October 2024 Portfolio Update
Free Topics: Quote, Portfolio + Quick Update, $BOC Meeting, Answering Question, Books ... Paid Topics: Portfolio(s) Discussion/Commentaries, and so much more...
Quote for this month:
“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” - George Allen, Sr.
*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 | IAC 0.00%↑ - 08 | SPOT 0.00%↑ - 11
2022 - MITK 0.00%↑ - 01 | WBD 0.00%↑ - 04 | $EVVTY - 09 | $NTDOY - 12
2023 - PYPL 0.00%↑ - 01 | TCS 0.00%↑ - 01 | BSM 0.00%↑ - 05 | BUR 0.00%↑ - 09 | UG 0.00%↑ - 11
2024 - (First ???) - 01 | (Second ???) - 04 | BOC 0.00%↑ - 09
Quick Free Portfolio Update
Exited - OZK 0.00%↑
Entered- BOC 0.00%↑
Although I did mention that most of my updates will be provided behind paywall, I thought it would be good idea to let know on exits and “some” entering (entering that are liquid enough or known well enough I have no problem sharing).
I have finally exited Bank OZK. After listening to Phil Town’s podcast on potential miscommunication from OZK’s management, I have decided to exit the stock. When it comes to owning stocks - but especially banks - you need management that you can fully trust and I do not have full faith in OZK’s management anymore. I have exited OZK after owing for 4ish years, exited with CAGR of about 15%+ ish which I think is pretty good (not counting dividends and option trades).
So far this year I have entered into 3 new stocks, two that are not disclosed unless you are paid subscriber and one that is Boston Omaha (newest).
After traveling to Omaha for (my second) BOC annual meeting, I have decided to start a position. There has been a lot of changes (under the hood of the company) + some drama since last year and I think in the long run BOC should be a good company to own (as long CEO delivers on his vision), with that said I do have a feeling it will not be a quick “win” similar to IAC, but I’m buying businesses not stocks to trade (99.9% of the time) and as long as management is executing on what it promises at some point stock price will follow the fundamentals… at least that’s what we are made to believe…
If you want to stay up to date on what I do, consider becoming a paid subscriber… its not a must and I do not guarantee a lot of “action” my goal is to make money (and hopefully turn it into $1 million) and not to show off trades or show how smart I am… sometimes I write more and sometimes I write less…
PS I do not really trade and I’m not that smart, just keep that in mind…
Boots On The Ground to BOC
Here you will find my quick notes on BOC 0.00%↑ Annual Meeting from me:
You can find slides from the Annual Meeting - click here
Sitting at the desk:
Scott LaFoy - Link
Dave - Hherman - GIG
Adam Peterson - Chairman & CEO
J. Max Meisinger - Broadband Division
Josh Weisenburger - CFO
Adam believes that Link and GIG are ready while Fiber just getting ready
Management states that all / most of the returns are conservative
Link - transform some into digital and slowly growing
GIG - going offensive (before it was “not going to grow much” different story now). New portal that is potential for new leg of growth
Boston Omaha Broadband - Max new CEO. ARPU increased 4% better than competitors but competitors are large.
Fiber Fast Homes - negative but feels like when Adam spoke that it more of Alex’s vision/fault and Adam is changing things up so should be positive in the near future.
Manufactured Home Opportunities
Brownfield only if it’s opportunistic and with some kind of advantage
Q&A
-Management has thought about buy backs but also opportunities in GIG or other internal businesses. Thinks it’s tough question. In short term buy backs make sense but in long term better investing inside of the 3 businesses makes more sense
-Not anticipating to dilute shareholders and would rather share count to go down, 500 mil announcement last yet it seems was more of Alex’s thing .. we will see
-200 million in investments + management believes enough cash to keep going + working on debt structure that is positive for business and would fund broadband
-Adam is interested in long duration, hard to change, with competitive advantage, and supply, companies / things but will not invest in things he does not understand
-Will work on better communication but with the idea that it’s for long term holders not to move the stock.
