{ "site": { "name": "Codie Capital Research", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com", "purpose": "Personal investment journal and long-term public record by Codie Marillier.", "disclaimer": "This website is a personal investment research and portfolio journal. It is not investment advice. I am not FCA-authorised, I do not manage money for other people, and nothing on this site should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment. All trades, holdings, research notes, and opinions shown here relate to my own personal portfolio and my own decision-making process. Do not copy my trades. Always do your own research and seek professional advice where appropriate.", "latestPortfolioSnapshot": { "latestReview": "Trading 212 Portfolio Review", "currentAccountValue": "£2,009.30", "startingValue": "£1,999", "currentReturn": "+0.52%", "cashBalance": "£0.56", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-07" }, "portfolioValueHistory": [ { "week": 1, "label": "Week 1", "date": "8 March 2026", "value": 1999, "valueLabel": "Starting baseline: £1,999", "source": "Baseline", "note": "Week 1 was described as close to flat to slightly negative, so the chart uses the starting baseline." }, { "week": 3, "label": "Week 3", "date": "March 2026", "value": 1860.18, "valueLabel": "£1,860.18", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 4, "label": "Week 4", "date": "30 March 2026", "value": 1860, "valueLabel": "Around £1,860", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 5, "label": "Week 5", "date": "05 April 2026", "value": 1931, "valueLabel": "Around £1,931", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 6, "label": "Week 6", "date": "12 April 2026", "value": 1960, "valueLabel": "Around £1,960", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 7, "label": "Week 7", "date": "April 2026", "value": 2025.84, "valueLabel": "£2,025.84", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 8, "label": "Week 8", "date": "28 April 2026", "value": 2008.07, "valueLabel": "£2,008.07", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 9, "label": "Week 9", "date": "04 May 2026", "value": 2000, "valueLabel": "Around £2,000", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 10, "label": "Week 10", "date": "11 May 2026", "value": 1986.69, "valueLabel": "£1,986.69", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 11, "label": "Week 11", "date": "15 May 2026", "value": 1974.37, "valueLabel": "c. £1,974.37", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 12, "label": "Week 12", "date": "22 May 2026", "value": 1983.39, "valueLabel": "£1,983.39", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 13, "label": "Week 13", "date": "2 June 2026", "value": 2007, "valueLabel": "Around £2,007", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 14, "label": "Week 14", "date": "9 June 2026", "value": 1979.98, "valueLabel": "Around £1,979.98", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 15, "label": "Week 15", "date": "16 June 2026", "value": 2055.86, "valueLabel": "£2,055.86", "source": "Recorded", "note": "" }, { "week": 16, "label": "Week 16", "date": "23 June 2026", "value": 1981, "valueLabel": "Around £1,981", "source": "Approximate", "note": "" }, { "week": 18, "label": "Week 18", "date": "7 July 2026", "value": 2008, "valueLabel": "£2,008", "source": "Recorded", "note": "Week 17 was skipped because the review cycle moved to every two weeks." }, { "label": "August review", "date": "6 August 2026", "value": 2009.3, "valueLabel": "£2,009.30", "source": "Recorded", "note": "Monthly review covering 3 July to 3 August 2026, with the valuation updated on 6 August." } ] }, "pages": [ { "title": "Home", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/", "description": "The homepage is the mobile-first entry point for Codie Capital Research, explaining the site quickly and pointing first-time visitors to My First Letter, the latest portfolio update, current portfolio, and the main sections.", "pageType": "homepage", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-25", "contentText": "Codie Capital Research is a public record of my personal investing process. I document what I own, why I own it, what I am learning, and how my thinking changes as I build a long-term portfolio.\n\nThe site is a personal investment journal only. It is not financial advice, not a fund, and not a money-management service.\n\nThe homepage itself is now the start page for first-time readers, especially mobile visitors arriving from Instagram.\n\nThe recommended first reads are My First Letter, the latest portfolio update, and the Current Portfolio page.\n\nLetters includes My First Letter as a published long-form reflection.\n\nLatest source-of-truth review: Trading 212 Portfolio Review. Current account value £2,009.30, starting value £1,999, return +0.52%, cash £0.56.\n\nPortfolio value chart data: Week 1 (8 March 2026): Starting baseline: £1,999. Source: Baseline. Note: Week 1 was described as close to flat to slightly negative, so the chart uses the starting baseline. Week 3 (March 2026): £1,860.18. Source: Recorded. Week 4 (30 March 2026): Around £1,860. Source: Approximate. Week 5 (05 April 2026): Around £1,931. Source: Approximate. Week 6 (12 April 2026): Around £1,960. Source: Approximate. Week 7 (April 2026): £2,025.84. Source: Recorded. Week 8 (28 April 2026): £2,008.07. Source: Recorded. Week 9 (04 May 2026): Around £2,000. Source: Approximate. Week 10 (11 May 2026): £1,986.69. Source: Recorded. Week 11 (15 May 2026): c. £1,974.37. Source: Recorded. Week 12 (22 May 2026): £1,983.39. Source: Recorded. Week 13 (2 June 2026): Around £2,007. Source: Approximate. Week 14 (9 June 2026): Around £1,979.98. Source: Approximate. Week 15 (16 June 2026): £2,055.86. Source: Recorded. Week 16 (23 June 2026): Around £1,981. Source: Approximate. Week 18 (7 July 2026): £2,008. Source: Recorded. Note: Week 17 was skipped because the review cycle moved to every two weeks. August review (6 August 2026): £2,009.30. Source: Recorded. Note: Monthly review covering 3 July to 3 August 2026, with the valuation updated on 6 August.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/letters/my-first-letter", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-05", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "https://codiemarillier.com/letters", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/about" ] }, { "title": "Current Portfolio", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "description": "The portfolio page records Codie’s own current holdings, August 2026 review account value, starting value, cash, latest return, winners, drags, portfolio role notes, and latest action plan.", "pageType": "portfolio", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-07", "contentText": "Current account value: £2,009.30. Starting value: £1,999. Current return: +0.52%. Cash balance: £0.56. Latest review: Trading 212 Portfolio Review.\n\nOpen holdings: SGLN 5.72 shares (Portfolio hedge and macro protection); QQQA 5.57 shares (Broad technology-led US equity exposure); VUAG 2.04 shares (Broad US market exposure); RHM 0.087 shares (Defence demand and European security exposure); O 3.28 shares (Real estate income exposure); NEE 2.04 shares (Utility and renewables exposure); META 0.52 shares (Advertising, AI, and platform scale); SYM 3.268 shares (Robotics and warehouse automation); SPCX 1 share (Early exposure to space infrastructure, satellites, and Starlink); PSH 2 shares (Discount-to-NAV exposure to Pershing Square portfolio and Bill Ackman’s capital allocation); ABNB 1.223 shares (Asset-light travel platform exposure); BRK.B 0.3884 shares (Diversified operating businesses and capital discipline); GOOGL 0.28 shares (Search, cloud, AI, and platform scale); MSFT 0.14171835 shares (Quality software and AI infrastructure exposure).\n\nCurrent winners: Microsoft was worth £51.10 in the 6 August snapshot after a £41.40 purchase on 8 July. The portfolio moved £10.30 above its original £1,999 capital in the updated snapshot. Rheinmetall recovered from roughly 40% down to 25.10% down, while remaining under review. The index funds continued to support the account without requiring new trades.\n\nCurrent drags: Gold remained the largest position and the biggest drag at 17.46% of the account and 14.20% down. SpaceX was worth £81.65 and was 31.35% down in the latest authored snapshot. Cash remained very limited at £0.56. The portfolio continued to trail the reported returns of its VUAG and QQQA holdings.\n\nLatest action plan: Do not make impulsive trades during the next monthly review period. Hold Microsoft unless a genuinely better use for the capital appears. Watch Symbotic execution, Airbnb results, Rheinmetall delivery and cash conversion, and the NextEra-Dominion proposal. Rebalance gold towards 15–20% if it reaches around 30% of the account. Judge every holding on its forward-looking thesis rather than its old purchase price.\n\nPortfolio value history: Week 1 (8 March 2026): Starting baseline: £1,999. Source: Baseline. Note: Week 1 was described as close to flat to slightly negative, so the chart uses the starting baseline. Week 3 (March 2026): £1,860.18. Source: Recorded. Week 4 (30 March 2026): Around £1,860. Source: Approximate. Week 5 (05 April 2026): Around £1,931. Source: Approximate. Week 6 (12 April 2026): Around £1,960. Source: Approximate. Week 7 (April 2026): £2,025.84. Source: Recorded. Week 8 (28 April 2026): £2,008.07. Source: Recorded. Week 9 (04 May 2026): Around £2,000. Source: Approximate. Week 10 (11 May 2026): £1,986.69. Source: Recorded. Week 11 (15 May 2026): c. £1,974.37. Source: Recorded. Week 12 (22 May 2026): £1,983.39. Source: Recorded. Week 13 (2 June 2026): Around £2,007. Source: Approximate. Week 14 (9 June 2026): Around £1,979.98. Source: Approximate. Week 15 (16 June 2026): £2,055.86. Source: Recorded. Week 16 (23 June 2026): Around £1,981. Source: Approximate. Week 18 (7 July 2026): £2,008. Source: Recorded. Note: Week 17 was skipped because the review cycle moved to every two weeks. August review (6 August 2026): £2,009.30. Source: Recorded. Note: Monthly review covering 3 July to 3 August 2026, with the valuation updated on 6 August.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-05", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/portfolio.html" ] }, { "title": "Portfolio Journal", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "description": "The journal page lists portfolio review cards and journal entries with dates, account values where available, main trades, and lessons.", "pageType": "journal-index", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-07", "contentText": "The journal contains weekly and fortnightly portfolio reviews, trade reflections, market notes, and lessons from Codie’s own portfolio record.\n\nTrading 212 Portfolio Review (6 August 2026): The account ended the review period almost flat and moved just above starting capital in the 6 August snapshot. The fund comparison still shows that a simpler strategy has performed much better so far.\n\nCapital Research Review 04 (23 June 2026): The past four weeks have been the most active period of the portfolio so far. I traded Microsoft, re-entered Alphabet, sold ASML for a strong profit, added to gold, bought SpaceX, increased Symbotic and introduced Pershing Square Holdings.\n\nCapital Research Review 03 (22 May 2026): The past four weeks have not produced a dramatic return. The portfolio has remained close to its original starting value, finishing at £1,983.39 compared with a cost basis of approximately £1,999. On the surface, that means the account is down £15.61, or around 0.78%.\n\nCapital Research Review 02 (28 April 2026): The previous four weeks ended with the portfolio sitting around £1,860 and my decision to reduce some of the speculative exposure. These four weeks have been about finding out whether that decision actually improved the account.