The course just smiled at me too much 🤩

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189Was the pandemic a bad time to start investing? (Market review & €100,000 portfolio performance update)
It is April 2020, and I am a young and hopeful student who has been studying the theory of financial education for several years and decide to take advantage of the supposedly unique opportunity of the "crash" to finally enter the stock market despite limited capital.
Theoretically, the idea was that it should be easy to get in during a difficult market phase, as all assets should be cheap due to the uncertainty. At least cheaper than they were before. When markets fall, multiples fall too. So even if you don't get everything right or even get a lot wrong, from a purely mathematical point of view you should still be better off than someone who got in in 2018 or 2019. So far, this logic is actually conclusive.
But the pandemic crash was not a normal crash. And I actually find it far too interesting not to talk about it.
In my experience, there is still a lot of talk today about the new markets in 2001 and the real estate bubble in 2008. However, the exciting market phase of the pandemic has hardly been looked back on at all. This may also be due to the fact that we don't feel we can look back at it yet, as we can still feel the effects and have barely really overcome them. However, it is now slowly becoming apparent that a new era has dawned on the market, which is primarily about tariffs, trade deficits and currencies.
But what makes the pandemic a bad time to start?
If you look back at the charts of some securities (and for the sake of clarity, I would like to refer mainly to equities here), you can see several things.
In the case of shares with a gravitas such as $BRK.B (+1,58%) only a tiny corona dent can be seen on the long-term chart. From this you can see that it didn't really matter when you invested. However, the earlier the better. It was important to invest at all, but it was not necessary to wait for a specific point in time. However, this even applies to clear pandemic losers such as $BKNG (+1,21%) and $EVD (-1,74%) .
For some stocks like $AMZN (+3,59%) and $MSFT (+0,93%) the entry point during the actual crash was not ideal. There was an optimal entry point for both stocks recently, but this would not have been apparent until 2-3 years after the crash. Both stocks survived the pandemic almost unscathed, but were then affected by severe secondary factors that put the business under pressure.
Stocks like $TMO (+1,6%) or $AFX (+1,32%) were considered pandemic winners. You could have picked them up at the beginning of the crash ... or you could have left them alone and got them back 5 years later at exactly the same price as before the pandemic started.
And now the worst category: hype stocks. The absolute catastrophe happened to all those who were looking for opportunities where there were actually none. Whether investments in emerging markets or hopes for the future in $ZM (+0,28%) and $FVRR (+1,39%) - Money that was taken out of the broad market ended up largely concentrated in assets that will not reach their ATH for another 20 years. Anyone wanting to be in it for the long term found their Waterloo in the pandemic. Some companies such as $EUZ (-3,69%) or $SRT (+1,15%) may well be doing great things. But here the "crash" was simply the absolute worst entry opportunity of the entire decade.
Correction Edit: I only found a group of stocks that I really needed to buy in the crash and that was Big Oil. There were certainly other stocks that were a bit cheaper at the time. But for the most part, it was not essential to enter at the low point in order to make good returns. That is what made this market phase so difficult. The good stocks were NOT extremely cheap, but there were many bad stocks that were extremely expensive. For newcomers, such a situation is incredibly difficult to navigate.
I closed 2020 with +12% and 2021 with +8% only to get a -22% in 2022. So I didn't make any returns at all in the first 3 years and just paid a lesson.
I thought I would have been smart at least not to have entered in 2018/2019 when all shares were valued much higher on average. But I might have gained experience in these two years so that I would have had more guidance in 2020. Or I could have started in 2022/2023, when there were no more hype stocks and you could pour money into the market with a watering can and it almost always turned into a flower.
I recently saw the portfolio of a friend who restarted his portfolio in 2022. Almost the same portfolio size as mine. However, while I have made 7% p.a. since the start of my portfolio, he has an IZF of 15%. With a portfolio size of 100k, this means that I am sitting on €12,000 book profits and he on €33,000
Backtests are currently showing that my strategy has really put me to sleep and put me to sleep by ALL known and common indices over 5 years. The only consolation here is really the 3-year performance, where it is clear that I can keep up with the major indices and also leave a few big names behind me.
So on a positive note: I'm getting better.