I will also be sharing my thoughts on my other holdings that I visited a week before going to BOC meeting. That one I will be sharing via PAID Section as its about $20 million market cap and I’m still try to accumulate more shares, even though I’m already up almost 30% on it…
Answering Reader’s Question
Q: Also it’d be great to get your thought process of cutting positions when you start seeing losses. For example, why are you holding onto IAC?
A: I actually have really hard time cutting losses as I do not see “number/paper losses” as real losses.
To me losses come in only when the thesis does not play out as it should or what I think company is doing is not happening to the degree I think company / management should be executing.
To some degree I think its my lame excuse to hold on to losers, but also when we are buying businesses there is no such thing as today business is down 30% and tomorrow its up 30% that’s what makes public markets a good place to invest as it in the short term markets are not efficient but in the long term most of the time they are.
I like how Benjamin Graham thought many of as about Mr Market. Sometimes Mr Market is rational and sometimes he is a drunk maniac…
Management of IAC has acknowledged that they have bought Meredith a bit too late in the game and they could of easily waited a bit, but that is in hindsight and its easy to bash someone once you know how the future unfolded. But guess what slowly but surely Dotdash Meredith (DDM) is turning a corner and will be providing good cash flows (and I’m not even going to mention D/Cipher and the possibilities with it in the future), again Angi similar story running businesses is not easy and sometimes things take much longer then we would like but even with that there is also Turo. When Turo will go public IAC stock will reflect that …. things take time … Then there is also stake in MGM 0.00%↑ and many other little things inside of IAC that can potentially give great optionality for greatness.
Although I do not like to talk about things until I sell them because that is when the profits are locked in, but also look at OPFI … going from down 50%+ and almost selling out of it to seeing the founder stepping up to the plate and me averaging down and now being up 50%.
I’m sure I will probably run into similar situation with BOC that is currently happening with IAC, and look I’m no math wizard (I’m actually terrible at math and to think about it I’m pretty terrible at many things) , but when it comes to market psychology, judging people and their character, and having long time frame - I think this is where I have an edge - I will never perfectly time the bottom or the top - and that is okay…
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 two audiobook and one physical book:
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway
YZ:
This was very interesting listen and I highly recommend reading or listening to this book to get a feel for general macro world situation (regarding raw materials) … this book also made me realize how hard it is to be a commodity investor unless you have boots on the ground…
Goodreads:
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future.
The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grids, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information—what Ed Conway calls “the ethereal world”—our twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material.
In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood to metal. And in Material World, Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates.
Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new the ground up.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
The Small Stock Trader by Mika
YZ:
As most of y’all know I do not really trade. I do options and occasionally trade FGFPP 0.00%↑ when opportunity is there (not that often) but other then that I’m long term buy kind of a guy… with that said if you ARE a trader and love it or want to learn how to get good at it because you have what it takes (lets be honest most people do not have what it takes, but anyways), THIS BOOK IS A MUST!
I would even recommend this book to investors too! Mika, although I do not know him provides gems of knowledge that goes beyond trading and its an easy quick read but you will definitely take away something useful out of it!
To me it always comes down to “knowing yourself”
I’m actually willing to giveaway my copy if anyone wants, just DM me and I will ship it to you free of charge, the only thing is address must be US based (I’m not paying for international shipping)
Goodreads:
"The Small Stock Trader" by Mika is a small book about the stock market and psychology / self-help, accompanied with some lessons from poker, Chinese philosophy and martial arts. Half of the book is about the stock market and the other half is about psychology-related topics, as the stock market is often likened to an analytical and psychological game.
I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. (3.5 cause I’m not a trader, otherwise I would give it 5 out of 5)
Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy
YZ:
Pathogenesis is a must read! This book really gave me a different (new) perspective on history of life and especially on history of humans or living creatures in general. I have much more respect towards disease of the past and how they have shaped us as human kind and gave some of us advantages that maybe we did not deserve, but that’s life sometimes things just happen the way they do … what’s interesting is an alternative universes of how things could of been if things played out different…
Again a must read to get much different historical lessons…
Goodreads:
According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.
Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world’s major religions.
By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past—and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story.
I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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