Podcast #71 – Model portfolio year-end review
The time has come for the year-end review of our model portfolio, a collection of 15 stocks that we selected in January as our core investments for 2021. The chart above illustrates the torrid time the last quarter has been for growth stocks and our model portfolio. As growth investors, you get somewhat accustomed to volatility but this year has been especially turbulent as investor sentiment swung back and forth due to a series of world events. This was the year to be an index investor as the S&P steadily climbed and ended the year up almost 30%.
Podcast #68 – Structuring the 2022 model portfolio
This week we give consideration to the structure of our model portfolio for next year. These are the companies we believe will achieve market-beating returns in 2022 and beyond. In this portfolio structure episode, we consider the megatrends that are likely to shape the world around us for the years ahead and decide what proportion of the portfolio to devote to each of them.
Podcast #63 – Digital Turbine deep dive
On this week’s pod, we deep dive Digital Turbine, a mobile ad-tech innovator specialising in targeted app installation and programmatic advertising to mobile devices. Digital Turbine invented the market for app installation and have a patent on ‘single-tap’ app installation to Android devices, but the business model is controversial, and the company have been accused of pushing ‘bloatware’.
Podcast #59 – Model portfolio Q3 review
It’s time for the Q3 review of our model portfolio, a collection of 15 stocks that we selected in January as our core investments for 2021.
Following a nice recovery in Q2, the model portfolio was steadily making gains during the third quarter, but on the 22nd Sep the market started trending downwards and growth stocks were hit harder than the general market, and the model portfolio lost 15.1% in value by the end of the quarter while the S&P lost only 6.1%.
Only eight out of the 15 stocks are showing positive returns from the inception of the portfolio in Jan, with just six of those beating the S&P. However in most cases, this underperformance is not a result of the company failing to execute, and was driven by macro-economic factors impacting the value of future cash flows, which growth stocks are far more dependent on than more mature companies.
In today’s episode, we dig into some of the key stories and updates for each stock in the portfolio.
Podcast #47 – Integral Ad Science deep dive
An early pioneer in advertising, John Wanamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” In today’s world of digital and programmatic advertising, content is created at a rapid and growing pace, driven in large part by the exponential growth of social media and video, adding new dimensions to trust in the marketing world. Advertisers are increasingly focused on brand reputation and they want to ensure that their ads appear in contexts that match their values, and also that they’re seen by eyeballs and not algorithms!
On this week’s pod, we deep-dive another potential hypergrowth stock, Integral Ad Science (IAS), one of the emerging leaders in ad viewability, ad fraud, and ad safety and suitability.
Podcast #46 – Model portfolio Q2 review
It’s time for the half-year review of our model portfolio, a collection of 15 stocks that we selected in January as our core investments for 2021. The sell-off in growth stocks earlier this year made for grim reading at the end of Q1, but many of these stocks have rebounded – ten of the stocks in the model portfolio are now up from our start date, with nine of them beating the market (S&P 500).
Unfortunately, a couple of big losers are dragging down the overall return. While it’s probably too early to declare that “growth is back!”, our portfolio performance at the end of Q2 is much closer to the benchmark of the S&P 500 index. In this episode, we dig into some of the key stories and updates from the portfolio.
More stock therapy
On this week’s Pod Albert and I had a bit of a therapy session, sharing the woes of all growth investors, reflecting on some of the actions we’ve taken over the last few months to prepare ourselves for this eventuality, and also steeling ourselves for the volatility that is doubtless going to persist for many months (years?) yet.
Podcast #34 – Hype cycles
It can be exciting to invest in new innovations and it’s easy to get carried away with the next big thing. In this week’s pod, Luke & Albert take a look at a few recent Gartner hype cycles and talk about some of the innovations that impact their own investments – past, present and future
Podcast #33 – Model portfolio Q1 review
In this week’s episode, Luke & Albert check in with their model portfolio and see how the stock picks have performed in the first quarter, but more importantly, how the businesses have fared and whether or not the investment theses have changed.
Magnite one-pager
Luke provides a one-page investment summary on Magnite, one of the fifteen companies in the 2021 model portfolio