The year 2025 is in the books. As I’ve done in the past years, this is my annual review post for the year. How did my stock portfolio do in 2025? And more importantly, how it affected my ten-year performance, which is where I tend to focus. Note that the following analysis … [Read more...] about Portfolio Performance 2025
Complete List of Blog Posts
It pays to stay invested
In recent months, I have seen a change in casual investors’ behaviors. They seem more interested in stocks. These days, people approach me to see if I have any hot stock tips for them. Or they ask if I think the market is too high and it’s time to bail out. My response tends to … [Read more...] about It pays to stay invested
Businesses that went from emerging to entrenched quality
As my long-time readers would know, I am always looking for companies that are running quality businesses and have the durability to survive economic downturns. My goal is to find them, invest in them, monitor their progress, and just hold on to them as they grow. Last month, … [Read more...] about Businesses that went from emerging to entrenched quality
Never Sell: From Pulak Prasad’s book
In my last month’s post, I might have given the wrong impression that I am getting out of the stock market entirely. Indeed, I did sell off some stocks to replenish my dry powder cash bucket, as I wrote then. But that was the extent of my selling. Dry powder cash is only a small … [Read more...] about Never Sell: From Pulak Prasad’s book
Ready for another downturn
In my last post, I shared that I have liquidated one-third of my dry powder investments that went into stocks in March-April this year. I also said at the time that if the market continued to make new highs, I would be able to divest all of my dry powder. Well, it happened sooner … [Read more...] about Ready for another downturn
Ignore your cost bases
As the stock market rose to a new high this month, it was time to divest what I had invested during the brief April downturn. I raise cash when stocks are reaching new highs and invest in them when they go down (my dry powder investing). As I considered what to sell, I noticed … [Read more...] about Ignore your cost bases
Regret – learn to live with it
“Market is on an upswing. I don’t want to be caught buying at the peak” “Stocks look cheap but what if they go further down from here” “Every time I buy a stock, it immediately goes down in price” “If I sell today and the stock moves up another 25%, I’d look … [Read more...] about Regret – learn to live with it
Bought stocks for my kids 13 years ago
My older son had a stock picking competition when he was in middle school. That was the year 2010. That competition gave each student a virtual cash account to invest in stocks, bonds, and ETFs. Whoever made a portfolio that performed the best over a 10-week period would … [Read more...] about Bought stocks for my kids 13 years ago
Avoid false positives in your investing
In criminal justice system, “it is better to let the crime of a guilty person go unpunished than to condemn the innocent.” [US Supreme Court 1895] Broadly speaking, in any system where there is uncertainty and incomplete information, there are two types of decision errors that … [Read more...] about Avoid false positives in your investing
Dry powder investing helps me stay productive
Since I last wrote in March when it was nearing a 10% correction, the stock market today is clearly in a correction. By some measures, it has been a bear market (with NASDAQ down more than 20% in early April, for instance). So what would an investor do today? As in previous … [Read more...] about Dry powder investing helps me stay productive