Novo Nordisk ($NOVO B (-2.63%) ) is back on the hunt for deals to boost its obesity portfolio after losing U.S. biotech Metsera in a bidding war with Pfizer ($PFE (+1.32%)) late last year, Bloomberg’s Naomi Kresge and Cynthia Koons report. “We’re in the market for big or small,” Chief Executive Officer Mike Doustdar said in an interview at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. “As long as it’s complementary to our own assets, then we can go very big, very big in buying something in, but it has to be worth it and it has to be so much better than whatever we have.” Several names in the space were moving up following the news report, including Viking Therapeutics ($VKTX (-5.61%)), Terns Pharmaceuticals ($TERN (-0.31%)), and Structure Therapeutics ($GPCR).

https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/novo-nordisk-says-back-on-the-hunt-for-obesity-deals-bloomberg-reports-thefly

Last quarter I managed my options almost perfectly. I significantly reduced the number of positions. One of my favourite name $NU (+0.35%) , is still in the portfolio. This stock gives me a great balance: I can almost always identify the right strike price, it has excellent option volume, and it’s still growing at a reasonable pace.

I added $NOVO B (-2.63%) by removing some other stocks. I purchased 200 shares, which significantly boosted my monthly option premium. As expected, Novo started to grow from its recent bottom, so I had to make several adjustments to avoid getting called away.

Here are some results:

This journey started at Sept 2025

During this period, I invested a total of €13,875.

Unrealised price gain: €678

Dividends (this is also how I track my option premiums): €865

Realized gain: €19

That’s about a 11% return in 4 months. My normal price returns were almost doubled just by doing option trading as well.

What I really like is that these are not just unrealised gains. That €865 is already in my hands, not just on paper. I’m currently reinvesting this into $FWRG (+0.72%) . That said, this options portfolio has grown too large compared to my other investments, so I’ve already started to scale it down in January.

Efforts

I spent around 2–4 hours per week managing this portfolio, mostly because I’m still learning. Without prior experience, it can be tough to react properly when things move fast. Some stocks jump so high, so quickly, that you need to handle the time pressure well and roll or buy back your calls at the right moment.

A lot of the time, it feels like you’re missing out on gains. So the saying that selling call options limits your upside without protecting you from downside is partly true. However, in most cases these are actually good problems to have—you’ve already locked in a solid return, and you’re only missing some extra upside.

By understanding time, market behaviour, and the kind of spikes that can happen, I’ve learned that there are multiple ways to make back what you "missed". That’s why having a clear strategy is so important, and knowing exactly why you’re trading options in the first place. Patience and respect for the power of time make a big difference.

If you’re thinking about starting today, my recommendation is to start small—one or two stocks at most. Choose a stock that’s expected to grow, that you’d be happy to own anyway, and that has good option activity.

Accept that, especially at the beginning, your shares will get called away. Don’t get greedy, and aim for far out-of-the-money contracts to reduce this risk. Understand that time is your friend—you don’t need to pressure yourself into making mistakes. Sometimes the best move is simply to wait.

Read a lot, watch YouTube, and have deep conversations with AI tools about how options actually work to learn the mechanics. But it’s super important not to ask for recommendations, because those are usually wrong or missing some additional context you might not provide.

A reminder that within this period I’ve spent more than 50 hours actively trading, and at least the same amount of time just preparing and learning—and I still know very little and make mistakes.

Back from my two-week winter break, I’ll start with a brief portfolio recap of last month. December was a much quieter month for me compared to previous ones, fitting with the holiday season. Portfolio activity was limited, with only a handful of buys and a lot more observation than execution. The only real macro event was the widely expected 25bp rate cut at the beginning of the month, followed by a slow but constructive Santa rally. Overall, December was about positioning and re-evaluating conviction, not trading.

Testament to that is the fact that my first trade was only executed on December 10th, when I opened a position in Sea around $125. I won’t go into too much detail here, as I’ve covered the company extensively over the past months. In short, Sea offers one of the cleanest growth setups in global e-commerce right now. The company benefits from rising income levels and improving infrastructure across Southeast Asia — a far more favorable backdrop than mature markets like South Korea. Revenue growth is projected north of 20–30% annually through 2027, cash flow is expanding at a similar pace, the balance sheet holds nearly $8B in cash with no debt, and the stock was down close to 40% from its YTD highs. At a ~5% FCF yield, it’s not dirt cheap, but more than fair given the growth. I’m very comfortable with Sea here, alongside MercadoLibre as my emerging markets exposure.

