Month: January 2021

GameStop Short Squeeze for dummies

27 comments

Hi RIP readers,

This is a short post about what’s happening right now around GameStop company.

GameStop is a US video game retailer company. They sell “physical” video games CD/DVD/Blue Ray/Cartridges for consoles and PC. They’re also well positioned in the used market.

You’ve probably seen their stores in your mall or in your favorite shopping center. Do you remember malls? Those huge buildings where people used to gather? Ok enough archeology for today.

Why am I talking about GameStop?

If you haven’t been living into a cave in the last 72 hours you’ve probably heard that “something weird is going on”.

Let’s get started!

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2020 Q4 Financial Update Part 2-TER: Investor’s Anxiety and Stocks vs Bonds with Julianek

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Hi RIP readers, this is Part 2-TER of my 2020 Q4 Update.

I’ve published 3 posts so far in this infinite 2020 Q4 review:
– Part 1 is about income, expenses, net worth and a few financial facts.
– Part 2 is about my 2020 investment analysis, and my 2021 investing plans.
– Part 2-BIS is a long Q&A about Part 2, since I received a few dozens comments and personal messages.

Part 2-TER (this post) is my public reply to a personal email that my dear friend Julianek (Value Investor, moderator of MP Forum, member of my Zurich Mastermind Group) sent to me again about Part 2, about my market analysis and investment strategy.

It’s so good that I asked him permission to make it public, and he gently agreed 🙂

This is last post about my investing strategy (for now), promised! I appreciate your amazing feedback, and all the homework you assigned to me 🙂 but I want to move on. 

As reader MrWHDY said in my last post:
– “Money should have been a tool for you to reach freedom and it is now taking over your brain. How much energy has it already drained?”

[Amazing comment. Another cold shower. I’ll take time to craft a proper reply. Thank you MrWHDY]

On the same subject, I think I’m no more able to keep up with all of your comments on my previous posts. I read them all, but I might not be able to write a proper answer to each one of them. It’s becoming a full time job on its own.

Next post will finally be Part 3, about personal and blog updates, with new projects, ideas, plans and bla bla bla 🙂

Let’s get started!

What follows is Julianek email, verbatim, and then my public response.

Enjoy!

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What if you invested before the DotCom Bubble exploded? Ask Rolf!

37 comments

Hi RIP readers,

Hi RIP readers,

As you probably know if you’ve read my last two posts (2020 Q4 Financial Update Part 2 and Part 2-BIS) I’m a bit concerned that the stock market is heavily overpriced, in a bubble. A bubble that in my opinion has a lot in common with the DotCom Bubble of 2000-2002. This is making me reluctant of investing in stocks again, in fact I sold most of them in July-August 2020.

I want to quantify my reluctance in this post.

Many readers suggested me to “just invest in stocks, this is for the long term!”, “stocks always go up!”, “don’t care about daily fluctuation, they’re just noise… in the long term stocks will return their promised 6-7-10% per year!”, “time in the market beats timing the market”, “YOLO!”.

I already addressed my fears in the previous two posts: fear that we might be at the bubble peak, and fear that it might take a loooong while to recover from a crash – and I’m not as young as you probably are.

“…But look at Bob, who only invested at market peaks and still ended up being trillionaire!”

Congrats Bob, but today I want to introduce you Rolf, the Swiss investor who invested all of his grandma inheritance, 1 Million CHF, in an ETF tracking MSCI World Index on January 1st 2000.

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2020 Q4 Financial Update Part 2-BIS: Q&A on Part 2

30 comments

Hi RIP readers, this is Part 2-BIS of 2020 Q4 Update (here is Part 1, here is Part 2).

Last Friday I’ve published Part 2 of 2020 Q4 update, which is still missing a Part 3 about personal and blog updates, hopefully seeing the light before the end of January.

Part 2 covered my 2020 investment actions and performance, and more importantly my 2021 investing plans.

I’ve published this very long post on Friday afternoon, before a busy weekend with no time to catch up with comments and personal messages. I’ve received a lot of them. I thank you all!

I’m writing this post as a collective answer to the (mostly constructive) criticism, to your questions, and a feedback on your recommendations.

Two things before we start:
– Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate you spending your time to leave me a feedback.
– Please, comment my posts using English Language. The language of the blog is English (RIP slang 😀 ). If you can read it, please make the effort to write your comments in English. I accept (I prefer, actually) Italian language for mail or private messages on Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit), but I prefer English comments on my blog posts. Some of the comments in Italian language are very good, and they add a lot to the conversation. Using a language only 1% of he world population can handle isn’t inclusive enough for my standards.

Having said that, let’s get started!

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2020 Q4 Financial Update Part 2: Investments Analysis, Actions, and Plans

39 comments

Hi RIP readers, this is Part 2 of 2020 Q4 Update (here is Part 1).

Today I’m going to expand the “Investments – Analysis, Actions, and Plans” section left empty in my previous post. I’m going to share my beliefs, my fears, my decision making process, and will commit to some actions in order to get back into a “sane” asset allocation as soon as possible.

I’m kind of rewriting my Investor Policy Statement today.

Mind that this post is very long (8k+ words), and superficially edited. 

It’s not just a stream of consciousness, because there’s some deep ETF research, thought process, behavioral analysis, rational decision making, and more. 

I started writing this post without an outline (I never do), and without knowing what the conclusions would have been. I used this post to clarify my thoughts, and that’s what writing does for me.

I don’t write because I have something to tell, I write because I have something to learn. And as a side effect I’m sharpening my thinking skills. Writing is amazing!

Enjoy!

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2020 Q4 Financial Update Part 1: Financials

20 comments

Hi RIP readers,

Welcome to the hardest-to-write quarterly financial (and personal) update so far.

It’s not been a great quarter from almost any point of view. But that’s what public accountability is for: to take responsibility and walk the shame walk anyway, with your shoulder straight.

It’s also the end-of-year update. 2019 review ended up being 16k words long, a kind of a small book.

I’ll do my best to keep 2020 Q4 review manageable.

…Nope, I’m at 7k words and more or less halfway thru my update!

I decided to split it in 3 parts. This is part 1, about the financial aspects. Part 2 will be a deep dive on my investments, and part 3 is personal and blog update.

Let’s get started.

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Monthly Learning Journal 11 (4/1/2021)

4 comments

Hi RIP readers, welcome to the Monthly Learning journal, hopefully in its final frequency format.

I started my curation series with the ambition to publish an episode on each Monday, but it lasted for just 3 weeks. I slowed the frequency down to “every other Monday”, and it lasted another 7 episodes.

I hope the Monthly format (first Monday of each month) will be sustainable for me to publish, and rich enough for you to appreciate.

I didn’t take into account that the total time spent reading/watching/listening to podcasts didn’t slow down on my side. Halving publishing frequency implies doubling posts size 🙂

To avoid reducing the series to a Dirac distribution, I’m also going to filter much harder. Moving more content down to the “Other Content” section, and sadly cutting some good content out.

Maybe I’ll switch back to a weekly or biweekly format, but drastically limiting the number of entries. Or maybe I’ll move this series directly in my public Roam Database. Who knows! I only know I love this series so I’ll keep posting 🙂

This Month WLJ themes are: journaling and self reflection, anti-FIRE, investing, decision making and productivity, fake gurus and more.

Unlike many previous editions, I haven’t found anything “spectacular” (rating above 8/10) this cycle. I haven’t searched very hard though, but maybe some of the new discoveries will last in the long term, bringing more value over time 😉

Next Episode on February 1st, 2020.

Enjoy!

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