SpaceX and my XOVR experiment - day 1

Well, SpaceX IPO finally arrived. There was quite a bit of public 'buzz' with the massive size of the IPO stirring up the mainstream media, and lots of 'mum and dad' investors (aka 'mug punters') speculating about whether or not to invest in the IPO (not that many of them had access to the IPO, so would likely have been piling in on day 1. Even at my workplace I overheard a few client phonecalls where apparently they were thinking about investing in SpaceX. So it was reminiscent of the 'stock tips' and speculation in the lead-up to the Great Depression:

"In the winter of 1928 Joe Kennedy, father of JFK and major stock market player, stopped to get his shoes shined. The shoeshine boy leaned in and said, “Buy Hindenburg”. Kennedy began unwinding his positions saying, “You know it’s time to sell when shoeshine boys give you stock tips. This bull market is over.”"

My tiny ($2K) speculation to buy into SpaceX indirectly a couple of months ago (via investing in XOVR) didn't seem to benefit from the Day 1 intraday mania in SpaceX that I had expected. Given that XOVR has an exposure equivalent to about 24% of its overall investments. I will wait and see how the SpaceX stock price tracks next week, and if the price of XOVR starts to reflect the movement in SpaceX more in line with my expectations (eg. the 6.4% EOD change in SpaceX stock price *should* have resulted in XOVR ending the day up by about 1.6%, rather than 0.7%.

In any event, my speculation on XOVR has still done quite well since my purchase of 100 shares at USD$17.01 on 13 April - closing at USD$19.67 on Friday. The other two largest positions XOVR holds are NVidia and Alphabet, so this is sort of an AI and SpaceX play overall.

Unfortunately the other speculative play I made was to buy Palantir, expecting it to do well from the US Iran war and AI exposure -- but it got an early start on the current AI 'correction' regarding excessive enthusiasm for AI stocks after initial speculative about the Minab Tomahawk strike blamed Palantir's involvement in Project Maven (later turned out that the lack of human oversight/verification in the 'kill-chain' and outdated military database regarding the use of the school building) were more at fault). PLTR has performed well over the past 5 years, so hopefully the stock price will recover over time.

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Net Worth MAY 2026

Chart updated to end of MAY in sidebar.

My stocks/cash increased $2,613 (+0.53%) to $493,946. This portfolio is actually about 73% cash currently, as I include my mortgage offset account balance in this figure, and I recently sold off my small superhero trading account holdings and my Microequities Asset Managment Value Fund to simplify my accounts and also realize some capital gains under the current CGT rules (50% discount for long term CG, and application of marginal tax rate), as I might have a low enough taxable income this FY to get some CGT calculated using less than 30% tax rate. I will have a slightly higher taxable income next FY (as I expect to be working FT all FY), but will still make use of the 50% CG discount to sell off some US stock holdings (if the AUD drops vs the USD), and my bullion holdings in the Perth Mint depository account.

Retirement savings (SMSF etc.) increased by +$55,636 (+2.41%) to $2,364,379. No contributions made this month. I started my new job and have some SGL contributions due, but they are still getting the SMSF account details setup properly.

The real estate holdings were fairly constant. The estimated value of our home remained unchanged at $1,295,556 (my half) for yet another month, While my 'other real estate' (investment apartment and holiday home) increased by +$1,592 (+0.07%) to $2,195,831.

Other assets (my online depository bullion account at Perth Mint, and the bullion value of my gold and silver proof coin collection) decreased by -$1,103 (-1.29%) to $84,344. I have stopped my $200/mo bullion savings plan, as I want to sell and pay CGT under the current regime. I might restart the monthly savings plan in future, as the new CGT rules (with cost base CPI adjustment) would mean no CGT on any price rise that only matches inflation (and generally gold is used as a hedge against inflation, rather than a speculative investment).

Overall, NW increased by +$58,738 (+1.09%) to $5,444,678 during May. NW needs to increase by about 0.2% per month on average to keep pace with inflation (I.e. maintain real value), so the increase during May was about +0.9% in real value.

Towards the end of the month we had to spend around $4,600 to have our sewer pipe unblocked and a section of pipe replaced (it had been damaged by the roots of a large liquid amber tree that we removed about ten years ago, and we knew we would eventually have to get the damaged pipe replaced), so this will impact my NW figure at the end of June. I will receive my SMSF minimum annual pension payment in June, but as that will effectively just be a transfer of funds from my SMSF account into my mortgage offset account it will not impact my overall NW.

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