Chicken Little Portfolio Performance June 2017

In June 2017, the Chicken Little Portfolio gained 0.21% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.71%. While financial conditions remain forgiving there are hints of a cold wind blowing in the form of rising interest rates. Recall, Chicken Little's warnings on interest rates from last year.

September 19, 2016: Japanese bonds will fall.
August 11, 2016: A darker future for US Treasury bonds.

Winter may be coming to the world's bond markets

June 2017 performance

Chicken Little gained fractionally in June because of a similarly modest increase in the price of long-term US Treasury bonds.  The Dow Jones industrial average continues to pile on gains with a year to date return approaching 10%. 

	June 2017	YTD 2017
Chicken Little	0.21%	2.88%
Dow Jones Industrials	1.71%	9.15%

Burton Malkiel's dart throwing blind monkey would be rich in 2017. Every asset class followed by Chicken little has made great money so far in 2017. 

Making money in 2017 has been EASY - so far

The riskier stock markets outside the US have done the best in 2017. Even the safe havens of gold and Treasury bonds have gone up in price at the same time as risky stocks. Chicken Little continues to believe that the future will more challenging than 2017 to date: winter may be coming. 

Asset	Symbol	June 2017	YTD 2017
Dow Jones Industrials	DIA	1.71%	9.15%
Non-US Stocks	EFA	0.31%	14.78%
Emerging Market Stocks	EEM	0.93%	18.77%
US Long-Term Bonds	TLT	0.78%	6.09%
Gold	GLD	-2.16%	7.67%

July 2017 portfolio positions

As of July 2017, Chicken Little is long US Treasuries with a good amount of cash, and a tiny amount of cryptocurrencies and stocks. 

Chicken Little bought the cryptocurrency Ethereum at $195 in May 2017. Since the purchase, the price of Ethereum ("Ether" to its fans) has crashed to $100, soared to $400, and currently sells for $266. This 35+% gain in 5 weeks is amazing. Nevertheless, the incredible risk in cryptocurrencies has led Chicken Little to trim the position from 38 basis points to 30 basis points. Otherwise, Chicken Little made no changes to the portfolio in June of 2017. 

Previous month's report                           Subsequent Month's report

	Chicken Little	Dow Jones Industrials
2017 (through June)	2.88%	9.15%
2016	-1.92%	16.08%
2015 (April through Dec)	-2.49%	-0.27%
since inception (3/31/15)	-1.61%	26.36%