#7 - Weekly Recap

Actions

At the beginning of the year, I committed to writing a piece everyday on investing or stocks.

Here are the 5 entries of this week:

In terms of concrete actions this week:

I got rid of a position where I had lost all conviction a long time ago. I’m not following that ticker anymore.
I initiated small positions in 8 different oil & gas stocks (all Canadian): $BTE, $CPG, $CVE, $GASX, $WCP, $ARX, $CJ, $SGY. My total O&G exposure represents ~5% of my portfolio.
I purchased a small position in $OPFI, on the same day they announced a share buyback authorization for $20M USD, which probably represents ~10% of the float (see here for details).

In total, I own 30 stocks, and my cash position is ~5%. I think I’d like it closer to 10% right now.

Reflections

The writing takes a lot of time, but I don’t mind. I love having a place where I can archive all my thoughts. Plus it forces me to flush out my reasoning before taking action.

Finally, if it provides value to just one other person out there, I’ll be super happy!

Thinking about the sizing of my bet on energy, I have to admit, I’m not sure the effort was worth it.

On the plus side, I’m proud that I’m able to remain cautious and avoid over-exposing myself, especially given my lack of expertise in that field. Just a year ago, I would have FOMO’ed harder.

On the other hand, I’m reminded of this podcast with Artem Fokin from Caro-Kann Capital where he explains that he measures his performance by the return on unit of time invested in researching ideas. In other words, spending 6 months to generate 10% of alpha is inferior to spending a week to generate 5% of alpha.

Viewed through this lens, my foray into energy was maybe not the optimal use of my time. I don’t regret it at all, I learned a ton and I think the bet is sound; but the effort I put into it will generate a one-time short-term return at best. It will not compound into anything, since I have no intention of turning into an energy specialist or investor.

Compare that to my writing endeavor.

I don’t get any monetary return from it. And yet I think there is a strong compounding effect that could get going if I write consistently over a long enough period of time. This is more of a hunch than a fact, I have to admit. I can’t even say what I expect the concrete benefit to be.

I have no idea, but I choose to believe there will be one.

It could be a massive waste of time though, it’s a possibility. And that would be OK too, honestly. Either way, I enjoy the process.

Part of it is that I enjoy building my mental strength and clarity of thought day after day, post after post, word after word.

I will not get the best investment return this year and I’m not trying to, but I will write more words than anybody in the game, despite having a full-time job and a family to take care of.

One year from now, I will be a guy who’s been writing about investing and practicing his craft everyday for a full year.

I like that guy.

I’ll end with this glorious clip about why Michael Jordan was the GOAT: