Portfolio Rebalance

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

Psalm 95:1-2

Giving praise and thanks to God is an indication of spiritual maturity and growth, especially if it is practiced daily out of humility and love. Unfortunately, I am not perfect, and my nature as a sinner is not to gravitate towards humility and love. While it is always easier to be thankful when times are perceived to be good, the irony is that it is far too easy to forget God during these times. It is never easy to praise God when tragedy or difficult circumstances are prevalent, however, during these times is when it is easiest to cry out to Him. I cannot escape God’s truth, and it is best to do my best to praise Him in either circumstance.

Humility and love as key traits to honor and praise God through thanksgiving are powerful as they create a very balanced approach towards all aspects of life. This focus has been instrumental in my management for my long-term stock investments and is fundamental to the current portfolio rebalance that has been ongoing since the first week of October this year.

Investor Cornerstone Portfolio Rebalance Overview

For those who don’t know, I’ve been managing my family’s investment portfolios since 2012. I’ve gone through a few rebalances with some being much more major than others. The biggest transitions occurred during 2018 to 2019 and 2022 to 2023; both being down performing years across broader markets. This current transition will continue from 2025 to 2026.

The 2018 to 2019 rebalance was a shift from sector diversification to a focus on aggressive growth. For 2022 to 2023, the rebalance was a shift from a larger number of holdings to an amount below 10. This 2025 to 2026 rebalance is focused on diversifying back up from the leanest portfolio I’ve ever managed (three holdings) back towards 10.

As an aggressive growth investor, my goal is to look to generate long-term annualized returns greater than 30%. This requires portfolio holding selection and management strategies to identify and acquire companies that will become major drivers of the U.S. and global economies over the coming decades.

A clear component of this is finding companies that can take market within trillion-dollar markets akin to major Big Tech winners like NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Apple, Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Alphabet, Inc. (GOOG), Amazon, Inc. (AMZN), Meta Platforms, Inc. (META), Tesla, Inc. (TSLA), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), among others.

The portfolio's aggressive growth strategy is two-fold. First, I target major innovators with a strong technology focus as mentioned. Second, I target special situation companies that do not immediately pop off the radar from an innovation and technology standpoint. A great example of a special situation company that fits within an aggressive growth portfolio is Kansas City Southern (KSU) before the merger with Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Upon the buyout/merger, KSU was the one of the top performing companies from an investment standpoint over a period of decades. Other past examples have included WhiteWave Foods and Sanderson Farms, among others.

Justification and Timing

The broader markets have been overvalued for much of 2025. This became increasingly egregious in the fall, and I have been expecting a pullback. The issue always is not knowing when momentum will swing. Nonetheless, I liquidated all three companies entirely the first week of October (Coinbase Global, Inc. – COIN, Rivian Automotive, Inc. – RIVN, and ZIM Integrated Shipping Services– ZIM).

During October the VIX jumped, but broader markets only retraced by around 2% before moving back to all-time highs. In November, broader markets have begun to weaken further with Bitcoin dropping 30% from its all-time high to $86,000, and many higher growth individual stocks similarly falling around 30% or so. I was expecting a pullback in the fall but I was a little premature with what has transpired. Where we are today, there is no indication as to the duration for how this pullback/correction/recession will play out.

Strategy and Status

The strategy is straightforward. Diversify from the prior three companies held (continuing to include those three in the portfolio) to maximize other aggressive growth opportunities. Originally, the portfolio owned COIN, Opendoor Technologies, Inc. (OPEN), Palantir Technologies, Inc. (PLTR), RIVN, and ZIM. OPEN was liquidated earlier in the year as the company’s risk profile was no longer acceptable, and PLTR was liquidated as well due to its extreme overvaluation. This left a very unbalanced risk profile with COIN and RIVN being approximately 92% of the portfolio’s value.

As markets have weakened substantially, the portfolio has taken a methodical approach to building positions in 8 core companies with capacity to go up to 10. These core companies include:

• Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL)

• Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN)

• CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV)

• Mission Produce, Inc. (AVO)

• Palantir Technologies, Inc. (PLTR)

• Rivian Automotive, Inc. (RIVN)

• Vital Farms, Inc. (VITL)

• ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM)

The key themes for future generational investment growth revolve around AI, digital assets, zero-emission vehicles, and other special situations. I am not interested in legacy business models and I view e-commerce and many forms of digital payments as such. Big Tech is not of interest either as I’m looking for the next future Big Tech companies to compliment and/or supplant today’s winners.

Of the overall cash position generated in early October, only 22% has been deployed across 7 of these 8 companies, PLTR being the only one yet to have a position re-entered due to its excessive valuation.

Next Steps

I will continue to methodically deploy capital into these 7 companies and wait for PLTR to drop towards the $100 level and lower. I will also continue to monitor possible additions to the portfolio through the portfolio screener that has 500 major companies of interest being monitored. The duration of the current pullback is uncertain and macroeconomic trends will be monitored to assess potential scenarios of economic performance and corresponding stock market volatility.