Xinja’s Pivot
I’m coining a new phrase, Xinja’s Pivot, to describe “bad-to-worse” changes in business direction. Mark my words, three years from now it’ll be a hall-of-famer alongside Occam’s Razor and Maslow’s Hammer. Neobanking The thing about neobanks is that if you take the fees out of banking, you take most of the profits out too. What’s …
Sezzle’s (ASX:SZL) Meteoric Rise Raises More Questions Than Answers
Sezzle Inc (ASX:SZL) is an Australian Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) company. It is domiciled in the US and the majority of its operations are in that country. Underlying merchant sales are approaching a $1bn per year run-rate, which is not large – but not trivial, either. Sezzle has a $1.1bn market cap on $32m in revenue …
A simple framework to reduce workplace stress
Workplace stress is about clarity. It is about priorities, capacity, and expectations. When you get those three right, the work environment is much less stressful. If you get it wrong, you’re gonna have a bad time. It is not rocket science, but it’s hard. For the purposes of this post, I plucked an academic publication …
Henry Morgan – 3 Years On
A bit over three years ago I began researching a company called Henry Morgan (ASX:HML), its sister company Benjamin Hornigold (ASX:BHD) and their investment manager, John Bridgeman (NSX:JBL). During my research I posted on this blog, writing that “something doesn’t add up and I remain gravely concerned about the way that Henry Morgan and co …
Quarterly Update: March 2020
So, almost everything I wrote in mid March getting ready for the end of quarter has been invalidated in the month since. Make of it what you will. Markets, eh? With the recent set of opportunities and portfolio positioning, I would expect a professional investor in my position to deliver some of the best …
FEAR
Note to readers today: This post was published at the very lowest point of the Covid Crash in 2020. It is designed to be bombastic and provocative, and at that, I think it succeeds. – Sean Can you feel it? FEAR If you do not look it in the eye, it cannot GET YOU Let …
10Foot Scuttlebutt: You’ve Been Unwise, And Four Other Fun Thoughts
Markets are tricky. I’m down 22% this quarter peak to trough, probably a little less start to finish, but who’s counting. I have marginally less money than I started with in September last year when I began this portfolio, put it that way. Some thoughts on markets Coronavirus is rotting your brain. I’ve never ever …
Annual Review: CY2019
I began investing again at the end of September this year. I published an interim investment update last month to get some thoughts on paper, but you can consider this a formal investment update and a record date of the portfolio for a return to performance tracking in future quarters. (Performance until April 2019 was …
Investment Update – Oct 2019
After a hiatus since April I’m overdue for an update. There are a couple of things to talk about. I’ve made a couple of mistakes, but on the plus side I have solved several problems and performance has been good – really good. Previously in my quarterly investment updates there were two recurring issues. Position …
Brasilian Hotels, Airbnb, And Other Thoughts
I recently spent three weeks in Brazil, my second trip in three years. It is a great country, and I have some general thoughts on it below. However, one thing that really stood out to me this time was the burgeoning supply of Airbnb apartments. The last time I travelled was in the July prior …