\n\nCapital Research Review 01 (30 March 2026): The past four weeks have been the beginning of this portfolio and, more importantly, the beginning of me properly documenting how I invest. When I started the account, I put in approximately £1,997. My aim was not to make a quick return or build a portfolio around whichever companies were receiving the most attention at the time. I wanted to create something balanced enough to grow over the long term while still giving me exposure to some of the industries and companies I believe could perform particularly well.\n\nWhy the Rulebook Exists (9 June 2026): The rulebook is not abstract. It comes from early crypto profits, leverage mistakes, borrowed money, and the decision to treat investing as a serious long-term craft.\n\nGoogle Re-entry Plan (5 May 2026): Why a great business can still require patience, and why sitting in cash can be the correct action while waiting for a better setup.\n\nMicrosoft Trade Reflection (29 April 2026): A profitable trade can still teach process lessons. The question is whether the decision was repeatable, not just whether it worked.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-05", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-04", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-03", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-02", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-01", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/why-the-rulebook-exists", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/google-re-entry-plan", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/microsoft-trade-reflection", "https://codiemarillier.com/letters", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "Letters", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/letters", "description": "The Letters page publishes My First Letter, a long-form reflection on discipline, patience, risk, and building a public investing record.", "pageType": "letters-index", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-24", "contentText": "Portfolio reviews are what happened. Letters are what I learned and how my thinking is changing.\n\nMy First Letter. Reflection. 24 June 2026. 14 min read. A first proper letter on why the weekly reviews are only part of the record, and why discipline, patience, risk, and process matter more than short-term account value. Main themes: first letter, process, discipline, patience, risk, public record. Status: Published. To the readers,\n\nThis is my first proper letter on the website, and in some ways it feels like the real beginning of what I am trying to build. The weekly summaries have been useful because they force me to record what happened, what I bought, what I sold, what moved, and what I learned. But a weekly review can sometimes become too focused on the account value. It can become too easy to say, “the portfolio went up,” or “the portfolio went down,” and then accidentally miss the more important point.\n\nThe more important point is what is happening underneath the numbers.\n\nWhat am I learning?\nAm I becoming more disciplined?\nAm I making decisions for the right reasons?\nAm I thinking like an owner, or am I just reacting to the colour of the screen?\nAm I building a process that can last for years, or am I just trying to look clever for a week?\n\nThat is why I wanted to start writing letters as well as weekly reviews. The weekly reviews are the record. The letters are the reflection. I want friends, family, and anyone else who reads this to get something useful from it. I want these letters to be honest, factual, interesting, and, where possible, a little bit humorous. At the same time, I want this to be serious. I am not writing this because I think I have everything figured out. I am writing it because I want a public record of the process. I do not want to be someone who says face to face, “I know what I am doing,” and then has nothing to show for it. I would rather build a record over time that people can actually look at. Not just words. Evidence.\n\nThat is really why this website exists.\n\nI want to be able to look back in a few years and see what I thought at different points in the market. I want to see what I believed, what I got right, what I got wrong, and how my thinking changed. More importantly, I want to be held accountable by my own words. It is much harder to pretend you had a plan if you wrote the plan down and then did something completely different. Before these last few months, I probably thought about investing too much like gambling. I did not fully understand the difference between trading the market and investing in the market. I thought that if you bought something and the price moved against you quickly, that was almost the same as being wrong. I now realise that is not necessarily true.\n\nIf I have a view that the economy, a company, an industry, or a theme is going to do well over time, then I need to give that idea a proper time frame. I need to put money behind the idea, size it sensibly, and then allow time to do its job. That is very different from trying to trade every short-term move. Over the long run, I think thoughtful investing has a much better chance of working than pretending I can guess every week’s price action.\n\nThe uncomfortable lesson is that even long-term investing is not calm every day. I thought the stock market would feel steadier than it does. It does not. Even with a small portfolio, prices move quickly. One week the account looks strong, the next week a winner gives back its gains, and suddenly the same portfolio feels completely different. The companies may not have changed. The price has.\n\nThat is one of the first proper lessons I have learned: price action can change much faster than your thesis.\n\nEarly on, when the portfolio first dropped below the starting value, I felt it physically. I did not like it at all. There was that feeling in my stomach that no investing book can properly prepare you for. The funny thing is, reading about volatility makes you feel very wise. Actually seeing your own account go down makes you feel like you should maybe take up pottery instead.But I did not panic. I turned off the screen, stopped checking it for a bit, and reminded myself that I was here for the long term. The account carried on moving around, but eventually it came back towards breakeven and then above it. That mattered emotionally, but it also taught me something. If I had panicked at the first drawdown, I would not have learned anything useful. I would have just reacted.