I Am Back To Prospecting

Admittedly I had not done much prospecting recently. Yes, I have had added some new counters such as the Russell 2000 Covered Call ETF and Alphabet, but the former is an ETF and the latter was one that I had followed and monitored since the mid 2010s. Yes, the prospecting I was talking about is on looking for companies from the ground up; and embarrassingly the last counter which I had done serious prospecting was YHI International (which I wrote here, back in 2018).

So, from then till now what have I been adding into our portfolio? Basically just looking at (and buying into) our current counters and went the ETF way, as I had written here. Any reasons for the lack of prospecting? Well, there are few, with the major ones being commitments to work, family and personal matters. On top of these, even when there is an ounce of free time, I would be monitoring the current holdings and their developments, penning down my thoughts in this blog, reading up on articles and books (investment, economics and other stuff), etc. Basically (and truthfully), prospecting had taken a back seat these few years.

 

While enduring a high fever and shivering under the blankets a week or so ago, an epiphany struck (and if you had noticed my investment journey started with an awakening as well, which I had described my experience here) and my 39.x degree Celsius heat-induced brain pointed me the direction of relooking at annual reports and such, among other non-investment related thoughts (I kid you not). So now I am trawling through screeners and annual reports again of totally new companies, and funnily I swear that I had probably gone through some companies which I had reviewed years ago. Maybe these companies that I had encountered before were still within my current selection criteria.

 

With this, you may be expecting another “Inside The Bedokian’s Portfolio” article soon, but it is not uncommon for me to declare a “no buy” after an extensive prospecting exercise, and will just average up/down my holdings again, though I will keep some counters and companies in my watch list. If I had made a decision, I will definitely write about it, but will be after I had invested in the company.