Share your Portfolio 2024

[no_free_lunch]

Primary trading account,  non registered, has this allocation roughly..

 

- BRK 25%

- FFH 20%

- BAM complex, 16%

- ELF.TO  12%

- CNR.TO  7%

- bits and pieces make up remainder, all 2% or smaller

Edited September 22, 2025 by no_free_lunch

[73 Reds]

1 hour ago, coffeecaninvestor said:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-morgan-housel-podcast/id1675310669?i=1000726557635
 

really good podcast that addresses this that everyone should probably listen to before entering this thread 

I think the most interesting part of the podcast is the story of the financial advisor who can't understand investors who don't feel the need to grow their portfolios.   A lot there to unpack.      

[cwericb]

18 hours ago, Marco Van Basten said:

Unless your portfolio is a small fraction of your net worth, or you have a very stable job and the present value of future salary dwarfs your current portfolio, this allocation is very imprudent.  A bank is a black box, and given the leverage can blow up at any point, even JPM had the London whale.  To have 75% of the portfolio in two German banks is asking for trouble in my opinion.  

 

Well now, earlier you suggested that I was imprudent because of my concentrated portfolio presently 60% in Fairfax Financial.

 

I'm not so sure about that. And yes, my stock portfolio is a significant portion of my net worth and I have held Fairfax Financial getting close to 20 years.

 

Since 2007 @ about $215/share, Fairfax Financial (FFH.TO) has represented approximately 50% of my portfolio. While the chart below (June 2007- present} shows some slow periods, there were several times when the markets were seriously down (GFC etc) and yet Fairfax shares would retain their price or actually gain during those periods balancing my holdings against losses. And, like some, if I had jumped in and out of Fairfax, there is no question in my mind that I I would missed much of the spectacular performance over the past few years.

 

So, 18 years is a pretty long time to hold one stock, especially when it represents half or more of one's total portfolio, but it tends to question your position that concentration is imprudent. Am I just lucky? If so, I have been lucky for the past 18 years (GFC included). And. I don't think there was ever a date during all those years that, had I sold, I would have lost money on my original investment.

 

Could I have been wiped out at some point, perhaps, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.  Bottom line is that I am as comfortable (probably more so) with Fairfax today as I have ever been. If it takes a serious dive tomorrow, well most of my losses would be house money anyway and it would reduce all those latent capital gains taxes. If you can find a good company where management is aligned with shareholders interests, then don't knock concentration. 

 

My biggest mistake? Not buying Fairfax at $95 per share when I first started to follow it.

 

[Marco Van Basten]

2 hours ago, 73 Reds said:

@Marco Van Basten assessing someone's portfolio as prudent or imprudent is really not fair.  What do you tell the entrepreneur or business owner who has 100% or more (with leverage) of their entire net worth tied up in their own business?

That is very different for two reasons: a) as an outsider, you have no idea what is really going on in the bank, and often insiders don't have a clue either; b) very few businesses are leveraged ten to one and where creditors can demand all of their money immediately.  

[Marco Van Basten]

47 minutes ago, cwericb said:

 

Well now, earlier you suggested that I was imprudent because of my concentrated portfolio presently 60% in Fairfax Financial.

 

I'm not so sure about that. And yes, my stock portfolio is a significant portion of my net worth and I have held Fairfax Financial getting close to 20 years.

 

Since 2007 @ about $215/share, Fairfax Financial (FFH.TO) has represented approximately 50% of my portfolio. While the chart below (June 2007- present} shows some slow periods, there were several times when the markets were seriously down (GFC etc) and yet Fairfax shares would retain their price or actually gain during those periods balancing my holdings against losses. And, like some, if I had jumped in and out of Fairfax, there is no question in my mind that I I would missed much of the spectacular performance over the past few years.

 

So, 18 years is a pretty long time to hold one stock, especially when it represents half or more of one's total portfolio, but it tends to question your position that concentration is imprudent. Am I just lucky? If so, I have been lucky for the past 18 years (GFC included). And. I don't think there was ever a date during all those years that, had I sold, I would have lost money on my original investment.

 

Could I have been wiped out at some point, perhaps, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.  Bottom line is that I am as comfortable (probably more so) with Fairfax today as I have ever been. If it takes a serious dive tomorrow, well most of my losses would be house money anyway and it would reduce all those latent capital gains taxes. If you can find a good company where management is aligned with shareholders interests, then don't knock concentration. 