Maybe your friend drives with more risk to get the 15%, but you might have more stability🧐
Comprehensive insurance is more expensive than third-party liability, but you're in a better position in the event of a claim. And no, I don't work for Check24😄
My investable universe
When I‘m screening markets for my investable universe I look for high-quality compounders with:
- Strong and consistent capital returns (ROCE)
- High and stable profitability (gross, operating, and FCF margins)
- Steady revenue growth over time
- Large market capitalization (mature, established companies)
In detail I’m screening for:
- Market Cap: at least $ 10B
- ROCE 3-Year Avg: ≥ 25%
- ROCE 10-Year Avg: ≥ 25%
- Gross Margin 3-Year Avg: ≥ 50%
- FCF Margin 3-Year Avg: ≥ 20%
- Operating Margin 10-Year Avg: ≥ 25%
- Revenue per share CAGR 3-Year: ≥ 5%
- Revenue per share CAGR 10-Year: ≥ 5%
- FCF per share CAGR 3-Year: ≥ 10%
- FCF per share CAGR 10-Year: ≥ 10%
- Consistency/stability of earnings (from max. 1.0): ≥ 0.8
- No more than 75% revenue exposure to one single country/market (eg. USA)
Here are my current holdings:
My Portfolio
Today I‘m sharing with you my main portfolio. This doesn’t include any ETF investments and crypto currencies / gold etc. since I want to focus my presence on getquin on stock-picking.
Read my 3-part portfolio strategy posts to get the full picture - here are just the main pillars of what I‘m doing:
- Long-term buy and hold (average holding time 5+ years at least)
- Focus on high-ROIC compounders riding secular trends (top-tier capital efficiency)
- High margins, strong FCF growth, large moats (7 powers strategy)
- Holding not more than 20 stocks at a time while mainly focusing on US and EU based companies
I like to divide my holdings into „core holdings“ (forever stocks) and „trend picks“ (2030 stocks) as follows:
Core Holdings (“Forever Stocks”):
- $MSFT (+0,93%)
$ADBE (+0,49%)
$META (+2,82%)
$MA (+1,49%)
$AMZN (+3,59%)
$OR (+0,41%)
$MC (+0,36%)
$RMS (-0,04%)
$EL (+1,18%)
$BRK.B (+1,58%)
$MSCI (+1,28%)
$SPGI (+0,92%)
Growth Picks (“2030 Stocks”):
My portfolio strategy (part 3)
I use the 7 Powers framework from the book “7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy” by Hamilton Helmer. It’s a killer framework for understanding why some businesses create lasting value and compound returns over time.
Each “Power” is a sustainable strategic advantage that lets a company generate outsized returns for a long time. I ask the 7 questions for each stock I am considering to buy.
1. Counter-Positioning
- What it is: A new entrant adopts a superior business model that incumbents can’t copy without damaging their own biz.
- Example: Netflix vs. Blockbuster. Blockbuster couldn’t move to streaming without killing its DVD revenue.
- Why it matters: Creates asymmetric pressure; the old guard is paralyzed.
2. Scale Economies
- What it is: Unit costs drop as volume increases.
- Example: Amazon, Costco. Bigger = cheaper = stronger moat.
- Why it matters: Hard to compete if you can’t match their cost base.
3. Switching Costs
- What it is: Customers stick around because switching is painful.
- Example: Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, Salesforce.
- Why it matters: High retention = stable cash flows = compounding machine.
4. Network Effects
- What it is: The product gets better as more people use it.
- Example: Meta, Visa, LinkedIn.
- Why it matters: Leads to dominance, creates a feedback loop of growth.
5. Branding
- What it is: Emotional or symbolic value, not just functional.
- Example: L’Oréal, Hermès, Apple.
- Why it matters: Lets companies charge premium prices and keeps customers loyal even if alternatives exist.
6. Cornered Resource
- What it is: Exclusive access to a critical asset — talent, IP, data, supply.
- Example: ASML (EUV tech), Novo Nordisk (Ozempic IP), Ferrari (brand + heritage + team).
- Why it matters: If no one else can get it, you win.
7. Process Power
- What it is: Unique internal processes that drive efficiency, innovation, or quality — and are hard to copy.
- Example: Toyota (lean manufacturing), Amazon (logistics, culture of innovation).
- Why it matters: Long-lasting edge baked into the org’s DNA.
If I had to chose one, Network effects would be the most important one for me.
Here are my current holdings:
Favorite shares for eternity
What are your three favorite stocks
from a buy and hold perspective?
I am with $MSFT (+0,93%) , $AMZN (+3,59%) and $BRK.B (+1,58%)
No offense, but EVERYTHING can change...so I also have to regularly or constantly check whether changes have occurred that suggest changes to my investment.
