That was an ugly quarter. The portfolio companies’ results were somewhat negative, but at the end of August, the quarter was still in positive territory. Then the whip started to crack harder on the share prices of the companies I own (Citykani, Anora, KH Group, Fondia).
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YTD: +19,15%
Official economic term: quite OK without being amazing
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For me, investing is a game and fun entertainment, but it’s not so fun entertainment when you’re about sixteen percentage points behind the benchmark YTD (of course, much more otherwise), though I don’t actively think about it that much. 
The portfolio composition hasn’t changed much from last year, so nothing special there. 
A bit like at the gym, playing full out with my own choices, even if it might not make sense… at the gym, training myself for maximum strength, and in investing, stubbornly trying stock picking. It’s meaningful for me to go all in with my own choices, even if the losses aren’t that meaningful, but on the other hand, if I took it easier and gave more weight to funds, my mind wouldn’t like it (I’ve tried it), even if it would show more positively in percentages.
I have read that in the very long term, the return for a small investor is about 2 percent per year. That average is probably lowered by small investors like me, but I could aim for that international capitalist figure (or perhaps the more “people’s capitalist” figure is negative or zero, i.e., the kind of figures that people like me pick up), so that in the longer term I could reach that return percentage (2%).
Now, for my entire investment history, I’m slightly in the red.
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September flew by. The portfolio size didn’t significantly move in any direction.
September 2025: -0.07 %
Year to date: +7.48 %
12 months: +1.17 %
2 years: +25.12 %
Hopefully, there will be some growth by the end of the year. An acquisition offer has been made for Bavarian Nordic, which I’m still pondering. I’ve been thinking that it might be better to sell the shares rather than accept the offer, because accepting the offer could delay receiving the money. The offer has already been extended by two weeks, which suggests that shareholders are generally not entirely satisfied with the offer price. I will monitor the situation until October 14th.
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It’s almost 4 months since the last review, which is an eternity for modern humans! Let’s put the numbers up again. Just a very brief quarterly review, and I don’t feel like opening up the portfolio’s contents except for a couple of comments!
In the short term, the market has given me a bit of a hard time. The year has been challenging for the Finnish small-cap companies in my portfolio, which is reflected in the returns. Fortunately, a few foreign companies have compensated, supporting the overall return (diversification is a free lunch, etc.). Good returns have come from, for example, NU, Meli, Norbit, and the brightest star, Berner, which has been fantastic in terms of share price development. The goal is to catch up with and surpass the index, fortunately, the difference isn’t huge.
On the other hand, throughout my entire investment career, I have managed to outperform the benchmark. The difference over these approximately seven years has been about 100 percentage points, which I naturally must be pleased with. Still, there’s a surprising amount of bitterness, especially from this year. The reason is simple: I’ve made a few very good stock picks whose theses have ultimately materialized: Celsius, PPSI, Grab, and Serviceware. The problem? I sold all of them at a loss this year, and now, after the theses have materialized, the share prices are completely different. I could write about these sometime and put graphs in the investment mistakes thread. Of course, this also gives comfort that the stock-picking process works, but the selling process is absolutely terrible 
. I haven’t really made many huge misses in purchases!
Overall, the portfolio has generated a CAGR of 13.24%, which I am naturally pleased with. My own target is 15%, but beating the index is always a win.
Portfolio top 5 currently:
Berner Industrier with a 12% share
Qt Group with a 10% share
Norbit with an 8.5% share
Novo Nordisk with a 7% share
Rusta with a 7% share.
It’s interesting that the next five holdings are also over 6% holdings, so the portfolio is quite evenly concentrated.
Finally, a shoutout to @Heikki_Keskivali, from whose X thread I picked Cenergy Holdings and Sanlorenzo this year (I’ve also opened threads for both, though I’ve been a bit lazy updating them). Both are in the portfolio with about a 5% weighting, and I’m quite excited about both companies. 
Since we can’t get you active on the forum, Heikki (yeah, yeah, day job..), I hope you continue to present the results of those good stock screenings. You are the clear number one in the Finnish scene 
. I’m a terrible screener, so thanks for the help.
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When I was in elementary school, I remember the principal saying that I would do well in math in the future when calculators arrived. Well, the guy probably couldn’t even imagine AI. So I asked it.
I’ve always wondered how I can calculate the return on trading when I do a lot of trading. But the AI calculated this for me, and the return from trading is 12.4% of the capital for this year (i.e., profit, loss, dividend), and the total return according to OP is approximately 14.5%. These are YTD% figures. In summary, I can say that the stock side isn’t yielding anything, and thematic ETF funds are consistently yielding something, regularly.