 

My biggest mistake? Not buying Fairfax at $95 per share when I first started to follow it.

 

Congratulations on owning Fairfax for 18 years, I have held stocks for decades as well.  In my opinion, different businesses have different risks, and I would not be comfortable with a 50% position in an insurance company while I would be comfortable with a 50% position in a company that owned several hundred gravel pits all over the US without any debt.  We will have to agree to disagree, I hope you are right since I own Fairfax.  

[villainx]

2 hours ago, 73 Reds said:

someone's portfolio as prudent or imprudent is really not fair.

 

I mean, this is forum to share thoughts and for the most part, he explained whatever it was that led to opinion of  imprudent.  It wasn't rudely expressed.  

 

 

 

 

[73 Reds]

Just now, villainx said:

 

I mean, this is forum to share thoughts and for the most part, he explained whatever it was that led to opinion of  imprudent.  It wasn't rudely expressed.  

 

 

 

 

I didn't suggest in any way that it was rude.  Just that it isn't fair.

[villainx]

1 hour ago, 73 Reds said:

I think the most interesting part of the podcast is the story of the financial advisor who can't understand investors who don't feel the need to grow their portfolios. 

 

This part seems odd, because that's basically how older retirees invest or would be how financial advisors would want them to invest, which I kinda assume is the vast majority of the financial advisor clients back when the story was supposed to take place.

 

[cwericb]

1 hour ago, Marco Van Basten said:

Congratulations on owning Fairfax for 18 years, I have held stocks for decades as well.  In my opinion, different businesses have different risks, and I would not be comfortable with a 50% position in an insurance company while I would be comfortable with a 50% position in a company that owned several hundred gravel pits all over the US without any debt.  We will have to agree to disagree, I hope you are right since I own Fairfax.  

 

But. 

As you know, Fairfax is more than just an insurance company. On the insurance side Fairfax owns insurance companies around the world. That certainly spreads the risk. Then there all the non-insurance businesses owned by Fairfax that again spreads the risk. There is risk in anything, but Fairfax mitigates the insurance risk by being so diversified. May we both do well.

Edited September 22, 2025 by cwericb

[Spekulatius]

1 hour ago, Marco Van Basten said:

That is very different for two reasons: a) as an outsider, you have no idea what is really going on in the bank, and often insiders don't have a clue either; b) very few businesses are leveraged ten to one and where creditors can demand all of their money immediately.  

Insurance customers can’t demand all their money immediately.

[Marco Van Basten]

2 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Insurance customers can’t demand all their money immediately.

I was referring to banks, but some insurance companies that write only home and auto have at most one year.  

[LC]

21 hours ago, dealraker said:

or at least was outside of building trails/hiking/MTN biking

 

Finally after living in the mountains and I just recently got on a MTB on some beginner trails and really enjoyed it!

Do you mountain bike? I am going out to demo some bikes next weekend. 

 

Similar and different from skiing, but kudos to you for helping maintain the trails!

Edited September 22, 2025 by LC

[dealraker]

 

48 minutes ago, LC said:

 

Finally after living in the mountains and I just recently got on a MTB on some beginner trails and really enjoyed it!

Do you mountain bike? I am going out to demo some bikes next weekend. 

 

Similar and different from skiing, but kudos to you for helping maintain the trails!

LC, yes...obsessively LOL!  I also have been building both as a trail construction leader and as a simple machine operator/worker all free or volunteer now for decades.   I have made money as a contractor but I always give that to the trail entity that is paying me.

 

I basically buy and give bikes to my family of mountain bikers (my niece is president of the local bike club and my nephew is the trail construction head who I'm now "working for") and we are many.  Nice bikes, not cheap, all of our bikes are top of the line Specialized S-Works.

 

I have a Specialized Epic Evo 2022, 2022 Stumpjumper, a 2022 Epic hardtail that I use on gravel roads, and a Specialized Roubaix for the road.

Edited September 22, 2025 by dealraker

[LC]

12 minutes ago, dealraker said:

I basically buy and give bikes to my family of mountain bikers (my niece is president of the local bike club and my nephew is the trail construction head who I'm now "working for") and we are many.  Nice bikes, not cheap, all of our bikes are top of the line Specialized S-Works.

