Regret: Because I thought the market was not cheap overall, I allocated more to lower risk event-driven ideas with (supposedly) uncorrelated but lower returns. Should have been at least 100% long at all times :D Nonetheless I beat the S&P500 with significant cash holdings. I had parked some cash in a SPAC and sold in the crash below my entry price and reinvested proceeds profitably, did not know how crazy the returns on the spacs would be in the future and did not re-enter later because I will not buy more than 2% above trust value :'(
Another example: I was long one genetic company in Ark's ETF. No profits, lower growth due to Covid. I sold after ~2 years with just a >10x return using mostly covered calls. Should have held and enjoyed another 100% extra 8)
I was short TSLA <1% , but read the signs (ever more funds flowing in (index inclusion possible) / reality does not matter for at least some years or catalyst event and better long TSLA than worthless bitcoin) and totally reversed to long TSLA ~2% and then sold at a small profit. Despite knowing how important flows are and seeing confirmation biased shareholders like in TSLA's case, I did not learn my lesson to not short in this market, which lead to some cost in 2021 where I am just a little ahead of the S&P500 (GME cost ~2% of portfolio, but I could have held the position through, was just angst this could go >1000$).
Overall, I will not change anything. I keep buying small caps with a value tilt and focus more on international markets like Eastern Europe 2021 instead of expensive USA (will valuation matter in the end?). Another lesson is to sell crazy spikes due to twitter pumps (stocks go up up to 100% on no news and then go down again), but I have to work on how to spot this, as I am not constantly watching stock prices. Also difficult to tell the difference: Could this be another GME? How crazy can it get? --> max 0.5% position size. But I also manged to offload some microcaps (I was long) into the spikes and rebuy later. 2020 was too crazy to derive real lessons in my opinion. Despite some experimenting with warrant/unit arbitrage, I will never buy SPACS significantly above trust value despite the return potential (expected value positive as long as market = crazy).
