February 2021

The depths of winter in the UK, just before spring erupts. Covid Vaccinations are in full swing, with the glimmer of hope that the restrictions placed on the population will be relaxed progressively through the year.

It’s been an interesting month, with theWallStreetBets group battling with the short traders, both in the stock market and the crypto markets. Fascinating to watch but definitely one to avoid getting drawn into. To me it looked like lofty anti-establishment ideals covering up classic pump-and-dump schemes.

My investment strategy is developing and maturing somewhat. My scattergun approach last year has shown me which areas to concentrate on and which to pause or pull back from. I’m still interested to learn about new income streams, so there is a few new areas being investigated.

So on with the detail…

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Investments

A real rationalisation of my investments this month.

TheSunExchange project this month is the same one as 2 months ago. It is outside of South Africa and has the income denominated in USD to protect it from currency fluctuations. It also has a fixed payout, unrelated to monthly changes in energy consumption, which will provide more stability to the income through the year. Invested £543

CrowdProperty still has £9000 of un-deployed assets, so no further investment. I have though of investing the money elsewhere for a short time until the assets are able to be deployed, but I am not sure I want to be that aggressive.

EstateGuru is certainly on my radar for further investment, but it’s not where my focus is at the moment

ElfinMarket received my regular £100 investment again this month. With the slow deployment of assets in crowd property it is becoming more likely that Elfin Market will get a significant chunk of next years ISA allowance. Invested £100

Euro P-2-P lending hasn’t received any investment. I have shifted some assets from Lendermarket to RoboCash. I am planning to continue to rationalise which platforms my funds are in. With regards to ongoing investment, I am not sure the risk Vs rewards is really worth it.

Invictus IML is still prohibitively expensive to invest in due to the high gas fees on the Etherium network, so again no investment.

In the crypto lending world things are really hotting up. This has seen a new high for BTC just above $58K followed by a correction as low as $43K. Wild stuff. I added to my BTC holdings, choosing Celsius for this months deposit. Invested £1237

New to this months investments is Staking and Yield Farming in the crypto world. The summer of 2020 was big for yield farming on the ETH network. This is now playing out on the new Binance Smart Chain (BSC), so I thought I would dive in. I’ve tested the waters, staking some CAKE tokens on the PancakeSwap platform. Invested £500

FreeTrade has had its regular investment. Invested £500

Lastly this month, JuicyFields received an increased investment as my confidence has grown with the platform. The first returns have hit my account on the 1st of March, though this won’t show up in this February summary. This is looking good for now. Invested £346

Total invested £3226

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Monthly Income

This months income posts another healthy boost, breaching the £300 mark for the first time. crypto in various forms is responsible for this, so we will have to see how successful this is once this years bull market reverses. For now it is worth riding the wave. So on to the details…

TheSunExchange is now on the downward path towards winter for earnings. This month is down from last months peak, even with another project coming online. Income £40

CrowdProperty saw another solid month. No contribution from EstateGuru though this month. Income £28

ElfinMarket continued to post a standard return. Income £9

Euro P2P couldn’t match last months results but posted a steady amount in line with previous months. Income £12

The Invictus IML fund had a great month growing at its largest rate to date. Income £38

Crypto lending reflects the increase in price of the underlying assets namely BTC and to a lesser extent ETH this month. NEXO contributed a healthy £67. BlockFi added another £37. Celsius followed up with £17. And finally Luno almost made it to £1. Income £121

Yield Farming is the new addition to the income flow this month. Despite only investing for 7 days at the end of the month, my £500 brought in over 10%. This will be something to invest heavily into in the coming months I think. Income £51

Lastly this month there is the dividend income from FreeTrade. A little down from last month but not by much. Income £17

Total Passive Income £320.03