Category Archives: What we read

Panic Journal – Trump II: “There will be blood”

Quick Summary:

This post contains additional random musings about the current situation, plus an updated “portfolio check” at the end. So feel free to jump to the end if you are only interested in the portfolio check.

Background:

At the end of 2024, I wrote a first post about what might happen following both a Donald Trump win in the US election and a breakup of the German coalition. My takeaway was that maybe US stocks weren’t the great deal they were supposed to be.

Since then, two major developments have changed:

  1. The promised 7–10% US growth has turned into an almost certain recession.
  2. The outcome of the German election has been slightly better than initially feared.

All of this has led to a significant outperformance of European large-cap stocks, especially in Q1.


Trump / US

I have absolutely no idea where this is all headed. But one thing is certain: uncertainty. Especially regarding the future direction of the US government, uncertainty has increased significantly.

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Some links 07/2025

The Wintergem Substack with a very interesting write-up on Canadian Business Jet Maker Bombardier

Behind the Balance Sheet with a great deep dive into the business of Finance/Investing Substacks

A very interesting article on the influence of Korean retail investors in the most volatile US securities

Lego’s profit margins are in decline (but still very high)

Richard Beddard looks at UK Smallcap Dotdigital

A good overview of the “Private Infrastructure” Asset Class from Larry Swedrow

A decent summary of the current “hangover in Alcohol stocks”

Some links 06/2025

Highly Recommended: Rob Vinall’s 2024 letter is out

Paul Singer is a very rare Podcast guest. So if he appears, do listen/watch. A true “living legend”.

Heat waves and droughts are really bad for GDP in the mid- to long term

Flyover Stocks with a great post on how capital cycles work (Examples Bourbon & Home building)

Maynard Payton with an interesting write-up of BIG Technologies, a UK based “fallen Angel” IPO

The new Mauboussin Paper “Probabilities and Payoffs” is worth reading

An interesting article on a busted Austrian Private Equity deal and the pitfalls of “adjusted EBITDA”

Some links 05/2025

Recommended: Wexboy with his 2024 portfolio & performance review

A great video explaining the East 72 Dynasty portfolio with a lot of interesting “family owned” companies

Some deep thoughts from the Brooklyn Investor on the “Broken Markets” theme

Nat Bullard’s annual presentation is a must for anyone interested in the energy sector

An interesting analysis that shows that “real assets” were not good hedges against inflation following Covid

Fantastic post why you should never rely on Bullshxt Earnings errrr Adjusted EBITDA

Royce Funds Microcap 2024 review with some summaries of US microcaps

Some links 04/2025

Some deep thoughts on the relationship between material wealth and happiness

You can challenge any of Prof. Damodaran’s assumptions on Nvidia, but compared to the many clowns and scumbags that pose as stock analysts these days, his logic and level of transparency is just awesome. Well done Professor !!!

Nice wite-up on conglomerate Jardine Matheson from Emerging Value

Some interesting stats on UK take-over premiums from Klement on Investing

For anyone interested in the insurance industry, the Swiss Re Sigma reports are a great resaource

Interesting Sharescope article on small cap premium and a few UK Trust ideas

Philipe Luchesi with a new Video discussing Laurent Perrier (French, Youtube offers translation in subtitles)

Some links 02/2025

Nice year end review from the “no deep dives” Substack with some interesting positions

Wintergem Substack with an update on Hingham Savings Bank

Famous short activist Hindenburg announced to stop operating

Are Cannabis spiked drinks really replacing alcohol in the US ?

I had linked to the study last time, here is a summary of how Ozempic/Wegovy seem to change people’s eating habits

Fascinating story about the development of the Video Game “Star Citizen” that might cross the 1 bn USD budget soon

FT Alphaville on how overvalued the USD actually is (Hint: a lot)

Some links 1/2025

A very entertaining “future 10 year asset allocator” review from AQR’s Cliff Assness

Short seller Hindenburg once again swings out against Carvana

An interesting and inspiring story about a family that produces cymbals since 400 years

A decent list of 2025 top picks from UK investors/Bloggers

An interesting paper on how food demand seems to change with GLP-1 drug intake

“Big potato” is now controlling the US French fries market

A great post on what happened in the AI/LLM space in 2024

Some links 21/2024

Highlight: If you read only one thing this week then Wintergem’s deep dive on Moats (and the apllication on Adyen) is a MUST READ

Richard Beddard with a nice check up on UK Tech company Rasperry Pi

The newest AI models seem to be capabable of lying to their supervisors

If you like non-nonsense, down to earth finance talk, this podcast episode from Todd Wennings Flyover Stock blog/podcast is great.

Some US Small cap ideas from Royce

The Dungeon Investing substack with a first look into Square Enix (Very good Substack for everything related to gaming)

DB_Silver_Fox Substack on Carl Zeiss Meditec

14th Anniversery of Value & Opportunity Blog

Every year on December 15th, the blog celebrates another anniversary, because on that day in December 2010, the blog went live for the first time.

As always there will be a separate performance portfolio review in the beginning of January.  After a short break, I had to do a new “Panic Series” post due to the result of the US election.

With the rather “mixed” performance of my portfolio this year and the many headwinds, the motivation to write clearly has suffered a little bit, but having seen these situations before, of course I will continue to blog with the clear goal to become the longest running financial blog on the planet. In the subcategory of non-paywal financial blogs with a transparent investment portfolio, I would guess there are not many challengers.

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Some links 19/2024

The race is on to develop the perfect tires for EVs

The AI “revolution” needs a lot of Energy and it is not clear where that should come from

Great round-up of recent research on the “Low-vol strategy”

Looking at this research from KOI, assuming a 10% growth rate for more than a couple of years is really aggressive

A good summary of the insane Microstrategy story (so far)

As always, Ben Evan’s big annual presentation is worth looking into

Augustusville is “bottom-fishing in sick man’s land”

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