
2.0%
Bonds · $5,034.50 · 8.2%
SGOV
0–3 month US Treasury bills
$5,034.50
8.2%
Options · −$214.91 · −0.4%
SOFI Sep-04 ’26 $19.50 call
5 contracts short · written against Strategic Overlay
−$214.91
−0.4%
A sold call is a liability, not a holding, so it carries no bar. If SOFI closes above $19.50 on 4 September, 500 shares get called away at that price.
Cash · $4,986.85 · 8.1%
Uninvested cash
USD $3,574.06 · SGD 1,795.09 at 0.7870
$4,986.85
8.1%
Stocks $51,441.08 + bonds $5,034.50 − options $214.91 + cash $4,986.85 = $61,247.52.
Net liquidation value on the statement is $61,291.87. The $44.35 difference is dividends that have been declared but not yet paid into the account, plus small pricing differences between the two IBKR feeds I read. It is real money and it is not in any bucket above, so I am showing it rather than burying it.
Every position I hold. Nothing omitted. What each sleeve is for.
The worst thing I’ve done so far
I put $24,691 into three high-yield covered-call funds — MSTY, CONY and ULTY. They’re worth $8,762 today. That’s roughly $15,900 gone, though I did collect distributions on the way down, so the real damage is a bit less than the headline number.
The yields were enormous and that was the whole reason I bought them. I spent months topping them up and telling myself the payouts made up for the price falling. They didn’t.
I’ve stopped adding to them and the position is down from about a quarter of the portfolio to 14%. It stays up here because it’s probably the most useful thing on the site.
Latest entry
-
Month 16 Snapshot: A New Hope
January was when I stopped patching the leaks in the Yield Engine and started rebuilding from scratch. Plus the Warsh shock, a $97.90 loss on a SoFi put, and a rotation into commodities.
The record
Every monthly entry since I started.
Pull up a chair
One email at the end of each month. Nothing else, ever.
A personal record of my own investing, published for my own accountability. Not financial advice, not a recommendation, not a solicitation. I am not licensed to advise on investments. This portfolio is small, concentrated, and has already lost me a five-figure sum I did not see coming. Read it as a diary, not a recipe. I eat what I cook, losses included.
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