Greetings
🥪
Baby Berkshire
Warren Buffett hands over the baton to Greg Abel. The fact that the legendary investor and CEO of the investment company Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B (+1,58%) is stepping down at the age of 94 is something that everyone can understand. For shareholders, however, the transition is fraught with uncertainty, despite all the promises of continuity: Buffett's footsteps are difficult to fill, and what's more, Berkshire - despite its still impressive performance - is also a victim of its own success. With a share portfolio worth around 300 billion dollars, the company is simply a cumbersome tanker.
It is therefore worth taking a look at alternatives. In addition to the Canadian investment holding Brookfield $BN (+1,97%) the Markel Group ($MKL (+1,86%) ) is becoming increasingly well-known. With a market capitalization of 21 billion euros, it may be tiny compared to Berkshire, but otherwise there are great similarities. Markel's "base" is also an insurance group, but there is also the investment division, which invests the money according to value criteria. The largest positions are Berkshire Hathaway and Brookfield, followed by Alphabet, Deere and Amazon. The less well-known investments include the air conditioning distributor Watsco, the strategy consultancy Marsh & McLennan and the broker LPL Financial. Baby Berkshire certainly has no track record to hide behind: Over the past ten years, the share price has risen by around 145 percent - with fairly moderate fluctuations.
Source: Focus Money
Depotroast - my way
TL;DR like to roast my deposit, appreciate all opinions!
I always find the many posts here and reading various biographies very interesting, so I've wanted to say a few words for a while now.
Tried early, but started late
I am now 32 and unfortunately started investing seriously far too late, studied far too long, and with the larger salaries finally built up as much as possible and tried to catch up as quickly as possible. "Unfortunately" means for the most part the past calendar year, which is why I put a large part of my money into shares at already high prices and then had very little cash left in the crash to add to it. Fully invested, in other words. During the crash, I mainly reallocated and continued to fully invest what was left over from my monthly salaries.
Yet back in 2011, at the age of 18, I had a share called Facebook and a Starbucks share in my portfolio without much of a clue. I just wanted to know what my mother was actually doing with her shares and how it worked, and with FB and Starbucks I simply chose two companies that "everyone" uses/needs anyway. The idea wasn't that stupid, it worked, and after a short time I was happy about the small profit in absolute terms, sold the shares at DiBa despite the high fees at the time and simply forgot about shares for years - wealth accumulation, a word that wasn't in my vocabulary, the money I had was simply turned upside down as a young adult. Well, young me, just leave the shares lying around or, even better, take a closer look at them and carry on, it "might" have been worth it...
Of priorities and wrong horses
The years went by without any shares, but with lots of fast food and partying, but at least things have changed. At some point, I started to think about the future and wealth accumulation, first taking an interest in interest rates, and then the logical next step was dividends and shares. Unfortunately, it started rather haphazardly. As a student, I started investing small amounts, and of course betting on the wrong horses. Speculative lithium shares were particularly bad in this phase, unfortunately these were large sums even by my standards, from my grandfather's estate. That was bad. However, crypto was a very good horse, more precisely $BTC (+1,17%) and $ETH (+0,84%) which (as a computer scientist) I became interested in early on and exited several times with high profits, also thanks to domestic mining. It's just stupid that back then, in the last decade, I would never have imagined how cryptos would develop. If I had, I would have simply left it all, or at least part of it. You learn and you're always smarter afterwards anyway.
Fully invested - excessive, unhealthy, or simply good housekeeping?
So now I'm 32 - and proud of a portfolio that I think I've built up to a good size in a relatively short time. Which has given me other ideas for some time now. I'm still a long way from reaching my goal, but I have to get back on the "invest 100%" path, which has been completely contrary to my past for a long time now, and strangely enough, I'm finding it difficult to do so - something to reflect on. There are too many (supposed?) opportunities every day. So I simply could not $UNH (+3,35%) after a long period of observation yesterday and of course the savings plans had to run today too. I think I've always been good at budgeting, or let's put it this way, at least good at getting by with the money available to me in a perfectly timed way, but "indulging", not just in company shares, may become a little more prominent again. I don't go without noticeably in everyday life, I need very little, which I don't think is a bad quality to begin with. But I have changed a lot in the area of "consumption" compared to the past. I think it would be good to find a healthy balance. In my opinion, just as you don't just live to work, but work to live, the same applies to saving/investing. I actually read a post here on gq today that described exactly that and I could relate to it very well. So, reflection and taking your foot off the gas is allowed - no, it's a must! I am familiar with frugalists, but I never wanted to be one. I'd be interested to know if anyone else here feels the same way, or did?
