Onefoothurdles

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

Tremendous wealth was made via property in Australia in the first decade since 2000 and the inflation rate was largely kept in the check between the 2-3% band set by RBA. However, in the following decade, wealth growth has deteriorated quite significantly and has probably gone backwards in real terms. Australian real wages today tracking near mid-2010 levels. Historically, housing affordability was stable up until 2000 - house prices remained largely in check with wages. What changed in 2000 was there were some major tax and policy changes - such as tax treatment on CGT events making negative gearing all the more attractive, Aus government laxing their immigration standards which led to a boom of skilled and unskilled migrants, massive investments into the education sector to bring in overseas students - all this led to a housing and construction boom. Today, housing is extremely unaffordable, home ownership is at its lowest among Australians. We are up to our gills in debt (worse than where US was pre-GFC). The private sector is struggling and whatever growth you are seeing in terms of GDP, productivity, employment is due to public sector / government spending. Im sure we can draw similar parallels in other economies - infact I look at whats going on in Canada as a leading indicator for Australia.

If you guys like shows like The Wire and Narcos then check out Top Boy (UK), Gomorrah (Italian) and Suburra (Italian)

Just finished off Monk tv series with the family which was just great. Currently watching Fresh Off the Boat which is also good fun with the family. Enjoyed watching Green Book which had a wonderful message. I'm becoming more appreciative of scriptwriting and story-telling that excludes nudity / sexually-suggestive / F-bombs / politics (which, these days, is a very very short list). To that end, I think the LoTR Trilogy is one of the greatest films ever made, great story, suitable for all!

Largest purchase made to date was in an Indian company called Websolar, purchased 8 months ago and has nearly tripled in price since. Its a speculative play which I'm surprised has run up so quickly in such a short space of time and I'm rebalancing the rest of my portfolio in such a way to de-risk / diversify away from this single stock exposure. I would prefer to sell-down this position today, but given tax circumstances, I'll wait till after this becomes a >12 month holding. @SharperDingaan comments above are exactly how I am thinking about risk management and diversification overall. I'm patiently building a position in a couple of names such as FFH, BRK, FIH, Bollore and a number of smaller dividend yielding stocks.

Started buying since late 2021 ($16-17) and traded in and out over 2024. Agree, there isn't much coverage on here and on fintwit, but ~3.5x on a ~4yr holding is not too shabby - certainly compensated for some of the many other dumb decisions I made over that same period

Im fairly concentrated in my portfolio right now not out of strategy or conviction but because my top 2 positions have run up quite a lot in the last 2 years (while every other position has gone the other way ). WEBSOL.IN 70% DFIN 12% LICT 3% THRY 2% BATS 1% PX 1% Misc postions 8% Cash 2%

Bought some Nintendo, Yakult, Kaspi and PRNG on Monday