Q1 is over – how hard was the correction for you?

Depending on your personal portfolio composition, the just closed first quarter 2025 might show an entirely different performance. While scrolling through twitter it reads almost like a hefty crash with big losses is behind us, the reality is on an aggregate level not much has happened so far. Even more contradictory, the current correction only involved certain sectors and individual stocks. This is the sector rotation I have written about in the past several times. What to draw out from it for our portfolios?

Continue reading

Best Loser Wins – book summary

With my second book summary, at least on the surface, I am risking to surprise some of my readers. The reason is that the subtitle reads “Why normal thinking never wins the trading game”. The word “never” is underlined on the book cover. My emphasis is on “trading game”. While I have neither secretly switched to day trading, nor do I pursue any such goals, nor do I play any type of game as a fundamentally driven analyst and investor, I have found it nonetheless very insightful to take on the perspective of a day trader. Quite a few of the book’s core messages indeed do resonate well with my own thoughts and approach on portfolio management as well as psychological strength in stock investing.

Continue reading

How to deal with mistakes to avoid negative compounding

One of the hardest disciplines in investing is how to handle unrealized losses. These positions not only tie up capital that could be invested elsewhere, but they also can paralyze an investor. In its worst shape and form, this condition leads the focus on distractions, not on what’s generating the performance for the portfolio. This is a topic every investor should from time to time think about in order to improve personal investment skills and to avoid being drawn into a negative spiral.

Continue reading

Is focus-investing risky?

One of the first principles a new investor stumbles upon is “don’t put all eggs in one basket”. In other words, diversification is said to be the key to investment success. My longer time readers know that I am strictly opposing this approach in its extreme form. The viewing angle might be even the right one – winning by not losing, respectively by minimizing risks – which is also my strategy. However, there’s a material difference between buying blindly a big basket and focussing on a few investments where one has done the homework.

Continue reading

Two years of Financial Engineering – about impatience and patience

With this weekly coming off the press, my blog has officially turned two years. Like I have done in August of 2023, I am using this time of the year again for a review to write down my current thoughts regarding the past, the present and the future. While last year’s review was a bit more multi-facetted, I want to discuss the topic of impatience and patience now and how it applies to my stock ideas.

Continue reading

Interview with a fellow investor + YouTuber

Herewith, I am happy to publish another interview – my third in total and this time with Darrell Thomas who invited me several times to his growing YouTube channel “The Money Levels Show”. As a stock investor and blogger myself, I am always interested in what my colleagues are thinking, saying, writing or in this case broadcasting about different topics regarding stock investments. 

Continue reading

The untold risks of average returns

This headline might sound confusing at first sight, but behind it is a topic worth thinking about. As one understands what’s behind “average returns”, a portfolio check-up could be appropriate, especially if one is overweight in stocks with past above average performances paired with high valuations. A few thoughts on risk-adjusted investing.

Continue reading

Quitting at a loss to free up capital and the mind

Today, I’m writing about one of my (former) best stock ideas which didn’t play out as initially thought. Besides describing the case and the reason that led me to throw in the towel, I also want to use it to show why it’s important to regularly go over one’s portfolio and to cut the weeds.

Continue reading

Why it makes no sense to copy Warren Buffett

This is a topic I’ve wanted to write about for a while. Those stock pickers who decide not to migrate to the camp of chartists, tee leaf readers or other witchcrafts, will likely join the group of value investors. In this context, the name of Warren Buffett must not miss. Many investors claim to emulate his strategy, others try to seek inspiration which stocks to buy. Today, I will show that both are delusions.

Continue reading