Portfolio Update: February 2026

The following is my active portfolio as of market close 3/6/2026:

Here is my portfolio outperformance at market close on 3/6/2026:

And alpha by active position at market close on 3/6/2026:

The continuation of earnings season was very kind to me. While I can't numerically confirm this, I'm almost positive that this was the best month for my portfolio in its history. The BNPL pair trade, GLBE, Gold, MORN, a new short position in PZZA, and PAY all contributed positively to alpha. EXP and DECK were the two detractors. EXP seems to be suffering on the basis that rates may remain higher for longer, negatively impacting building materials tied to housing. Deckers' price movement has been a little bit more of a headscratcher for me. There's likely some retail data that I'm not privy to. The portfolio as a whole went from 36bps of alpha at 2/6/2026 close to 879bps of alpha at 3/6/2026 close.

As mentioned above, I took out a short position on Papa John's (NASDAQ: PZZA). I'll post those materials shortly after finishing here. I've used the proceeds to buy more GLBE and also to bring down my net exposure. I'm working toward lower net exposure, and would like to do so by taking out more shorts instead of liquidating longs. The other change worth noting is my exit of ABX. The position closed as a 32bp detractor to alpha, but I'm happy to have it out of the portfolio. I feel like this is the last step in ridding the portfolio of positions I didn't personally deeply diligence.

Last month I mentioned I'd jot down things that came to mind over the course of the month in order to explore them more fully in these writings. I'm happy to say I kept my word.

I've been contemplating how I want to approach the news as an investor. I feel like it's a really overlooked piece of investing that likely influences outcomes. I want to make sure I have a system in place that keeps me both informed, thinking independently, and level-headed. I currently stay informed by reading 2 newsletters in the morning, following headlines, and checking the dashboard I created. I like this system, but can sometimes feel myself being bogged down. I spend my time thinking about whatever the headlines are talking about in a given day, which usually is sensationalized and a distraction from picking good stocks. All this is to say I want to think about how to approach the news in a way that makes me a better investor, not a more distracted investor. I know Templeton would get the news on a delay. I don't think I'm in a position to do that quite yet, but I hope to someday be in a position to get the news on a delay.

I made a note to write on Software. This feels like the second "crazed sell off" I've seen in my time investing with Liberation Day being the first. I think that a ton of opportunities are created in these sell offs. GLBE became really cheap the day before it reported earnings and I took it up 10pps in weight. That ended up being a great idea. I just need to have the conviction to ante up in what I know really well in moments like these. I think sitting around and pondering the broad future of Software is a low ROI activity though. I'm a single stock investor. No need to posit on the future of the industry unless I'm getting my hands dirty looking at individual names.

However, I did spend a lot of time thinking on software. I think that the SaaS business model in a vacuum is probably in a lot of trouble. I'm not an expert in the industry, but I think that the terminal values of certain companies should be impaired.

I've been working to incorporate AI into my workflows. I want it to allow me to amplify my skillset. Candidly, I think a big differentiator I've had is my ability to model. I think this will quickly become a commodity with tools like Claude. I have to make sure that I outsource the mundane work and spend my brain power thinking. I've done a lot better job recently in this manner. I'm using Claude for excel almost constantly, and I treat Gemini and Claude as research assistants. I've noticed a massive increase in my ability to diligence with these tools.

On a semi-related note to the portfolio, I've been participating in lots of case competitions. I did 3 in the month of February. I podiumed at two local competitions and didn't advance in a national competition. I was really bummed about the national competition because I'd put a lot of work into the pitch. I've since watched some winning stock pitches and feel like I have a good idea of what these competitions want. Although, I watch these pitches and feel that so much frivolous work is done that isn't contributing to outperformance. So I'm conflicted on whether these are a good use of time if they're not helping me practice investing in a way that's authentic to me. But they are a great opportunity to get feedback, reps, and understand more broadly what people want to hear in a stock pitch. I also just like competing.

I don't know how the portfolio will evolve between now and April. There isn't much in the pipeline as of now and I'm quite content with most of the longs on hand. Morningstar, given the thoughts I've developed on SaaS, is under consideration. I think I'd like to see another quarter first, but using Claude in excel showed me that publicly available information aggregated by LLMs could be a serious competitor to the Morningstar Direct platform. Incremental work will likely be focused on finding shorts to bring down net exposure.