Thursday, May 07, 2026
After a 19-year hiatus, I am back!
The portfolio has done reasonably well since I last bid adieu. As of today, the portfolio index, which is calculated net of any cash deposits and withdrawals, stands at 30,612, up from an initial value of 100 in November 2000.
Since I last posted in February 2007, the portfolio index is up 17.8x. For comparison, the S&P 500 is up 5.1x over this period, while the Russell 2000, probably the best benchmark for my portfolio, is up 3.5x.
With the exception of a few short months in late 2008/early 2009 and February 2020, I never used margin debt. On the contrary, I have generally maintained very large cash positions.
My portfolio is spread across several brokerage accounts, many of which contain cash, bonds, and global ETFs in addition to individual stocks. The individual stocks have done better than the bonds or the ETFs.
My IB account, which I use more for trading than the other accounts, is up 1,744% since 2010. That is about 20% annualized. I estimate that the individual stocks returned around 25% to 30%. To my detriment as a deep value investor, I never owned much tech.
Why did I restart the blog? Partly because I enjoyed writing it, partly because I want to help other investors, and partly because I missed the discipline it provided.
I will admit that I haven’t really devoted much time to stock screening over the past 19 years. Maybe one hour per week. I have a lot of great resources at my disposal now, including BCA’s Equity Analyzer platform, so I plan to take more advantage of them.
Going forward, most of my posts will be on X: @StockcoachPB.
See you there!
