Semi-Annual Portfolio Review

World Cup is over. I liked it, although I think 2010 was better. Anyway, my congratulations to Germany’s team. Four World Cup wins, equal to Italy and just one short of Brazil. What’s more important, it’s the first time European team won the World Cup in America. European football rules!

Well, back to investments. Looks like I (at around 0%) missed this year’s rally. Of course, fixed income helped (I account for most of it separately), but it hurts anyway. Below is my current portfolio and my thought:

Portfolio goal: growth. This is a high beta, unapologetic growth portfolio with some safeguards and some boring investments. The goal remains unchanged.

Basic Principles. Most of the stocks in this portfolio were chosen for long term investment, which, for me, is about 18 months. Every stock is under review all the time, with a major review of the portfolio twice a year. I can trade around any position if I feel like it. The portfolio is not diversified by sectors. Diversification reduces risk, but it also reduces potential gain. No change in basic principles either.

Strategy. I am starting to think that the political environment is getting better for stocks. Of course, if GOP takes Senate in November, all bets are off. Other than that, things are getting better. Of course, there is a war between Russia and Ukraine (don’t believe that crap about rebels, they are from Russia, mostly). There are problems in Iraq. Europe is still lethargic, but the US is booming.

Paradigm Changers. These are stocks of companies that are changing business in sectors or even in the whole world.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ultimate disruptor. Google is changing the advertising world. The company is also aggressively moving to mobile internet advertising.

Risk: All great empires were destroyed by internal problems. There is also a risk of search ad market saturation.

Since last review stock was split into voting (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and non-voting (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares. I keep both.

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