March 2025 Portfolio Update

Quote, Portfolio, Complimentary Monthly Commentary - CMC, Earnings Recap, Latest 13Fs, & Books + much more ...

Mar 10, 2025

∙ Paid

Quote for this month:

"The difference between successful and unsuccessful investing is not intelligence or access to information. The difference is emotional discipline and keeping your nerve when everyone else is losing theirs." - Bill Miller

Portfolio

I am NOT a financial advisor. I’m sharing my investing journey. Not investment advice. Do your own research.

Portfolio (Basic):

Holding since:

2020 - LKQ 0.00%↑ - 03

2021 - SFM 0.00%↑ - 03 | OPFI 0.00%↑ - 05 | VMD 0.00%↑ - 05 | SPOT 0.00%↑ - 11

2022 - MITK 0.00%↑ - 01 | WBD 0.00%↑ - 04 | $EVVTY - 09 | $NTDOY - 12

2023 - PYPL 0.00%↑ - 01 | BSM 0.00%↑ - 05 | BUR 0.00%↑ - 09

2024 - (First ???) - 01 | BKTI 0.00%↑ - 04 | BOC 0.00%↑ - 09

2025 - IAC 0.00%↑ - 01 | (Second ???) - 03 | (Third ???) - 03

Complimentary Monthly Commentary - CMC

Given the volatility in the market I decided to start two starter positions. They are both very tiny right now but I’m looking to build up the positions over time, in one of them I will probably do it a bit quicker while with the other one, there is a chance that it will take me a year or longer to establish full position or I might not be able to do it in full because it might run up in price and in either case I’m okay with the out come.

I will discuss both in greater details later for paid subscribers, but most of the paid subscribers already know about both of them, because of the complimentary paid chat feature.

Join YZ’s subscriber chat

Available in the Substack app and on web

Quick note on PayPal, I listened to the Investor Day and I think company is moving in the right direction, its just sad that it took a new CEO to do so, I just image how much better the company would be if the old CEO implemented the changes that Alex Chriss is doing right now.

Earnings Recap

Part 1

SPOT - earnings came in good and market loved it but I think stock price is running a bit in front of the company and that is why I trimmed some and at some point valuations might not justify the price. Holding…

PYPL - this one is weird because I thought earnings were good but market is worrying a bit too much about braintree which is understandably but I think PYPL is much more then braintree and with Investor Day it was reaffirmed. I think they really have a chance to do V/MA/Amex play book but need some time.

NTDOY - earnings where meh but that is understandably because we are waiting for Switch 2 details and sales.

MITK - this one is a bit disappointing in the turn around execution. I still hold and even added a bit, but I’m giving this one shorter leash then others…

IAC - the gem or at least that’s what I thought it is . There is a bit of moving around happening with Joe leaving so currently I’m looking for ANGI’s “new IPO” and see in “what direction” Barry will take IAC because it **does** **not** seem like Turo will be IPOing this year or maybe not even next. I personally would sell MGM stake and just buy the crap out of the shares but Barry stated that wont happen. Disappointing. Will be monitoring transition and how Angi does with IPO as of right now I’m leaning towards selling my Angi shares but we will see.

Part 2

LKQ - earnings were okay nothing too interesting (I’m in the wait and see mode due to the new CEO) but what worries me is the whole tariff thing going on right now, but otherwise I think shares are undervalued and I’m holding for now…

SFM - Humming a long the way… is it over priced? Probably but management is executing and even thought I sold a lot already I’m still monitoring and would be willing to buy back shares.

BSM - I thought the earnings were okay but what I enjoyed is that BSM is going in offensive so 2025 should be an interesting year and while we wait we get about 10% dividend.

BUR - Lets be honest no one really knows what the heck is going on under the hood of BUR given the secrecy of litigations, but we do know that Argentina owes them enough money in the amount of BUR’s market cap and that is why I’m holding… Everything else is cherry on top.

OPFI - OPFI is killing it and I honestly don’t know how they do it… which is actually concerning…

EVVTY - Okay Q with a lot of noise around the cyber security, Asia, Europe, etc… Out of the most things the most concerning is the cyber attacks that management says will be taken care of before/by 2026 if that problem goes away by the end of 2025 we are good if not might have to reconsider, until then we hold and collect the dividends

WBD - slow and steady …. I just hate that I went too much so fast in the beginning as things are looking a bit better with each quarter and I’m looking forward to Max’s growth in the coming Qs plus debt is getting paid down and although it ain’t easy it does seem as management is pulling all of the right levers while market was saying that wouldn’t happen, for now … so far so good.

Latest 13Fs (That I think are worth looking at)

Rule One Fund- (RULRX)

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES (IMA)

AltaRock Partners - No interesting changes

Li Lu - Himalaya Capital Management - No interesting changes

ValueAct Capital - No interesting changes

Valley Forge Capital Management - No interesting changes

Clifford Sosin - CAS Investment Partners - No interesting changes

Books

I realized that my descriptions of the books that I read may not always give them full credit as when I read these books and when I write about them, I only share one or two things that really stand out to me. So I have decided to also include a quick short description from Goodreads (no affiliations) so that way you get my thoughts but also more generic description to get a better feel for the books and in so hopefully adding them to your “to-read-list”.

This time around I finished one audiobook and one physical book:

The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy

YZ:

It really is fascinating to read about how traders and investors did business pre - internet age … Truly wild wild west (before and potentially in any new things to come that are not well overseen like crypto for example) and in a way shows that they way you made money before - yo can not make the same way now (given the regulations), but I guess you could learn from history … adopt to the present and succeed in the future…

I think The World For Sale is worth a read or listen to anyone who cares about history, investing, or trying to learn from the past to understand were we came from and/or can potentially end up (this I mean more towards the psychological level) especially when it comes to different commodities (and geo political situation) …

Goodreads:

Meet the traders who supply the world with oil, metal and food - no matter how corrupt, war-torn or famine-stricken the source.
The modern world is built on commodities - from the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones.

We rarely stop to consider where they come from. But we should.

In The World for Sale, two leading journalists lift the lid on one of the least scrutinised corners of the economy: the workings of the billionaire commodity traders who buy, hoard and sell the earth's resources.

It is the story of how a handful of swashbuckling businessmen became indispensable cogs in global markets: enabling an enormous expansion in international trade, and connecting resource-rich countries - no matter how corrupt or war-torn - with the world's financial centres.

And it is the story of how some traders acquired untold political power, right under the noses of Western regulators and politicians - helping Saddam Hussein to sell his oil, fuelling the Libyan rebel army during the Arab Spring, and funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin in spite of strict sanctions.

The result is an eye-opening tour through the wildest frontiers of the global economy, as well as a revelatory guide to how capitalism really works.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Oil: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides) by Vaclav Smil

YZ:

I decided to read “Oil” as one of the books in physical format, but to be honest I think you could have 30-60min conversation with ChatGPT and come out with similar understanding. I’m planning to do so with the other commodities get better understanding and not to spend as much time reading.

Again, its a beginners guide so if you know nothing about Oil or ChatGPT, this book is a good start…