**Objective:**
Invest in great companies with high growth potential and a competitive edge over the market. I want to invest in companies that I have a strong conviction in and will be comfortable holding for long periods of time.
**Investing Timeline:**
Ideally, every stock I own should be held for a minimum of one year and ideally a longer term of at least 3-5 years. My goal as a young investor is to invest money now and be able to have that money compound and grow for the coming years.
**Buying:**
The company should have a dominant moat in its field and a strategic advantage above competition. The company must have a healthy long term outlook and have potential for growth in the future.
The company must *create value, capture value and protect value*. For example, Amazon creates value by helping deliver goods to people in an extremely convenient manner. Amazon’s moat is that it has become the go to shopping platform. It captures value by taking a commission and including advertisements on the platform. It has managed to protect its value by beating out competition, continuing to expand the platform and having high switching costs.
Amazon is one of the best examples of creating, capturing and protecting value which makes them very attractive as a long term hold.
In addition, I should have knowledge of the company, the space they are in and the competitors they have.
The company should have a 10% per year return if entered into a DCF, ideally above a 15% return per year in order to have a margin of safety.
The leadership team should be competent and efficient. Ideally I want the original founder still involved in the company.
A new company will only be added if I have a stronger conviction in the new company than my conviction in my lowest holding.
Before buying, I will write an article about the company which includes at least 2-3 strong bear cases for the company.
**Selling:**
If a company has changed their brand and their mission is no longer aligned with my original thesis for investing in the company, consider selling.
If a company goes up to 100% profits, trim half of the stock so that I am investing with “house money”. This will minimize the chances that I will want to sell the stock at any point in the future.
Never sell the ETFs that I own, (S&P, Nasdaq).
**Holdings:**
Invest about 25-50% in ETFs. Invest the other in single stocks that I have a strong conviction into.
Have no position as larger than a 15% holding.
Smaller positions should be a minimum of a 2-3% holding in order to not be too diluted and so that I will truly track every holding of mine.
Every quarter (Jan, April, July, October) I will rank all my holdings in terms of conviction and decide whether I want to invest more into my higher conviction stocks. If a holding is consistently ranked in the last three after two periods consider selling or trimming the position.
**Crypto/Gold:**
Open up a small 1% position in crypto. This position is highly speculative and being opened in order to have an asymmetric hedge in case crypto goes up. That being said, it is a position small enough that it will not do any large damage to the portfolio if it goes downhill. If crypto doubles, the same rule applies and I will trim half of my position and reinvest it into more secure holdings.
Currently I don’t want to have a position in Gold as it is trading at an all time high valuation. If Gold drops a significant amount I might revisit this and open up a small position similar to Crypto.
Thoughts?