\n\nWeeks three and four were probably the toughest emotionally because the account was under pressure and the wider market felt nervous. Strangely, though, I find it easier to say “I am here for the long term” when the portfolio is going down than when it is going up. When it is down, I can almost convince myself I am being noble and disciplined, like some calm value investor sitting through a storm. When it is up, that is when the harder test starts, because suddenly I have to decide whether to let a winner run, take profit, or stop myself from becoming overconfident after one good move. In that sense, the difficult part is not only surviving red days. It is staying sensible on green ones too.\n\nWhat helped me was remembering that the aim is not to win every day. The aim is to protect capital, make sensible decisions, and keep learning.\n\nThat phrase — protect capital — means much more to me now than it did at the start. At first, I thought it mainly meant “do not lose money.” Now I think it means something deeper. It means do not make careless decisions. Do not let excitement control position sizing. Do not force trades just because cash is available. Do not turn a long-term thesis into a short-term panic. Do not confuse a good story with a good investment. My focus is still to make money. I am not going to pretend otherwise. I am passionate about making money and building wealth. But I want to do it properly. I do not want to make money by accident and then mistake that for skill. I would rather make slower progress with a process I can repeat than get lucky once and start believing I am Warren Buffett with a Trading 212 login.\n\nOne of the biggest changes in my thinking has been the difference between a good result and a good decision.\n\nA good result feels nice. A good decision matters more.\n\nA profitable trade can still be bad process if the reasoning was weak. A losing trade can still be good process if the decision was sensible, the risk was understood, and the position was sized correctly. I still do not like losing money - I do not think anyone wakes up excited to be down — but I am starting to understand that the goal is not to avoid every red position. The goal is to avoid avoidable mistakes.\n\nThere is a difference.\n\nASML gave me one of my biggest confidence boosts. It was a strong company, connected to one of the most important long-term themes in the market: semiconductor infrastructure and AI. I sold it for a strong realised profit, and I still think that was a disciplined decision. I protected capital, locked in a gain, and created flexibility. At the same time, ASML also taught me that handling winners is not simple. Sometimes selling is sensible. Sometimes trimming may be better. Sometimes the right company deserves more time. I am happy taking profit when a position is up strongly, because I would rather protect a gain than watch it collapse back towards breakeven. But I also need to keep learning when a winner should be allowed to keep working.\n\nGoogle was probably the decision I am most proud of so far. I sold it well, then waited for the price to come back towards the level I had already planned. I did not chase. I did not buy just because I felt left behind. I waited. When it came back towards my level, I acted.That may sound simple, but it is not. Patience is easy in theory and annoying in practice. Holding cash while other stocks move is uncomfortable. It feels like standing on the side of a football pitch watching everyone else play. But cash is not useless if it has a purpose. Cash gives optionality. It gives you the ability to act when prices come to you instead of chasing them when you are emotional.\n\nFor me, a sensible cash position is not a failure. It is one of the best hedges a portfolio can have. I currently think a cash level somewhere around 2.5% to 7.5% can make sense, depending on the market and the opportunities available. Too much cash can become opportunity cost, but too little cash can leave you unable to act. Week 16 reminded me of that clearly. After adding Pershing Square Holdings, the cash balance became lower than I would like, and rebuilding flexibility is now something I need to focus on again.\n\nSpaceX has been another important lesson. I bought it because I believe in the company long term, not just because I thought it would immediately go up. At first, it worked extremely well and became the biggest winner in the portfolio. Then it pulled back sharply. That is exactly the kind of thing that reminds you not to confuse one good week with genius. It would have been nice to take some profit when it was up strongly. I am not going to pretend otherwise. Everyone loves saying “I am long term” after a stock doubles, but nobody complains when they accidentally sell the top. Still, I do not see the SpaceX pullback as a major mistake. I bought it because I wanted early exposure to what I think could be one of the most important companies in the world over the next decade and beyond. If that is the thesis, then I should not judge the whole decision from one week of price action.\n\nThat said, SpaceX also taught me that excitement needs rules. A company can be incredible and still be volatile. A company can change the world and still be overpriced in the short term. Being excited about a business does not give me permission to ignore position sizing.