mercredi 30 août 2023

Tatoos

I've always hated tatoos. They are usually disgusting and they represent the fall of our western civilization. It's a tragedy to me to see so many people with tatoos everywhere I go. How could all these people think that tatoos make them more attractive? Just like how would a fucking ketchup stain on your clothes would make them more beautiful?  

What's more disgusting than someone with tatoos on their hands or on their face? Even small tatoos on the arms or the legs are ugly. It has absolutely no purpose. 

But we've been so exposed to tatoos that we're desensitized. Just like a lot of other things in life: a long exposition to something, as immoral or ugly as it is becomes normality.

It's like all these nonsense stocks with PE ratio over 100. It seems that every decade has it's nonsense stocks that are the new normal. It's been Microsoft or Cisco in the late 1990's. Then, it's been Marijuana stocks about 6-7 years ago. Then, it's been some tech stocks again in the last couple of years (Shopify, The Trade Desk, Sea limited...). 

When something looks strange or ugly, even if we're exposed a lot to it, it still remains strange and ugly. Sadly, our human condition makes us very weak and easy to influence. 

So, I bet that the next "new normal stocks" will convince a lot of us (maybe me included) that their valuation shouldn't be compared to all the other stocks on the stock market. 

samedi 12 août 2023

9 years of Don't fuck with Donville

Last june, this blog was 9 years old. But before that, I was also a blogger who wrote in french. I wrote about my life and it was sometimes a real circus because I knew how to shock people (other bloggers) and create a kind of myth around who I was. 

I started blogging in 2005, when i was 26 years old. About two or three years later, it was the golden age of blogs in Quebec. There was hundreds of bloggers. Most of them were boring because they were writing very dull stuff about their life, probably thinking that they deserved some attention. Actually, they probably needed attention more than thinking that they deserved it. 

I became a well-known blogger because I wrote a lot about other bloggers, telling how boring they were or exposing without a lot of diplomacy their superficiality. 

I've eventually had some problems with my blog, saying bad things about my job and my boss. Nothing criminal or heavy, but not very nice things. So I changed my blog and started another one. Eventually, most bloggers faded away and maybe around 2013 or 2014, most of them were gone. 

That's probably why I started this blog in 2014: I felt I had said what I had to say about my life and there was no community anymore to get attention from. 

Then, I said to myself, why not writing in english about a topic that excites me and  that could me  reach a new audience. Also, with finance, I wouldn't be tempted to trash talk about some friends, girlfriend, job, etc... In hindsight, I'm totally able to trash talk about anybody on this financial blog but the topic helps me to stay focussed. 

So, I'm a blogger since 18 years. That's a lot. 

jeudi 10 août 2023

A new strategy

It's been 4 months since my last post and it looks like I could never write again on this blog. I don't think this is my last post but I wonder if inspiration will come back one day...?

I've travelled a lot since may (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Japan) and I can't wait to retire and travel as fucking often as I want to. I don't know if I'll be able to do that one day but that's my goal. 

I've decided that, if I wanted to travel as much as I do in the future, I had to reach wealth without too much worries. The best strategy after knowing how to select great stocks is probably to stay away from controversy. 

A new criteria for me is to pick stocks that aren't in the limelight. I don't mean "under the radar" stocks but at least, stocks that are not too exposed in the media. Exposition creates excitation or fear and these two create doubt and I don't like that. Some would say that it also creates occasion and I agree but I prefer a quiet stock than an hype stock. For example, I prefer stocks like Metro or Parker Hannifin. Who gives a shit about these stocks? They're quiet and they do their little thing without bothering governments or people. They probably do obscure stuff once in a while but they don't operate in wild swings sectors.  

You don't get a big boner with these stocks, but you get an easy 10% annual with these and you're not constantly asking yourself if they lost their moat, appeal or credibility. I'd rather go with that and keep my worries for my health and my kids health.