Wrong decisions, mistakes... and (hopefully) the right conclusions
Back to the topic! (Not only) on the way to today's portfolio I have made many wrong decisions, as already mentioned, so I thought that a well-kept portfolio roast could do me some good. Other, new opinions and assessments can't be bad!
In particular, in the past I have often missed the opportunity to simply let profits run their course and instead dragged losses around with me for too long (which brings us back to lithium). A thought that I recently had again when I was thinking about when it would make sense to $HIMS (+8,82%) possibly realize, as an example. $PLTR (+7,48%) and $NVDA (+3,19%) are two examples that, like so many others, I naturally had on my radar, but they always seemed too expensive, the setback never came and I really missed the big rallies as a result. At the same time, I also get caught out by FOMO from time to time. So in both good and bad phases, I try not to just see red or green, fear or hope, but simply to evaluate what actually makes sense "from now on". Sometimes you realize a loss in order to try your luck elsewhere, sometimes you should let profits run, sometimes take them, sometimes endure the dip, sometimes be courageous and sometimes defensive. Easier said than done. I find it very nice and helpful to exchange ideas on this platform and how open and "yet" respectful it generally is. Of course, I will most likely never reach some portfolio sizes, but you can always learn something about how some people manage their portfolios, regardless of the absolute figures. You will always make mistakes, but at least you should deal with them correctly and draw the best possible conclusions.
Portfolio restructuring, planned investments / savings plans
And today? After some evaluation, research, regrouping and restructuring, I now have fewer, but still quite a few positions in different sectors, most of which are already of a decent and roughly balanced size. My medium-term plan is now to build up all positions to a certain target size. This is why I am currently running savings plans:
ETF/ETC:
Partly with small weekly amounts, until enough cash is available to fill the target position evenly. With $AVGO (-0,94%) for example, there is not much left. Also $BRK.B (+1,58%) / $APH (+1,52%) and others are already approaching the target. In some cases with somewhat larger sums for still small but prioritized positions, until opportunities and/or resources for individual purchases arise, such as the $ALV (+0,57%) and $RSG (+0,38%) should be mentioned here, as well as $DGE (+0,43%) as a turnaround candidate.
Once the aforementioned positions are full, I would like to turn my attention to the more defensive candidates that are already in the portfolio but which I am currently prioritizing - $MCD (+0,06%) / $KO (+1,05%) / $CCEP (+1,93%) / $ULVR (+0,55%) and others - and finally increase the ETF and gold share in the long term.
$VKTX (+3,61%) is a bit of a gamble, as I have actually said goodbye to pharma - $ABBV (+1,58%) / $NOVO B (+3,18%) / $LLY (+1,37%) and $MRK (+2,06%) were still part of the inventory until recently. Instead, I decided to go with $DXCM (+1,37%) / $ISRG (+0,24%) / $DHR (+2,51%) on medical technology.
$BTC (+1,17%) remains a fixed value in the portfolio, while I $ETH (+0,84%) (incorrectly entered due to staking - around 0.4 shares or €1000) and $XRP (+0,12%) would/will sell at corresponding prices.
I still lack around €15,000 in individual stocks at current prices to bring all positions to the current desired/dream target. This will take some time, but is foreseeable. And then I would be really quite proud and happy "as things stand now"! In any case, I now feel very comfortable on the path I have chosen and, as I said, I have to stop myself from forgetting that not all money has to be invested all the time.
Savings rate
To put this into figures, I have averaged a savings rate of around €1500 over the last 24 months, with an average of €100 a month in dividends. 1400€ investment, that's about 82% of my monthly budget after deducting all "unavoidable" fixed costs including fuel and household, but not including consumption such as clothes, going out or vacations. Exaggerated, I can't say otherwise myself. But at least I have a good reason to step on the gas and get the compound interest going.
So what is all this for?
In the long term, my girlfriend and I dream of owning a property somewhere on the Croatian Adriatic, her homeland, and where I was able to spend many wonderful weeks with my parents every year as a child. A beautiful region that I consider an important part of my life, with many great moments and memories that may become even more. I hope to get closer to this goal "quickly" with the depot. The language is already halfway there! :)
In the long term, this would probably involve a little reallocation into value dividend payers, which should help with repayment. However, I would also like to lay the foundations for later distributions today, without neglecting growth. There is probably no perfect mix for this, but you are welcome to rate mine.
So, unfortunately I was once again unable to be brief. Thank you for reading, whoever has made it this far, and for your comments! I'm very excited and wish you all a great weekend.
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