\n\nGold has taught me something different. Originally, I was not as keen on holding gold. I preferred the idea of keeping more cash, because cash gives immediate optionality. But I eventually accepted that gold could play a role as a hedge. Since then, gold has gone down, and I underestimated how quickly that could happen. The strange thing is that I am not really frustrated by gold being down. In fact, part of me is happy when it falls, because I still have long-term conviction in the role it can play and it gives me a chance to lower my average cost over time. Gold is not there to be exciting. Gold is not there to make me feel clever every Tuesday afternoon. Gold is there to help protect the portfolio if the world becomes more unstable, if currencies weaken, if inflation remains a problem, or if investors move away from risk assets.\n\nI have learned not to expect a hedge to work perfectly every week. That was a big lesson. A hedge is not a magic umbrella that opens every time it rains. Sometimes it just sits there looking useless while you get wet. But if the long-term role still makes sense, then the short-term frustration does not automatically mean the thesis is broken.\n\nRheinmetall has probably tested my patience the most. It is down meaningfully, and at one point I considered whether I should cut part of the position if the loss got too large. I have now moved away from forcing that kind of rule. I do not want to sell a position just because the red number looks uncomfortable. If the business thesis breaks, that is different. If the company’s business model changes, if revenue deteriorates for a sustained period while competitors are doing well, or if the reason I bought it no longer makes sense, then I should reassess properly.\n\nBut I do not want to sell just to make myself feel better. That is not investing. That is emotional housekeeping.\n\nSymbotic is another position that has made me think hard. I still believe in the robotics and automation thesis, and in some ways, I believe in Symbotic more than almost anything else in the portfolio. The company is trying to solve a real problem in warehouse automation, and the fact that it has major customer relationships gives me confidence that the technology is not just theoretical. But Symbotic is volatile. Averaging down only makes sense if it is deliberate. For me, averaging down feels rational when I am taking profits from winners and reallocating into a position where I still believe the thesis is intact. It would feel more emotional if I was simply depositing more money because I did not like seeing a loss. The line between conviction and stubbornness can be thin, and I need to keep watching that carefully.\n\nThat is probably one of my weaknesses as an investor: I like risk. I am drawn to big ideas, strong companies, and the possibility of large outcomes. I am naturally optimistic about the future. I can imagine what companies might become if everything goes right. That helps me see opportunity, but it can also become dangerous if it is not balanced by realism.\n\nThankfully, I do think I am also a realist. I can get excited, but I can also bring myself back down to earth. That balance is something I need to keep improving.\n\nAnother weakness I have noticed is that I can be too easily persuaded by people who sound like they know what they are talking about. If someone speaks confidently, it can make me question my own view too quickly. That is not a good habit. I should listen to smart people, but I should not outsource my thinking to them. My ideas are my ideas. Other people can challenge them, but they cannot be responsible for them.\n\nThat might be the biggest personal lesson so far: no one can prove the future for me.\n\nNo one in the world knows exactly what is going to happen. Not analysts, not commentators, not friends, not people on YouTube with dramatic thumbnails, and definitely not me. The best I can do is build a thesis, understand the risks, size the position properly, and then review the evidence as time passes.\n\nI do not need to run around looking for people to confirm that my ideas are true. That is just insecurity dressed up as research. Real research should challenge me, not comfort me.\n\nReading has played a big part in this. The Intelligent Investor helped me understand discipline, value, and the danger of being pulled around by market emotion. The Most Important Thing made me think more seriously about risk, cycles, and contrarian thinking. The Dhandho Investor made me think about simple opportunities where the downside is controlled and the upside can still be meaningful. The Art of Spending Money and The Tipping Point affected me in a different way — they made me think more about behaviour, habits, compounding, and how small decisions can quietly become very large outcomes.\n\nThe Tipping Point probably changed my behaviour the most. It made me think about how small things compound until suddenly they matter. That applies to markets, but it also applies to discipline. One weekly review does not make me a good investor. One written trade reason does not make me disciplined. One patient decision does not prove anything. But repeated over time, these small habits can become a real process.\n\nThat is what I am trying to build.\n\nI want this portfolio to become a detailed track record for myself. I want this website to become more than a journal of trades. Over time, I want it to represent how I think as an individual — not just about investing, but about business, risk, capital, ownership, and the different ventures I pursue. I want it to become a broader reputational asset, but only if it is built honestly.\n\nIf future business partners, investors, family, or friends read this website, I want them to see that I did what I said I was going to do. I want them to see that I have been actively building a process since I said I would. I want them to see ambition, but also discipline. I want them to see that I am passionate about making money, but not careless with it. I want them to see someone who is willing to think deeply, write honestly, and improve. I want to become a world-class investor. One of the best ever. That is a very big thing to say, and I know it sounds ambitious. Good. It should. I would rather say what I want clearly than pretend to be less ambitious because it feels safer.