Focused Investing Perspectives #41

Amidst a snowy week, moments of beauty still appear.

It was a great month to be ice fishing.

Perspectives This Week

It was a great month to be ice fishing. Here is the S&P 500 (SPY) for the period:

If you had only just been ice fishing, and perhaps dropped your phone through the hole in the ice, you would have missed:

• The fear while Mr. Trump was the Monarch of Mar-a-Lago

• The optimism and terror as his inauguration as president gave way to trade wars and other turmoil.

• The eventual return of the index to within 1% of where it sat a month ago.

Did you really need to read or view all that worry porn (thanks to my member Robert for “worry porn”)? Did you seek explanatory stories when it made no sense to do so?

If so, cowboy mend your ways today. Another of my members, who has actually read President Trump’s book on deal making, pointed out that he has been following precisely the script laid out there. The first step is always to propose something completely ludicrous.

So if you find yourself upset of some new ridiculous proposal of his, just go back to your ice-fishing hut. And this time leave your phone behind, or drop it through the hole in the ice.

Focused Investing News

Forthcoming:

Energy has been the focus for me in January, but that will change with the advent of annual 10-Ks. The first available is Alexandria Real Estate (ARE).

This year I’m trying to better see the future possibilities by digging into the components of Net Operating Income growth for that firm. Not sure that will be published this next week, but when it is you will see more depth than you can find anywhere else.

Personal News:

We are getting a bit less lake-effect snow as Lake Michigan cools, and a bit more sun. Also more daylight; this is the really good part of winter.

But here comes the second real storm in a week, extending at the moment from Michigan to the Dakotas. Resting up today for snow clearing tomorrow.

Member News

Material over the past month has included the following.

Items that went to all members:

• Three of these perspectives articles.

• A review of how my 2024 Go-Fishing Portfolio performed.

• A brief rant on how foolish it is to base investments on stock charts.

• A brief note considering actual upside for real estate investments.

• An article discussing REIT pricing.

Items that went to paid members, often including a free preview of much of the article:

• My January Monthly Update

• My full 2025 Go-Fishing Portfolio article.

• My analysis of Plains All American.

• My analysis of Chord Energy. Check out the comments for a worthwhile discussion of valuing commodity companies.

• My analysis of Permian Resources.

• Two Trade Alerts.

• Paid members have access to the Focused Investing chat.

The Google Sheets (for annual members):

• The main attraction on the Google sheet is full disclosure of my live, real-time portfolio. If you are an annual paid member and do not have access, please contact me.

• There are in addition a REIT assessment sheet and a Midstreams assessment sheet, each a tab. And if you scroll down on the portfolio tab, you can see some tickers I track and some playing with possible portfolios.

Also:

• Paid members can also post items of interest on the Focused Investing chat, which I do often. Check it out and post your own items, please. Comments and questions are always welcome.

• There is a search function on the Focused Investing home page, to help look for past articles.

• It can be challenging to search the chat (for paid members only) on mobile devices. To do so, you have to get into the chat so my picture is on the top left, and then punch my nose with your finger. You will see a display with a search emoji.

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