Are You a Focus Investor?

[Packer16]

Interested to see CF&B investors approach to concentration.  By focus investor I mean 35 to 45% in top 2 to 3 securities, 80 to 90% in top 10.

[merkhet]

My top 5 ideas are usually 80% of the portfolio.

[mcliu]

Impressive.

How do you develop such a conviction of your ability to estimate intrinsic value properly?

[Palantir]

Yes. I believe in concentrating positions in a small number of stocks I truly believe in, no more than 10 really. Plus its a lot less work than running a diversified portfolio, and I always try to avoid extra work. :D

[Otsog]

My top position is 228% of my portfolio  :D

 

Good thing I am a 20 something and it's all my money.  Somehow I still tell myself I'm conservative.

[Packer16]

I am surprised.  I thought we would be closer to 60/40.  As to conviction about IV, I am coming up with rough approximations and have stayed focused on a few market segments (See ask Packer section for details).

[Hielko]

Seems I'm almost the only one that voted no. Not that I'am very diversified (in my mind): ~30% in top 3 and ~60% in top 10 or so.

[PlanMaestro]

They will come. It's just that they don't need to watch those eggs on weekends.

[Kraven]

I voted no. I have dozens of positions and my largest would almost certainly be considered nuisance size by most on the board.

[JBird]

I've never been invested in more than 3 stocks at once. I take seriously the idea that I'll make 20 investment decisions in my life.

[LC]

I would say I am. 80 pct in my top 5 to 10 ideas and then a bunch of super small positions (mostly penny stocks or odd lot tender arbitrage).

 

I disagree that a more concentrated portolio is less work...I am still reading an annual every day, and trying to come to a rough valuation and buy price.

[bmichaud]

I have a tough time having less than 20% in a single position.

[oddballstocks]

I've never been invested in more than 3 stocks at once. I take seriously the idea that I'll make 20 investment decisions in my life.

 

Reminds me of the Rush lyric, so if you choose to past over a stock you've still made a decision correct?  How many are you down to?

[JBird]

Yes that's true. My intent though was to describe how many times I'll pull the trigger, not counting the amount of times I don't pull it.

 

By the way, I regard your investment style as very intelligent. I would not say that wide diversification, especially in your case, isn't sensible or won't produce good results.

 

I'm down to 17.

[JBird]

I disagree that a more concentrated portolio is less work...I am still reading an annual every day, and trying to come to a rough valuation and buy price.

 

+1

 

"I try to read every report I can, and I try to figure whether something is cheap." -Buffett in a Fox interview after sale of Petrochina stock.

 

We all know Berkshire runs a concentrated portfolio. That doesn't mean there's less work involved.

[oddballstocks]

Yes that's true. My intent though was to describe how many times I'll pull the trigger, not counting the amount of times I don't pull it.

 

By the way, I regard your investment style as very intelligent. I would not say that wide diversification, especially in your case, isn't sensible or won't produce good results.

 

I'm down to 17.

 

Thanks for the kind words, I'm doing well so far!  I have right around 50 holdings, which if I were a mutual fund would be considered very concentrated, yet seemingly on this board I'm just a stock or two away from being an index fund.

 

Your comment reminds me of an investor I read about who published all of their trades going back to 1994 online.  If I remember they had maybe 40 trades at the most, they had incredible returns as well.  I wish I would have saved the link..

[kmukul]

My top position is 228% of my portfolio  :D

 

Good thing I am a 20 something and it's all my money.  Somehow I still tell myself I'm conservative.

 

Nice thread, Good to learn from all of you guys, Wow 228% is a lot. is this BAC? Are you leveraged using leaps. Not sure if its already shared.. Thanks a lot

[mcliu]

I think a big component of your concentration depends on how much money you're managing. Your concentration is likely different if you're in the $100,000 range vs. the $100,000,000.