\n\nBut wanting to become world-class does not mean acting like I already am. It means building the habits that could, over a long enough period, move me in that direction. It means studying companies properly. It means understanding capital markets. It means learning accounting, valuation, business models, incentives, cycles, and human behaviour. It means admitting when I do not know something. It means not confusing confidence with competence.\n\nMost importantly, it means being patient.\n\nPatience is probably the biggest lesson so far. Not passive patience. Not sitting there doing nothing because I am scared. I mean active patience: having a plan, knowing the level I want, waiting for it, and not being persuaded away from my own thinking every time the market moves.\n\nDiscipline means having a plan and sticking to it even when I do not feel like it.\nPatience means giving an idea enough time to play out.\nRisk means understanding what happens if the idea in my head does not happen in real life.\n\nThose three things - discipline, patience, and risk - are what I want to keep building around.\n\nI am only a few months into this journey. There is a very long way to go. The portfolio has already been above the starting point, below it, back above it, and back below it again. That alone is a useful reminder. Short-term price action is not the whole story. I am not worried about every move up or down. I am much more concerned with whether I am becoming a better decision-maker.\n\nIf the portfolio beats inflation over a year while I improve my process, learn more about markets, and avoid major mistakes, I would consider that a successful investing year. Of course I want higher returns. But returns without process can disappear quickly. Process, if it is good, can compound.\n\nThis first letter is the start of a longer public record. I hope future letters can show that I did the things I said I would do. I hope they show better thinking, better discipline, better analysis, and better judgement. I also hope they are honest enough to admit when I am wrong.\n\nBecause I will be wrong. Everyone is. The goal is not to be right every time. The goal is to be thoughtful enough, disciplined enough, and honest enough that being wrong does not destroy the process.\n\nFor the next stage, my promise to myself is simple: keep protecting capital, keep writing down my reasoning, keep learning, keep holding myself accountable, and do not let short-term emotion interrupt a long-term plan.\n\nThis is not financial advice. It is a record of my own thinking, my own portfolio, and my own attempt to become a better investor.\n\nThe money matters. But the process matters more.\n\nAnd if I can get both right over time, that is where things could become very interesting.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/letters/my-first-letter" ] }, { "title": "Books I Have Read", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "description": "The books page is a bookshelf index of books Codie has read, with each book linking to its own full reflection page.", "pageType": "books", "lastUpdated": "2026-08-11", "contentText": "The books page lists books that have shaped how Codie thinks about investing, money, discipline, purpose, risk, and long-term decision-making.\n\nThe Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai. Value Investing / Business / Low-Risk Opportunity. Takeaway: Look for simple, understandable opportunities where the downside is limited and the upside is meaningful.. Full reflection: /books/the-dhandho-investor\n\nThe Most Important Thing by Howard Marks. Risk / Contrarian Thinking / Market Psychology. Takeaway: Do not just follow the crowd. Think independently, understand risk, and be patient when markets become emotional.. Full reflection: /books/the-most-important-thing\n\nThe Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Value Investing / Discipline / Intrinsic Value. Takeaway: Investing should be based on discipline, intrinsic value, patience, and protecting capital.. Full reflection: /books/the-intelligent-investor\n\nThe Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Purpose / Ambition / Personal Journey. Takeaway: The journey, the lessons, and the person you become are just as important as the final result.. Full reflection: /books/the-alchemist\n\nThe Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel. Money / Lifestyle / Financial Discipline. Takeaway: Do not increase your lifestyle just because your income rises. Spend intentionally and use money to build long-term freedom.. Full reflection: /books/the-art-of-spending-money\n\nMan’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Purpose / Resilience / Perspective. Takeaway: Human beings are incredibly resilient, and having meaning can help you endure almost anything.. Full reflection: /books/mans-search-for-meaning\n\nThe Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Trends / Compounding / Behaviour. Takeaway: Small actions, habits, ideas, and trends can compound quietly before reaching a point where they suddenly accelerate.. Full reflection: /books/the-tipping-point\n\nMaterial World by Ed Conway. Commodities / Supply Chains / Civilisation / Investing. Takeaway: The modern world is built on physical materials, and understanding them helps me understand the real foundations of businesses, technology, and future investment opportunities.. Full reflection: /books/material-world\n\nAtomic Habits by James Clear. Habits / Discipline / Personal Development. Takeaway: Small decisions do not feel important at the time, but when you repeat them every day, they eventually have a massive effect on the person you become and the direction your life goes in.. Full reflection: /books/atomic-habits\n\nThe World for Sale by Javier Blas & Jack Farchy. Commodities / Geopolitics / Supply Chains / Investing. Takeaway: Look beyond the company itself: supply chains, natural resources, governments, geopolitics and access to essential commodities can shape what happens to businesses and economies.. Full reflection: /books/the-world-for-sale\n\nThe Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman. Artificial Intelligence / Technology / Government / Risk. Takeaway: