First thanks to everyone on this board. By following the discussions, I feel as though I am continually learning from some very astute and experienced investors. I’ve posted only a few times and my few posts have received some recs, which I greatly appreciate, but honestly, at this point it is beyond me to add much to the discussion, so I mostly lurk. This became clear when someone made a reply to my last post with a question about MercadoLibre’s credit exposure that I was altogether unable to answer. I’m maybe a white belt here, privileged enough to share the dojo with a bunch of black belts. So please forgive the off topic nature of this post.
I really have two questions. First, I have been trying to find revenue growth numbers as far back as 8 quarters, but my Schwab account only lists data for the previous 3 or 4 quarters. I’ve also tried to find EV/S data, but found that this is often behind paywalls, especially if it is a forward ev/s calculation. When you all do your analysis do you use services like Y-charts or any other subscription data service, or is it generally done the old fashioned way, by dissecting the income statement?
Anyways, all of this is discussion is giving me a good idea of the work that is required to truly analyze a stock. Holding a portfolio of 30 stocks as the MF recommends seems to be way too much work for this kind of analysis. I can see why Saul and others here keep a concentrated portfolio.
My portfolio, however, is quite small. I’m 36 years old, with a background in international relations and education. So, my temperament is more seasoned than the typical young investor in their 20s, but I just started investing recently, and am starting with a small base that is just about four years of Roth IRA contributions. I know Charlie Munger once said concentrate on your top 3 positions, and I’m wondering if when starting from a small base, it is advisable to just start out with 3-5 stocks, just to make everything manageable and worth the time it takes to analyze the companies. Twilio, The Trade Desk, and Square would probably be my top picks from the companies that are discussed here, but I also like Wix, New Relic, Nutanix, Paycom, MongoDB and Alteryx. I also like Boston Omaha as a long term, non cloud investment. I guess one of the hardest things about picking an ultra concentrated portfolio would be narrowing down the list. I imagine it gets easier the more I understand about the companies. What do you all think about having a portfolio that is even more concentrated than Saul’s for someone who is starting from a small base? Any advice on how to approach the decision making process would be greatly appreciated.
Anyways, I do realize this post is off topic, so please send me a private message if you would be kind enough to reply. I truly want to be sensitive to the issue of clogging up the board. I really respect all of your thoughts here, and I wonder what your advice is for someone just starting out.
