2024 Performance: +42.4%

CAGR Since Inception (July 2019): +53.5%

This will be my last post discussing returns... I had $30,000 in 2019.

Zero experience and zero connections.

This platform changed all that. I met incredible people that I would never get access to otherwise.

2023 performance: +50.24%

CAGR since inception (July 2019): 58.01%

This pace is not sustainable. It has only been possible because of my small size and help from people much smarter than me.

A few highlights from this year... @eriksen_tim is the man of the year. He emailed me in June about an insane merger arb. A business was being acquired for 12-14x it’s then market cap. Nobody had figured it out. Tim let me in on the trade in exchange for some help with diligence.

2022 performance: +29.79%

Returns will come down in the future. Performance is due to my small size and small circle of incredibly smart friends.

My approach is simple. Read everything and share ideas with the best investors I can find.

Some highlights from 2022… The ECIP bank trade drove all the returns this year. Would have been down otherwise. Stumbled on it in April. Spent 6 months researching and buying.

A few smart people helped me figure it out. @dsmoak98 @nicholasp66 @eriksen_tim @OtterMarket @alluvialcapital were great help.

Joel Greenblatt found Norbert Lou on the internet. Lou wrote as “charlie479” on Value Investors Club.

Greenblatt helped him start Punch Card Capital and contributed $10 Million.

$WNMLA is one of Lou’s early VIC writeups. It's often ignored but the biz is still around today... Lou’s pitch on $WNMLA was simple – at $1.70/share the Company was selling for 45% of its net cash. The business was mediocre, but dirt cheap.

Lou wrote his pitch in July 2001. Within three years the stock soared to $4.75/share.

The Company went dark in August 2004.

“I actually have a less than $200 thousand investment which has become worth about $50 million and all I had when I was accumulating the shares was an annual financial report.”

One of the best letters of all time.

Written by Mr. Lawrence Goldstein on the dark stock rule. There is a gold mine of wisdom and experience in this letter.

“I have managed, very successfully, an investment partnership with a 38 year audited record.”

The man has probably forgotten more than I know.

Is there a microcap with a cooler history than $MNPP?

Warren Buffett sold it to Walter Schloss in 1963 because he owed Schloss a favor. The stock was dirt cheap - $14/share.

What had Schloss done to deserve such a favor from the greatest investor of all time? Buffett started buying up shares of Dempster Mill in 1958. The situation turned into an activist campaign and Buffett needed like-minded friends who would support his cause.

Schloss was one of those friends.

A tree falling in an empty forest.

December 2019. Flipping through OTC I find a company valued for less than your house. $458,000 market cap. This business was profitable, had $1.1MM of cash and $1.3MM of equity in its real estate.

But that’s not the interesting part… The business was $TTHG. You had to go to their website to find the financial statements. The website color scheme looked like that of a tattoo parlor.

This was a pretty straightforward business. A boring manufacturer/distributor of cleaning supplies and paper products.

2021 was the best year yet: +136%.

This is not sustainable, and most of the outperformance comes from the advice and guidance of others. I can’t name them all, but here are a few: @Fairlight_Cap – We encountered each other a few times in the past while buying the same ideas. He brought me $BBW.SI in July. It was trading at 3x EV/FCF and was growing revenue 75% per year.
I used to think nobody looked at more stocks than me. Then I met Nick. He is great.