One of the biggest challenges of the coming decades may be whether our governments and institutions can adapt quickly enough to manage increasingly powerful technology.. Full reflection: /books/the-coming-wave\n\nGood to Great by Jim Collins. Leadership / Management / Business / Investing. Takeaway: If you want something to succeed over the long term, getting the people right is one of the most important places to start.. Full reflection: /books/good-to-great\n\nThe Outsiders by William N. Thorndike Jr.. Capital Allocation / Leadership / Business / Investing. Takeaway: Treat every capital-allocation decision as an investment and put each pound where it can earn the best sensible return.. Full reflection: /books/the-outsiders\n\nPoor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger. Investing / Mental Models / Psychology / Decision-Making. Takeaway: My biggest takeaway from Poor Charlie’s Almanack was the importance of learning what not to do, as well as what to do.. Full reflection: /books/poor-charlies-almanack\n\nWhen Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Memoir / Mortality / Purpose / Family. Takeaway: The present is the only part of life we really have control over, so make proper use of it.. Full reflection: /books/when-breath-becomes-air", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/about", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-dhandho-investor", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-most-important-thing", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-intelligent-investor", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-alchemist", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-art-of-spending-money", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/mans-search-for-meaning", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-tipping-point", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/material-world", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/atomic-habits", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-world-for-sale", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-coming-wave", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/good-to-great", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-outsiders", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/poor-charlies-almanack", "https://codiemarillier.com/books/when-breath-becomes-air" ] }, { "title": "Investment Process", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "description": "The process page sets out the investing rulebook: protect capital, size positions properly, write reasoning, keep cash discipline, avoid leverage and impulsive trades, and review regularly.", "pageType": "process", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Protect capital first: Avoiding permanent loss matters more than chasing quick performance. The first job is to stay in the game, protect the account, and make sure every decision can be explained calmly after the fact.\n\nPosition sizing has to match risk: No individual position should move above 10% of the portfolio without a written reason. Higher-risk ideas can exist in the portfolio, but they need smaller sizing and stricter review.\n\nWritten reasoning before action: Every trade needs a reason before entry and a review after exit. If I cannot write down why I am buying, selling, trimming, or holding, I should not be doing it.\n\nCash discipline: Cash is not a failure to act. It gives flexibility when opportunities are not attractive and stops me from forcing trades just because money is available.\n\nAvoid leverage: No leverage. Leveraged crypto trading taught me how quickly pressure can turn into gambling. I do not want leverage, revenge trading, or emotional overexposure driving the portfolio.\n\nNo impulsive trades: Avoid hype, panic, and quick emotional decisions. If a trade is only exciting because the price is moving, that is not enough.\n\nRegular review process: Keep a short weekly or fortnightly summary covering account value, cash, what helped, what hurt, trades made, mistakes, and the plan for the next period.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/about" ] }, { "title": "About Codie Marillier", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/about", "description": "The about page explains Codie’s investing background, early interest in markets, first Bitcoin investment, family real estate influence, lessons from mistakes, and reading development.", "pageType": "about", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Codie Marillier is a private, long-term investor managing his own portfolio and documenting the process publicly.\n\nHis interest in investing began seriously around age fourteen, when he understood that ordinary people could buy small pieces of real businesses through the stock market.\n\nDuring the first COVID lockdown in 2020, he studied a stock trading course by Mohsin Hassan on Udemy and began learning fundamental analysis, technical analysis, market behaviour, risk, and trading psychology.\n\nHis first investment was Bitcoin in 2021 at roughly $21,000. A roughly $500 investment grew to around $1,500, which built confidence but also taught that early success does not mean risk is fully understood.\n\nHis family’s real estate background shaped how he thinks about ownership, assets, capital appreciation, rental income, and long-term wealth creation.\n\nLosing money through leveraged crypto trading taught him the danger of emotional behaviour, adding to losing trades, hoping for reversals, and letting risk turn into gambling.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal" ] }, { "title": "Disclaimer", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/disclaimer", "description": "The disclaimer page explains that the site is a personal investment research and portfolio journal, not investment advice, not FCA-authorised, and not a recommendation.", "pageType": "disclaimer", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "This website is a personal investment research and portfolio journal. It is not investment advice. I am not FCA-authorised. I do not manage money for other people. Nothing on this site should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment. All trades, holdings, research notes, and opinions shown here relate to my own personal portfolio and my own decision-making process. Do not copy my trades. Investments can go down as well as up. