Great post. Lots of similarities with how you invest and successful microcap investing. The first bet is about the broad strokes. The subsequent bets is when you see the details fill in and average up. Buy low and then don’t be afraid to buy higher - sometimes aggressively.

Poor Investors often disguise inexperience with arrogance. Rich investors disguise experience with humility. The richest person in the room is usually the quietest one in the room. The poorest person in the room is usually the loudest one in the room.

Your portfolio will naturally concentrate itself, the way it should be, into your winners if you just stay out of the way.

We are all fighting the same battles: Riding a winner deciding if you should hold it. Holding a loser deciding if you should sell it. Sticking with a stock that has gone nowhere for quarters/years questioning your thesis. You aren’t alone. We are all fighting the same battles.

I became financially independent in 2008 at age 27. Or as my Father likes to say, I retired. Yeah right. It’s more like you exchange security for total insecurity.

I get asked a lot about how much capital you need to become a full-time investor. That answer will be different for everyone. It’s a personal decision. I was single with no kids living in Lancaster, PA. It was a great time to make that decision.

I would say a much better question is how much pain can you endure.

Can you sustain a 30-40-50% drawdown while also drawing it down to pay bills?

How would this affect you emotionally, psychologically?

Would two or three bad years in a row cripple you?

At what point would your investment strategy start to crumble by these emotions?

At what point does my advantage of “focus on the long-term” shift to “this next quarter needs to be good” or else..

Am I mentally prepared to perhaps go to my wife and tell her I failed and can’t support us anymore? That I need to get a job, that she needs to get a job.

One of my favorite

Forbes estimates that Beanie Baby creator Ty Warner’ net worth is $2.7 Billion. This is an amazing achievement considering a bulk of it was earned during a 3-year time frame selling a $5 per unit stuffed animal.

The fact that Ty Warner’s Beanie Babies were able, without the benefit of a single ad, to outpace the combined annual profits of the largest toymakers in the world for even a few years is unprecedented.

To illustrate how quickly the bubble grew - In 1995, Ty Warner’s company Ty Inc had sales of roughly $28 million. In 1996 sales were $280 million with $90 million in pre-tax income. By 1998, Ty Inc sales reached $1.34 billion with pre-tax income of $700 million.

In Ebay’s 1998 Annual Report it disclosed Beanie Babies as material. “At times, approximately 7% of our listings involved Beanie Babies”. Furthermore, it was said that 10% of Ebay sales at the time were derived from Beanie Babies.

Your portfolio will naturally concentrate itself, the way it should be, into your winners if you just stay out of the way.

1/9 I have noticed a counterintuitive benefit from sharing my portfolio publicly. This isn't call for you to share your portfolio publicly; I'm aware it is not feasible/rational for many out there.

I'm just explaining how I think it helps *me*.

2/9 Before talking about the benefit, let me briefly mention the potential negative.

Well, the negative is probably obvious. Sharing my portfolio publicly may create a commitment bias. It's hard to change your mind once you propagate all the bullish pov on stocks you own.

3/9 There is truth to that, especially since I say I intend to be long-term investor.

It would create a cognitive dissonance if I get in and out of stocks every few months and yet claim myself long-term oriented simultaneously. So I kinda have to remain invested unless...

4/9 ...I think I've compelling reasons to sell.

While that sounds like a lot of negatives, I'm increasingly thinking the opposite.

If in 30 years I discover my return severely lagging the index, I already know who the culprit is. It isn't Fed, Xi, or any US President. It's me.

5/9 Essentially, I need to save my portfolio from my own worst tendencies.

Not having the option to flipping stocks every other month is likely to work in favor of my eventual goal of long-term ownership of great businesses.

Poor Investors often disguise inexperience with arrogance. Rich investors disguise experience with humility. The richest person in the room is usually the quietest one in the room. The poorest person in the room is usually the loudest one in the room.

Peter Lynch's 8 principles for beating the market

(Why listen? He averaged 29% yearly returns running a mutual fund!!!)

1/12

1. Know what you own

This one frequently gets a "yeah, yeah" from me, but it's embarrassing how many "They do THAT?" moments I have.

Here's a test for every company you own...can you explain in detail how they make money AND how that's different than their competitors?

2/12

2. It's futile to predict the economy and interest rates (so don't waste time trying)

As I'm writing this, we're all wondering what the Fed's going to do.

You could read this a week, a month, or 10 years from now, and this would be true.

3/12

3. You have plenty of time to identify and recognize exceptional companies

Lynch mentions $WMT as an example...even way back when he wrote about it, it was a 10-bagger even if you waited 10 years AFTER its IPO.

Today, we can look at $AMZN or $NFLX.

4/12

4. Avoid long shots

LOVE this one.

It's so easy to get enamored with a stock's potential to 10-bag (e.g. hot industry, huge TAM, etc.), but we have to bump that against its chances for success.

5/12

Just the journey of Bajaj Finance proves it why it is difficult to hold businessess. People with different mindsets (technincals) or deep value kept making noise throughout the last 6 years.. business did what it had to do. Only very few I know have held it firmly

Holding the right business, it is increasingly becoming clear to me is the most difficult thing to do unless you write down your investing philosophy and know it in your bones