Model Portfolio Performance 1/18/2021, Member Compliments, & Understanding The Bigger Picture

Summary

• 2021 YTD Model Portfolio performance has been exceptional, with the Bet-The-Farm-Model Portfolio up 69.1% YTD in 2021 (a lucky start) and the Best Ideas Model Portfolio up 22.8% YTD.
• This follows a tremendous 2020 year of performance for Model Portfolios, with the Bet-The-Farm-Model-Portfolio up 161.1% and the Best Ideas Model Portfolio up 51.1% in 2020.
• Performance since the model portfolios inception has been very good too, including for the newest model Portfolio launched in August of 2020, Uncle Tony's Model Portfolio.
• The road has not always been an easy one, and a high pain tolerance was required to reap the rewards of the outperformance for many of our members.
• The lesson here is that the bigger picture needs to be understood, all the detailed portfolio models do not necessarily help if you cannot stay the course, and patience is required.

Founder of "The Contrarian", a premium research service, featuring a committed, collegial group that has uncovered a number of hidden gems, hidden in plain sight.  Immensely proud of what our members have accomplished.  Actively investing since 1995, I have soared like an eagle, and been unmercifully humbled by the markets. Achieved positive returns in 2008, and turned an account with $60,310 on 1/1/2009 into an account with $3,177,937 on 11/30/2009. My best years have been 1995-2003, 2008-2012, 2016, 2020, & 2021. My worst years were 2013-2015 & 2017-2019. I believe inflation is coming, and we are at an inflection point in the markets.

Twenty plus year career as an investment analyst, investor, portfolio manager, consultant, and writer. Founder of Koldus Contrarian Investments, Ltd, which was incorporated in the spring of 2009. Dyed in the wool contrarian investor, who has learned, the hard way, that a good contrarian is only contrarian 20% of the time, but being right at key inflection points is the key to meaningful wealth creation in the markets. I believe we are near a meaningful inflection point, perhaps the biggest one yet, for the third time in the past 15 years.

Historically, I have had huge wins and impressive losses based on a concentrated, contrarian strategy. Trying to keep the good while filtering out the bad.

Seeking to run an all weather portfolio with minimal volatility and index overlays to capture my strategic and tactical recommendations along with a concentrated best ideas portfolio, which is my bread and butter, but the volatility only makes it suitable for a small piece of an investor's overall portfolio. The following are a couple of my favorite investment quotes.

"Life and investing are long ballgames." Julian Robertson

"A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure."

Henry Kissinger

"Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein

I’ve been on top of the world, and the world has been on top of me. I have learned to enjoy the perspective from each view, and use opportunities to persistently acquire knowledge, and enjoy the company of those around me, especially loved ones, family, and friends.

At heart, I am a market historian with an unrivaled passion for the capital markets. I have had a long history and specialization with concentrated positions and options trading. Made money in 2008 with a net long portfolio, deploying capital in some of the market's darkest hours into long positions including purchases of American Express, Atlas Energy, Crosstex, First Industrial Real Estate, General Growth Properties, Genworth, Macquarie Infrastructure, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, and Vornado near their lows. Shorting, hedging, and option strategies also helped me in 2007 and 2009, and these are skills that I have developed ever since I started trading heavily in 1996.I enjoy reading, accumulating knowledge, and putting this knowledge to work in the active capital markets, learning lessons along the way.To this day, I continue to learn, and some of these learning lessons have been excruciatingly difficult ones, especially over the past several years, as I made mistakes allocating capital, including a sizable portion of my own capital (I always invest alongside my clients), to commodity related stocks. While all commodity related stocks have struggled since April of 2011, coal companies, which attracted me due to their extremely cheap valuations, and out-of-favor status (I am a strong believer in behavioral finance alongside fundamentals and technicals) have been the worst investing mistake of my career. The focus on the commodity arena has been the biggest mistake of my investment career thus far, yet in its aftermath, I see tremendous opportunity, even larger in scope than the fortuitous 2008/2009 environment.The capital that I accumulated and the confidence gained in navigating the treacherous investment waters of 2008 gave me the confidence to launch my own investment firm in the spring of 2009, right before the ultimate lows in the stock market. At the time I was working as a senior analyst at one of the largest RIA's in the country, and I felt strongly that the market environment was the best time since 1974/1975 to start an investment firm.

Prior to starting my firm, I was a senior analyst for three different firms over approximately 10 years (Charles Schwab, Redwood, Oxford), moving up in responsibility and scope at each stop along my journey. Since I was a paperboy, I have always had an interest in the investment markets. I love researching and finding opportunities. I was a Chartered Financial Analyst, CFA from 2006-2018. Additionally, I have been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, CAIA. After starting in the teaching program at Ball State University, I switched to a career in finance when I turned a small student loan into a substantial amount of capital. I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in finance from Ball State.


Full disclosure, I am not currently a registered investment advisor, though I did serve in this capacity from 2009-2014, while owning Koldus Contrarian Investments, Ltd. Additionally, I held various securities licenses from 2000-2014 without a single formal complaint filed. At the end of 2014, I voluntarily let my state registration expire, as I transitioned the business to a different structure after going through a brutal business environment, divestiture and difficult divorce and custody battle. Prior to this, I had passed, and held, various securities exams and licenses, including the Series 7, Series 63, and Series 65 exams, in addition to others, alongside the CFA and CAIA designations. Unfortunately, I did not file the proper paperwork to withdraw my state registration, and I did not disclose a personal arrangement, and subsequent civil case, between myself and a former close personal friend and client. This arrangement was initiated informally in 2011, after a substantial period of success, as we aimed to be business partners, and it ultimately resulted in a dispute. I was unaware that I was required to disclose these items, and my securities attorney, at the time, did not advise me to do so. Previously, I had managed a portfolio for this gentleman, and we had taken an investment of approximately $7 million in 2009, and grown it to over $25 million at the beginning of 2012. After a very difficult year of performance, an employee of the firm I owned, and friend, resigned in early 2013, and took the aforementioned client to a competing firm. As a result of not filing the proper paperwork, I agreed to a settlement, with a potential $2500 fine in the future, depending on if I choose to reapply to be a non-exempt advisor. Additionally, while going through the difficult divorce and business dispute and divestiture, I did not file the proper disclosure on two of the annual CFA renewals. As a result, the CFA Institute sought a 3-Year Suspension of my right to use the CFA designation, which I appealed, since the primary investigator in the case sought a 1-year suspension of my right to use the CFA designation for a majority of the investigation. A Hearing Panel heard the case, and went against the recommendation of the CFA's Institute's Professional Conduct Department. Long story short, be careful who you trust, especially when substantial money is involved, and always disclose everything properly, which is hard to do when you are going through difficult situations, as this is the last thing you are probably thinking of at the time. In closing, I have had more experience in the markets, business, and life than most, yet I am grateful & thankful for every day. Additionally, I have learned through success and failures that you have to move forward, and if you can do this, your life will form a rich tapestry of stories.