Thanks to Saul and everyone sharing here, working together to find the best investments for ourselves. I share mine, not as a teacher but as a progress report of a student.
I haven’t bought a share of anything not named AYX, CRWD, DDOG, ZM, COUP, or FSLY in a while. Here’s my portfolio update from January: https://discussion.fool.com/gtechie-portfolio-update-34381331.as… for comparison. I’ve been slowly moving my investments out of the companies I have less confidence in, or want to hold onto for old time’s sake. My overall number of companies to follow has reduced from 42 to 33, and my dollars in my “old companies” versus “saul companies” is getting better, from ~30% then to ~50% now. Mostly, I haven’t made the time to sit and research and make the big decisions on major portfolio moves.
It makes sense, then, that I’m 50% up YTD (not including money invested) as opposed to Saul’s amazing 120% since I only had half my investment in the similar companies. Any other time I’d say 50% is incredible, but now I see the money I could have made and call that the cost of tuition in this great learning opportunity provided to us here on these message boards. Now moving on to share a snapshot of my portfolio:
6/29/2020 1/8/2020
MELI Mercadolibre 11.0% 11%
NFLX Netflix 8.5% 10%
AYX Alteryx 8.4% 7%
TSLA Tesla 7.6% 7%
DDOG datadog 7.0% 2%
AMZN Amazon 6.9% 7%
CRWD Crowdstrike 6.2% 2%
TTD The Trade Desk 4.8% 5%
ISRG Intuitive Surgical 4.4% 7%
OKTA Okta 3.8% 4%
MDB Mongo DB 3.8% 4%
ZM Zoom Video Comm 3.6% 1-2%
ZS Zscaler 3.2% 4%
TWLO Twilio 3.1% 2%
PYPL Paypal 2.4% 2%
DIS Walt Disney 2.2% 5%
SHOP Shopify 2.0% 1-2%
COUP Coupa 1.7% 0-1%
LVGO Livongo 1.4% 0
ESTC Elastic 1.3% 0
ILMN Illumina 0.9% 1-2%
VEEV Veeva Systems 0.9% 1-2%
GOOG Alphabet 0.9% 3%
AAPL Apple 0.6% 1-2%
COST Costco Wholesale 0.5% 1-2%
FSLY Fastly 0.5% 0
ZEN Zendesk 0.5% 1-2%
KMI Kinder Morgan 0.4% 1-2%
OLED Universal Display 0.4% 2%
SBUX Starbucks Corp 0.4% 2%
AMT American Tower 0.3% 0-1%
WDAY Workday 0.3% 0-1%
ABMD Abiomed 0.2% 0-1%
CMI, FB, IPGP, TTWO, GILD, CGNX 0 1-2%
GH, ALGN, RDFN, CASY, SMAR, TSCO 0 0-1%
So the past 6 months saw 12 positions exited, partial sales of NFLX, DIS, GOOG, AAPL, COST, KMI, and SBUX that all got piled into AYX, DDOG, and CRWD. It is very likely that I finish my slow exit of 5 of those 7 here in the near future. My goal is to find and hold onto the best companies forever, so parting with these that I’ve held for ages is very tough. Other more specific thoughts:
MELI: I have a lot of confidence in their business, but this is more of an outsized position than I’d prefer. Instead of selling, I plan on buying other companies to raise them up to meet this one.
NFLX: Their global expansion is doing great and I love the exponential subscriber growth. Where are they on the S curve, and when can we say goodbye to growth?
AYX: Nothing to add onto recent discussions.
TSLA: 35% margins on cars built in the Gigafactory, battery technology doing great, new cars selling well.
DDOG: Nothing to add onto recent discussions; I’m still buying.
AMZN: AWS is nice, but I’ll dig in here to see if I’m just holding on for old times’ sake.
CRWD: Nothing to add onto recent discussions; I’m still buying.
TTD: Nothing to add onto recent discussions.
ISRG: A best-of-breed company, but they’re still a device manufacturer. I like their razors-and-blades business model as it has more recurring revenue than new sales, but I’ll dig in more to see if I’m just holding on for old times’ sake.
OKTA: Nothing to add onto recent discussions.
MDB: Nothing to add onto recent discussions.
ZM: Nothing to add onto recent discussions; I’m still buying.
ZS, TWLO: Nothing to add onto recent discussions.
And none of the rest seem important enough to write about, so that’s a big sign to me that I should cut the attachment and set them free. They all have something that I like, but it is obvious that I need to find the best of the best and leave the rest.