13 Comments
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Investing with Martin's avatar

Actually lold “Besides this, I really have nothing to report except that I throw up every time I open my portfolio and see that I am not a shrewd investor but a YOLO bagholder of the most hated equity in all of California.”

Good luck!

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Sven's avatar

Sad but true :-) At least I learned from this that vomit tastes the best when you ate water melon before

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Quark22's avatar

I had to laugh too, it might be the funniest thing which I read all year.

Good luck, Friendly!

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Sven's avatar

Thanks, both of us know: I will need it!

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Mujo_Investing's avatar

Love your transparency, self awareness and humour. But this is such a yolo, portfolio if I ever saw one. Thanks for giving us an insight into your development as an investor, we all need mistakes to improve

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researchnewsletters1's avatar

Easy to say, I know but sell x% of SOC. Stick in VOO. Go to sleep. Sell another x% untill you are comfortable with the risk. Lesson learnt. More painful lesson still if it goes down another 20% or 50%. Stick in VOO. Only recycle the capital into a high conviction long. Do not buy another fintwit darling. Fintwit conviction is meaningless.

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researchnewsletters1's avatar

Also, fair play for sharing your results. Not many do (real ones).

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Sven's avatar

Thank you for the comment and reading in the first place. I am not going to sell SOC, despite knowing that the position is larger than it should be. I think the odds are decent enough to roll the dice here and give this 2 more months. In my view selling now would be a continuation of the error sequence that I committed in H1 that got me into this mess (pro-cyclical trading)

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mendo's avatar

First, thanks for a candid article!

Second, only 10% portfolio loss is much better than the title and tone of the article suggest!

Third, having in mind first two sentences, I would point out, that most important is to survive in order to be able to continue, and your (temporary) result is far from any existential danger for your portfolio.

Fourth, having in mind first two sentences, I would stress that most of the writters write endless articles about (terrific) gains and results, but there is almost no where to find storries about (big) losses and even blow-ups, which are inevitable, as the money, that the Wall street, stock issuers and similar actors live from, has to come from somebody.

I often wonder, where do huge sums of money repeatedly flow from, given billions and billions of investment money, that are even in boom times continuously lost on capital markets in many ways and forms - for instance, but not limited to: losses from leverage blow-ups, continues penny and even larger stock issuance that in most cases goes to zero or is at least heavily diluted, non stop chasement of latest "hot" securities and sectors that inevitably sonner or later go from FOMO to hate or/and indifference of the investors...and many other ways...

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Sven's avatar

Thank you for the comment. I know that -10% ain't a huge deal, especially after a few solid years in the market before, BUT I am not happy with my ACTIONS that lead to the -10% this year. I think I made a few unforced errors - hence the title of the post.

Anyhow, I still expect to finish the year strong. This might be deluded bias talking out of me, but I like my book heading into H2 and will have a good result if I learn from the dumb shit I did earlier this year. I also still think SOC will work out, but I know the position is bigger than it should be.

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NJ capital's avatar

out of GBFH? anything fundamental? learn from mistakes and keep grinding. a fantastic 2024 and a weak H1 2025 is not so bad. good luck

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Sven's avatar
8dEdited

Thank you. I sold GBFH cause mgmt said in the Q1 earnings call that they expected volumes in Q2 to be rather stable (if I recall correctly due to some technical reasons) and only materially grow again in H2. That, in combination with my fear (back then) that the US goes into a recession and banks being very cyclical (and I'd assume GBFH with their gambling business even more so), made me back off. I will listen to the Q2 call and then reenter if it's bullish and the US looks like it avoids a recession.

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Sven's avatar

Oh, I also sold $PSIX at 25 in April, which is at ... checks notes... $63 today

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