Month: October 2017

A post-mortem for Thorn Group Ltd

I previously bought and sold Thorn Group Ltd (ASX: TGA) shares for the 10foot portfolio. I lost about 8% of the investment or about 0.4% of capital on the transaction, but I avoided the blow up that came following the recent market announcement. I believe that the Thorn purchase was a mistake as I was too …

A qualitative look at Oliver’s Real Foods

I recently had a look at healthy food company Oliver’s Real Foods (ASX: OLI). Oliver’s operates fast-food outlets that sell only healthy and organic food. You can read my purchase thesis here but in my view it is the qualitative factors here that will prove make-or-break for this young brand. These are three key premises (‘beliefs’) that I …

Purchase #9: Oliver’s Real Food Ltd

I recently made the 9th purchase for the portfolio, Oliver’s Real Food Ltd (ASX: OLI). As with the Just Group purchase, I think the shorter thesis length is a winner and I will stick to that format here. Oliver’s has ~210m shares on issue including 2.7 million options. It has a market capitalisation of ~$46 million …

Quarterly review September: Q1 2018

So ends the second quarter of 10foot’s short life so far. On balance, I should have underperformed, given that I blew 4% of my capital on RNY Property Trust and lost a little bit on Thorn Group Ltd (ASX: TGA), plus I pay 3% in transaction fees, so I am behind from the get-go. The 10foot portfolio was …

Strong narratives: A source of competitive advantage?

One of the best things about investing is that you will draw on virtually all of your skills, knowledge, and experience at one point or another. I studied narratives at school, formally, as an academic pursuit. It sounds dry, and it kinda was, but it’s proven to be valuable in highly unusual ways. Try deconstructing a …

On Catalonia

The general view on Twitter and in the media seems to be that ‘Spain is grossly overreacting to the illegal Catalan referendum.’ Fair point. It is not a pretty picture. However, if we ask why Spain is overreacting, a different picture emerges: Autonomy Although a parliamentary monarchy, Spain is a decentralized nation composed of autonomous regions and cities. …