 

I took one ride on a friend's bike a few weekend ago and thought, "well I can sense myself falling into another new expensive hobby!"

 

Now they have convinced me to demo a spot mayhem 140, so I am guessing within the next few months there will be a 3-5k bike in the garage, waiting for next spring!

https://spotbikes.com/collections/bikes/products/mayhem-140

 

I'm up in the Colorado mtns near Breckenridge, so its a lot of world class downhill, moreso than gravel trails...everyone recommended a full suspension vs. a hardtail, so I guess that is where I am going...and after ride #1 I am now looking at padded shorts!

Edited September 22, 2025 by LC

[dealraker]

49 minutes ago, LC said:

 

I took one ride on a friend's bike a few weekend ago and thought, "well I can sense myself falling into another new expensive hobby!"

 

Now they have convinced me to demo a spot mayhem 140, so I am guessing within the next few months there will be a 3-5k bike in the garage, waiting for next spring!

https://spotbikes.com/collections/bikes/products/mayhem-140

 

I'm up in the Colorado mtns near Breckenridge, so its a lot of world class downhill, moreso than gravel trails...everyone recommended a full suspension vs. a hardtail, so I guess that is where I am going...and after ride #1 I am now looking at padded shorts!

We are basically cross country riding/riders/builders.  But we do build and ride some technical.   Here's a wood berm turn we did recently, we can do these in a couple hours with our local well-coordinated crew.  I generally run the Cat skid steer and build the dirt features.  

[This2ShallPass]

This is my first PF update on my core account. I have been tinkering with my portfolio these past few weeks and more importantly spending time on how it's constructed (I typically haven't spent a lot of time thinking about pf structure). I have reduced few positions to keep my core account manageable.

 

Performance YTD +30%, 3 YR 33.4% (CAGR / XIRR), 5 Yr 21.2% (CAGR / XIRR)

 

Allocation:

 

Cash 10% (New cash, waiting to add 10%)

Options 5% (Primarily MGM, Intel, Alibaba)

Tier 1 53% (Fairfax, TSMC, Tencent / Prosus, Eurobank)

Tier 2 13% (MGM / IAC, JOE, Fairfax India)

Tier 3 5.5% (Nintendo, Baidu)

Growth 9% (Reddit, Upstart + few others)

Event driven 4% (Fannie & Freddie 1/3rd common, 2/3rd preferred)

 

Today's update will only be on my Tier 1 holdings. Will add the rest later. 

 

Tier 1:

 

Fairfax 25% - Anchor stock. High conviction. 

 

Not much to add as it's discussed in detail here. Firing on all cylinders. Feels cheap even after the big runup.

 

I trimmed a couple of times last year as FF got to >30%. Going forward, my plan is to not touch Fairfax and fix the weightage by picking better stocks for rest of PF:)

 

TSMC 11% - High conviction. Monopoly. Poised to a big AI winner. 

 

Started buying in March this year and built to full position by May. No plans to touch this (only exception is if AI mania takes valuation to unreasonable levels). Two ways hedging China invading Taiwan tail risk - OOTM puts (willing to pay small premium) and Intel options (main reason is to capture Intel upside while limiting downside, but also works as a hedge).

 

Tencent (Prosus) 9% - High conviction. Excellent management.

 

Position is 80% Prosus, 20% TenCent. They are firing on all cylinders and will be top 5 most valuable companies once China fully recovers. They also have a large investment portfolio, mostly tech stocks. I read something recently that made me even more bullish - We Chat provides Tencent with early look into the next big winners in China, no wonder they invested in many of the Unicorns. Not sure how to even value something like that. If not for China risk, I would have made it a much larger position. No plans to touch unless major US China escalation forces me to.

 

Eurobank 8% - Medium conviction. Executing really well.

 

This is my Tier 1 stock that honestly I am not sure what to do.  Trimmed 15% recently. I bought few years back when it was really undervalued and I pretty much coat tailed FF. Now it's getting closer to full valuation, unsure if it still should be at 8% position or if I should knock it back to 5%. Banks are not my area of expertise which is reason to trim but I also don't want to interrupt the compounding machine. 

 

*I have another account for income generation, new approach started earlier this year. Some of the stocks I discuss in the boards are for this account and I don't update on what I'm doing here. Mainly because I still don't know what I'm doing:)