Thanks, @MFChips, it would have been much harder to hold onto some of those companies if I had just bought them on borrowed conviction instead of intensively and continuously studying them. Since Nvidia is the only company in my portfolio that wasn’t widely held by the board, it is an interesting question how my portfolio would have performed YTD if I hadn’t invested in it. The answer can be found quite easily since I didn’t make any trades in these first five months of 2023. Using this handy online portfolio back-tester (Backtest Portfolio Asset Allocation) I calculated the portfolio performance without Nvidia, and assuming I had the invested amount distributed throughout my other holdings, but keeping all position sizes equal, relatively to each other. Here is the result (assuming an initial portfolio value of $10,000):
Just to add something more on-topic to this post, I have been asking myself during the last 5 months in particular, what would need to happen for me to sell out of any of my companies. I mean, sure, the investment thesis had to break, but how do you identify this, especially, no, specifically, in the current macro environment? Well, I got my answer when Sentinel reported yesterday. I think @wsm007 summarized it very well: Sentinel...Not#1 - #20 by wsm007. Needless to say I sold out completely. I still wish the company and its investors well and that they can somehow turn it around, but I’ll be on the sidelines for now.
Ben