Portfolio Update: September 2025

This is more of a mid-October update but still wanted to get a product out. The following is my portfolio as of market close 10/16/2025:

And the following is my performance against the S&P 500:

And the following is my exposure by sector and geography as of market close 10/16/2025:

I'll start by saying I gave up quite a bit of performance in the last month. It's been hard to keep up with the market for the entire time I've been investing truthfully. None of my names have reported 3Q earnings yet, so I'm hoping this earnings cycle is an opportunity to outperform and not something that pushes me further behind. Almost all my names have lagged the index except for Consolidated Water. What a gem. I do need to consider trimming the name, though. It's at valuation levels that I'm not sure make sense for the business model. Deckers has felt like my biggest detractor on a portfolio level. Consumer Discretionary as a whole has been weak and I think people are worried that promo has risen and growth is slowing for HOKA. This quarter will greatly inform DECK's future as a company and in my portfolio. I think a lot of negative expectations are baked in but that could be famous last words.

In the Annual Report I talked about getting to that ideal 7 name portfolio and weeding out names that I haven't fully diligenced. I haven't made much progress on that front, and have decided to ride out my current names through this earnings season. I want to add more short exposure to the portfolio, too. I think certain pockets of the market are ripe for shorting at the moment. I've started thinking about a pair trade amongst the BNPLs, so keep an eye out for that research. Initial thought is a long Klarna/short Affirm with Klarna being half the weight of the Affirm short.

Having "multiple paths to victory" has been the biggest investing topic on my mind as of late. It's something that I simply don't have in my portfolio. Do I think we are in a bubble? Yes. Do I think valuations are stretched? Yes. Do I have any clue when this trend might reverse? No. That leads me to believe I should create a small portion of the portfolio dedicated to keeping up with the market. I think my portfolio right now needs to add some defensive exposure along with this kind of juice. It would be almost sacrilegious, but long GOOG is something I'm considering. I'll keep the journal updated on this idea as I chew on it.

Looking forward to my most serious earnings season yet!