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We’ve moved forward a bit again. I’ve started gradually realizing profits, so from now on, the pace is unlikely to accelerate much. In addition, the tax authorities will take their share of the profit, but it looks like the portfolio will retain over 700,000€ in net profit compared to the starting situation when the Nokias were sold.
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Impressive numbers:handshake:t3: Maybe I’ll also reach similar ones, but certainly not as quickly as you. What has been your investment strategy, and you’ve previously mentioned getting information for your investments from X. What exactly have you read there on X?
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In the game since 2020. Always in the red, at worst -30%. This year started at -14%.
It’s been a habit to make some idiotic multi-percentage blunder once a year in the short term.
But now it has climbed to +2% a moment ago. So this year, the annual return has almost reached the indices 
. I’ve promised my wife that we’ll drink Dom Pérignon if it stays in the black for about a month.
I think I’ve slowly started to learn what suits me – buying good companies that make winning products or services, preferably just a few. Then various ETFs / indices. Quite an easy job, my own child has always done it right. In addition to this, selling options works well for me as extra income.
Actually, as long as you just don’t buy “good, solvent, dividend-paying crap companies,” then all is well; rather, buy so-called “lottery tickets” than “proven bad companies cheaply.”
Someone wise once said that even a good company fluctuates by an average of 50% per year (bottoms vs. peaks). Within that range, if you manage to at least roughly add and trim positions while holding, then it will turn out well.
ETFs are also great because you don’t have to bother trimming positions as much. But adding to them if it feels right.
Real men seem to be making millions here by buying nicely trending stocks (drones, quantum machines, etc.), but for me, slightly more mundane products work better.
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And almost immediately after
So what then? 
I assume that by selling options (as a private individual) you mean some covered call strategy, but that is known to work until it doesn’t. Or if that’s not the case, then at best you are exposed to really big risks?
I’m interested to hear the background to these choices/views.
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Gladly. Covered, of course.
Basic options stuff, i.e.:
Let’s say I own 200x “Great Company”. The price of a Great Company share is now 70 €.
Put: I am willing to buy one hundred “Great Company” shares for 50 €. So I sell 1x put with a 50 € strike price, and I receive a premium for this. Of course, I must have the cash for the purchase in my account and be willing to buy that quantity at that price.
Call: I am willing to sell one hundred “Great Company” shares for 100 €. So I sell 1x call with a 100 € strike price, and I receive a premium for this. Of course, I must have these 100x Great Company shares in my account, or the risk is endless.
Selling options is the only thing that has always worked for me. The advantage for me is that when the “transaction price is met,” I don’t have to think about pulling the trigger; that decision has already been made in advance, and I receive premiums for waiting. See →
I do this practically with options.
I do NOT engage in BUYING options. And I do not recommend this if you estimate that the company will go bankrupt or multiply a hundredfold in a short time.
I edited the previous text to be clearer. The comment about real men and millions was more a reference to the way of choosing stocks by truly sniffing out shooting stars and future rockets – which I’m not very good at. Not to how trades are made.
Stock picking is a hobby that can cost you the equivalent of a nice car in a few years.
Life is a world of choices
(Americans are probably in a bubble in my opinion even after 30 years, and then I’ll buy cheap stocks & similar from Helsinki at that time)
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Exactly 9 months ago, the share savings account was at -6.1%, now at +22.47%. This is mostly explained by luck and the general rise of the Finnish stock market, but especially in the summer, I made some really good stock picks (Enersense, Tekova, Tecnotree). The timing of sales, however, has been poor, so I didn’t get the full potential out of these either.
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Now exactly 6 years of investing behind 
It would have been easier to achieve the same returns with US tech stocks, of course.
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The true mother of zero-posts. The value of my portfolios is again €250,000. After the July post, the downhill slide began during the summer heat. With the arrival of autumn, the climb upwards began, and now we have returned to July’s figures. So, development since July is 0%. Time spent on the forum must, of course, be deducted in accounting - expensive months
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The OST portfolio climbed to new hundreds last week.
The original intention was not to withdraw capital from the portfolio at this stage, but at the beginning of the year, I withdrew about 40k. The return since the previous post has therefore been about 40k better. (Deposits 50k, withdrawals just under 40k)
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My portfolio’s performance since the beginning of the year has been exceptionally strong.
To keep my feet on the ground, I recall the last similar occasion: a peak was followed by a crashing decline 
Will history soon repeat itself?
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Let it be noted here that today the combined return of portfolios (AOT + OST) exceeded fifteen thousand euros 
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