Updates: Started from the top, now we here
We started at the height of the market and, as a result, we’re down!
We’re not sure how often we’ll disclose the dollar amount we’ve invested, but we’ll always keep inform you of the percentage return and our exact moves.
Buying at the Height of the Market; First Mistake As A “New” Investor
We didn’t want to begin throwing new money at stocks in the current market, but we did anyways so we could show you the portfolio in action ASAP.
Nevertheless, the current performance of this portfolio is a good example of why you should NOT buy when things are going up. New investors always make this mistake of buying more when the market or individual stocks are going up. We made this “new investor” mistake, which is sort of what we’re going for.
Precisely why we’re down
There isn’t much to say yet. We’re down for the following reasons:
The market was at a very high all-time high, which is usually followed by a sell-off
Institutional investors are paying off debt: Margin debt (debt borrowed from brokers for investing) is on a downtrend
We were lazy and didn’t want to think about the best time to buy, but also wanted to show you the portfolio ASAP
The last reason isn’t the best one — we know. But that’s the point.
With regards to performance, don't worry. As we’ll explain in our next YouTubers’ Portfolio update, we plan on buying a lot more when the market corrects.
Decision-making: Our Next Move
Let’s just say, we’re buying A LOT more of everything in the YouTubers’ Portfolio once the market corrects.
We’re not worried about being down 20-something percent after only investing $100. What’s most important is that we make $20 mistakes now, rather than $20,000 mistakes later.
We’ll send a longer email out about how we plan to make these kinds of moves this weekend.
What This Email is Actually About: Updates and Update Structure
This is an update on the structure of YouTubers’ Portfolio updates.
We’ll update you on our portfolio and give an explanation of how we plan to update you all on the YouTubers’ Portfolio.
Looking back, we probably should’ve written this update in the structure that we describe here. Alas, this is a meta-update and I think Gödel’s Incompleteness theorems dictate that a formal system, or any system of axioms, can’t prove it’s own consistency — that is, you need a meta language/system for that. Similarly, it doesn’t feel right updating you on the YouTubers’ Portfolio and the structure of these updates using that structure.
Oh my g-d, I need to shut up. Okay anyways…
Update Structure: How these updates will work going forward
There will be two general categories of YouTubers’ Portfolio updates: Weekly Updates, and other, more ad hoc updates that arise as more urgent catalysts take effect and force these YouTubers to take action.
The structure for the Weekly Updates is shown below. It be distinguished from the more ad hoc updates by a “#X” where X indicates the number weekly update:
YouTubers’ Portfolio Update #X: [catchy heading]
1. Performance Overview
Description: There will also be a snapshot of the Portfolio’s performance, and a somewhat brief overview of the update, like the ‘Updates: …” section in this piece. Here’s the link to the YouTubers’ Portfolio if you haven’t seen it yet.
2. Review of Portfolio Catalysts and Factors
Description: This will be our synthesis of market catalysts that are going to affect the YouTubers’ Portfolio.
3. Updates from YouTubers
Description: This will have a few subsections, listed below.
Buys and Sells - in the format: “BUY/SELL X of shares at $Y/share”
Reasoning - a summary of their reason(s) for buying or selling what they did
Their Market Outlook - How they think the market and portfolio will do going forward as well as upcoming catalysts they mention.
4. Updates on the Markets
Description: Here, we’ll discuss only the most pressing market catalysts. It won’t be super technical, and usually won’t be too detailed. Like anything in investing, it will depend on the market.
Taking a step back, this section is a little contrary to the point of our portfolio (other than to make money). New, lazy investors probably don’t keep up with the market that often. On the other hand, we are investors, and aren’t comfortable enough to completely trust every move each of these YouTubers makes. We want to be a certain amount of lazy and naïve, but not entirely.
The ad hoc updates will not have any particular structure, but will likely follow that of the Weekly Updates to some extent.
There will also always be a snapshot of the Portfolio’s performance, like you see in this piece. Here’s the link to the YouTubers’ Portfolio if you want see it yourself.
More Decision-making: How We Plan To Make Moves
A reminder, our goal here is to use our brain(s) as little as possible.
We’ll let you know exactly what moves we make and why. However, we’ll mostly copy the moves of YouTubers. Imagine that we’re a new, lazy investor. We want to do what they would do, which we are assuming would be “copy and paste” whatever the YouTubers do.
At the same time, we don’t want to be stupid. While most of the decision-making will be left up to the YouTubers, we plan to do a bit of our own filtering.