The next addition was Microsoft. I bought 10 shares at $475, making it a relatively small position below 3% of my portfolio. Microsoft is not a screaming buy, but it’s the kind of company I’d happily hold for a decade without even looking at the stock price. You could call it a typical “Buffett buy”: a wonderful company at a fair price. The forward P/E sits around 30, dropping into the mid-20s on FY27 estimates. Free cash flow is temporarily distorted by heavy and necessary AI CapEx, but the underlying business remains close to perfect: deeply entrenched ecosystems, massive switching costs, recurring revenue streams, and Azure as the rapidly growing #2 player in the cloud market. Still, while Microsoft is an incredible business, it isn’t my favorite Mag7 right now. That crown still belongs to Meta, and second place, in my view, goes to the stock I bought a week later.

That stock was Nvidia, which I added around $170. Nvidia puts me in a dilemma. Long term, I do see risks: extreme customer concentration, hyperscalers with the resources to build their own chips, and early cracks showing as companies like Meta explore alternatives. But in the short to medium term, the setup was simply too compelling to ignore. The stock was down 15–20% from ATHs, AI demand fears were eased after Micron’s blowout earnings, and on FY27 earnings Nvidia trades at a P/E of roughly 25. I’m highly confident Nvidia will rebound from these levels and make new highs in the coming months, even if I’m less convinced about its dominance five to ten years out.

On the same day, I also bought Uber. Similar story: not a forever-hold in my view given advances in autonomy (Waymo in particular), but at ~20% below ATHs and trading at a P/E of ~10, the risk/reward looked asymmetric. Cooler inflation, a stabilizing macro backdrop, and renewed confidence in the broader market created a favorable short-term setup. Adding to that, recent readings from the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model pointed to surprisingly strong U.S. growth momentum into Q4, which supports a more constructive outlook beyond just the AI narrative. I can easily see 30–50% upside from these levels, even if Uber isn’t a core long-term conviction.

December was also strong relative to my benchmark. The MSCI World was essentially flat for the month, while my portfolio gained around 5.6%. I started this portfolio in July 2025, and performance has been broadly in line with the MSCI World so far. For 2026, however, my goal is clear: visible outperformance through deliberate stock picking, generally focusing on quality-growth compounders. Alongside my core holdings (e.g. Meta, Visa, S&P Global), I’ll mix in selective high-risk, high-reward satellite positions where I see significant upside potential over the next few years (e.g. Zeta, Duolingo, Shift4).

Return since inception: +13%

$SE (-0.7%)
$MSFT (-0.3%)
$NVDA (+2.69%)
$UBER (+0.06%)
$META (+1.13%)
$CSU (-3.1%)
$SPGI (+0.07%)
$ZETA (-2.61%)
$NVO (-2.58%)
$NOVO B (-2.63%)
$V (-0.07%)
$MELI (-0.04%)
$INPST (+0.6%)
$EFX (+0%)
$TEAM (+0.59%)
$DLO
$CRM (-1.88%)
$FLTR (+1.3%)
$FOUR (-0.01%)
$NFLX (-0.21%)
$DUOL

YT: https://youtube.com/shorts/PSqz8eVvoAs

Finally, after some long weeks/ months, we had BANGER start into 2026! $HD (+1.42%) , $LOW (+0.92%) or the BIG STAR of this week $NOVO B (-2.63%) pushed the portfolio over 400€ and we are getting closer to the 40k€. I am pretty sure we can reach that goal in 2026!

Hope you guys had a grat performance over the last week as well. Let me know your best performing stocks - do we have the same one?

#stocks
#dividends
#aktien
#novonordisk
#passivincome
#financialgrowth
#financialfreedom
#investingjourney
#performanceupdate

$NOVO B (-2.63%)

Novo Nordisk: great business, but expectations matter

Novo Nordisk is often described as a “no-brainer” stock, but in my opinion it’s a perfect example of how an exceptional business can still carry meaningful investment risk — mainly because of expectations.

The company is a global leader in diabetes and obesity treatments, with blockbuster drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy driving explosive revenue and profit growth. From an operational standpoint, Novo Nordisk is executing extremely well: strong pricing power, high margins, and a dominant competitive position in a market with long-term structural tailwinds.

However, this success is also fully reflected in the stock price. Novo Nordisk trades at premium valuation multiples, implying that growth must remain strong and consistent for many years. Any slowdown in demand, increased competition, regulatory pressure or reimbursement issues could quickly change market sentiment.

Another key point is concentration risk. A large part of current growth is tied to GLP-1 drugs. While the pipeline is solid, reliance on a few flagship products makes the story more vulnerable than it appears at first glance.

In short, Novo Nordisk is a fantastic company, but not necessarily a “safe” investment at any price. From today’s levels, returns will likely depend less on business quality — which is outstanding — and more on whether future growth can continue to beat already very optimistic expectations.

For me, Novo Nordisk represents a classic case of high-quality, high-expectations investing.

❓❔ At current valuations, do you see Novo Nordisk as a long-term compounder, or is most of the upside already priced in?