Onefoothurdles

Sold half of my DFIN position last week only to buy it all back today

Thanks for the tips villainx - I've marked them all down Edit: awesome recommendations - I had Tokyo Metropolitan Building down but had no idea about the cafeteria - will definitely check that out.

13, 10 and 7

Its our first trip to Japan, and with kids so we’ll be hitting the usual touristy spots for sure. Although in Hakone we’ll have a car for 3 days where we’ll have the opportunity to explore the surrounding areas and Izu peninsula.

Had the best chai in Udaipur. Generally, find North India's chai game is the best, while kaapi (coffee) is better in the South. I've always felt that India's posture towards foreign tourism as being indifferent at best, it doesnt help that they restrict visa on arrival eligibility only to the countries that reciprocate with them which is like a handful of countries with tiny populations (Seychelles, Maldives, Jordan etc...). Having said that, their local tourism is massive - didnt come across a single airport, club, hotel, restaurant that wasn't full during my 5 week stay there. Dubai gets the numbers because they're incentivized to do so, they are like the Singapore of the middle east and are massively dependent on foreign labor, trade, FX and tourism - Emirates and Etihad is quite prevalent as airlines so you are in all likelihood to make a stopover at some point while travelling to other major cities. Separately, I'm planning a trip to Japan in May and just blown away by the tourism stats on Japan recently. In 2024, they surpassed their pre-covid numbers of 37m tourists per year. My understanding is that their government has made a concerted marketing effort post covid to build their tourism industry, even sponsoring many youtubers with hotel stays, itineraries etc.. to build awareness and content. Add to that the prevalence of Anime culture in the west, including Pokémon and Nintendo-sphere... Its working well for them!

Xerxes, brilliant post. I had done something similar in 2023. My original itinerary was from Ahmedabad -> Jodhpur -> Jaipur -> Udaipur -> Ranthambore -> Fatehpur Sikri -> Agra -> Delhi; ultimately, we had to cut short our trip from Udaipur onwards in favor of further travels down south to Tamil Nadu, Bangalore and Kerala (and yes we very much go to see that airport too!). There were 7 of us including elderly folks and young kids so we opted for comfort and booked a 12-seater bus where the driver picked us up from Ahmedabad and drove us all through Rajasthan. Absolutely surreal, we were also travelling during October/November festivities. Udaipur was my favourite stop.

No congratulations warranted here, I haven't profited much on this. My cost is around the 2022/23 levels and I didn't have the confidence to load up meaningfully in 2024.

Took my gains on a number of positions late last week Closed out of BTI Reduced PX and DFIN Sitting on a bit of cash, while I wait for opportunities to redeploy

Gents, Ive invested in some good quality Indian single malts and contributed towards FIH.U profitability as well.

41 year old banker. Been on this board since 2011-2012… so in my early 30s / late 20s but lost my original login details and never bothered trying to retrieve it. Prior to joining COBF, I had a fairly basic understanding of investing from a practical perspective - which was largely shaped by the big investors i followed, the books i read, my formal studies (CFA etc) and my own investing experience. All in all a very institutional approach to investing. There were a number of COBF threads that had a huge impact on me in shedding some of that ‘institutional’ indoctrination - Packers thread, Ericopoly and some stuff by Dazel - how they thought about risk and return, portfolio sizing, options etc was truly invaluable - those threads need to be pinned somewhere as required reading! Key takeaway for me was, as a retail investor, you have this tremendous flexibility and freedom in your investing toolbox when compared to major institutional investors who have mandates, small cap restrictions, overheads, liquidity/ redemptions, reinvestment risks, career risk, admin, all other hang ups when managing institutional money Its understanding those strengths and applying it in an intelligent and thoughtful way through your investment journey thats made the difference for me. Truly grateful to this board and its members

Up ~255% this year as a significant portion of my PA was in an Indian company called Websolar Energy System which ~10xed through 2024.

such as XRP, XLM, XDC, Hbar, Chainlink, ADA, vechain, Casper, Flare to name a few - No expert on crypto. Its a speculative play. If my basket goes to zero, I wont lose sleep. Gaining some exposure to this space because I've been intrigued by how the previous administration has generally carried on with 'regulating' crypto. Particularly, Ripple's lawsuit with the SEC which landed in Ripple's favor and didnt do any favors to SEC's reputation and credibility. The new administration and pro-crypto appointees and the ousting of SEC chairmen Gary Gensler.

ACFN and XRP (or a basket of utility coins)

Top 5 positions are over 90% of my portfolio: Websol, DFIN, ACFN, XRP and Focus lighting

Same here