My journey for stock picking ends here! Over the last 2 years, I decided to dabble my hands with active investing. For the most part, I adhered to value investing. I poured countless hours reading 10ks, research companies, looking at valuations, playing with valuation models and whatnot. At the end of it, my returns lagged behind the index. Over the last 5 months or so, I tried momentum investing... it turned out to be better but a LOT of effort for very little outperformance!!! That momentum investing style feels soo fragile to me that I will never be able to put a meaningful amount of money in it without loosing sleep, so that can't be a vehicle for wealth creation for me.
In any case, the last coffin was the tax law changes for CGT in Australia. No more CGT discount for us down under. I can't be bothered paying 47% tax on capital gains minus 2% inflation. The new laws really penalise transactions and rewards buy and hold. So, the bar just got raised significantly for all active investors.
In any case, I am happy I gave it a try with 5% of my portfolio. No regrets. Made some gains, made some losses and lost around 8% since I started investing. The biggest lesson is it is so easy to fall for falling knifes!! Reflecting back though, I would have done better with just holding the index (IVV/VAS).
And I want to thank this community for the support and guidance. I wouldn't lie, not all interactions were pleasant, some but overall, it was positive.
All the best to all folks still in the game!!