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The site may include mistakes, outdated information, or personal opinions. Always do your own research and seek professional advice where appropriate.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/" ] }, { "title": "AI-Readable Review Index", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/", "description": "The AI page is a complete plain HTML archive for ChatGPT, AI review tools, Google crawlers, and simple browser-fetch tools.", "pageType": "ai-index", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "The AI-readable review index contains site purpose, disclaimer, latest portfolio snapshot, links to all public pages, portfolio summaries, books, portfolio, process, sitemap-readable page, and JSON content archive.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-content.json", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/portfolio.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/pages.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/all-content.txt" ] }, { "title": "Trading 212 Portfolio Review", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-05", "description": "The account ended the review period almost flat and moved just above starting capital in the 6 August snapshot. The fund comparison still shows that a simpler strategy has performed much better so far.", "pageType": "portfolio-summary", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Trading 212 Portfolio Review. 6 August 2026. The account ended the review period almost flat and moved just above starting capital in the 6 August snapshot. The fund comparison still shows that a simpler strategy has performed much better so far.\n\nSnapshot\nUPDATED ACCOUNT VALUE\n£2,009.30\nCASH\n£0.56\nORIGINAL CAPITAL\n£1,999.00\nSINCE INCEPTION\n+£10.30 | +0.52%\nLARGEST POSITION\nGold | 17.46%\n\nMONTH IN ONE LINE I made one deliberate purchase, avoided impulsive trading and finished with a clearer set of rules for the portfolio.\n\nA quiet month, then back above starting capital\nWhen I first completed this review, the account was worth approximately £1,984 and was still just below my original £1,999 starting capital. The updated 6 August snapshot now puts it at £2,009.30: £10.30, or 0.52%, above where I began. I am pleased to be back above starting capital, but I am not treating a half-percent gain as a victory. The more important story is what happened underneath it: Microsoft rose sharply after I bought it, the index funds continued to support the account, Rheinmetall recovered from a much deeper loss, and gold remained the largest drag.\n\nThe account was unusually quiet from a trading point of view. My only purchase was £41.40 of Microsoft on 8 July. I received £0.56 from Realty Income and £0.03 of cash interest, with no sales, deposits or withdrawals. The month was shaped by one deliberate purchase and by leaving the rest of the portfolio alone. Five months in, I still believe a 10-15% first-year return is possible, but my minimum definition of success is clearer: protect the original capital and finish ahead of inflation.\n\nMicrosoft: good research, rewarded quickly\nThe best decision of the month was Microsoft. Among the largest technology companies, I believed it was undervalued and still had room to grow. More importantly, I had spent time looking at Azure and Microsoft's wider cloud business. I expected the latest results to be solid and saw Microsoft as a sensible place for the last of my available cash while retaining meaningful upside.\n\nThe results supported the business case. Microsoft reported quarterly revenue of USD 90.0 billion, Microsoft Cloud revenue of USD 59.3 billion, up 27%, and Azure and other cloud-services growth of 43%. The position, bought for roughly £41.40, is now worth £51.10, with Trading 212 showing a gain of £9.76 or 23.61%. That is an excellent result for one month, although it added only around half of one percent to the full portfolio. The earnings supported my view of the business, but one month of share-price performance is not enough to prove my valuation was correct. It would also be outcome bias to assume I should have sold Pershing Square to make the position larger simply because Microsoft rose.\n\nI have considered selling approximately £10 worth of Microsoft, but the position began at only £41.40. A small sale would create too little cash to improve the portfolio meaningfully, while selling the whole position would remove exposure to a business in which my conviction remains strong. I may trim it if a better opportunity appears, but I currently have no business-based reason to sell. The useful lesson is that conviction should influence position sizing before a trade, not become regret after a good result.\n\nGold: the drag I am still willing to own\nGold remains the largest position at £350.65, or 17.46% of the account. It is down £58.05, or 14.20%, and remains the biggest drag on the overall result. Its size means progress elsewhere can be hidden by a modest move in gold. That is frustrating, but it has not changed my conviction. If I held the position's current value in cash, I would invest it back into gold as long-term protection against geopolitical instability, inflation, currency debasement and declining confidence in conventional reserves.\n\nThere is evidence behind part of that thesis. The People's Bank of China added 33 tonnes in the second quarter of 2026, taking reported holdings to 2,346 tonnes. Central banks collectively bought 289 tonnes, a record for a second quarter, although first-half demand was the lowest since 2022. In the United States, official gold belongs to the Treasury; the Federal Reserve itself owns none. None of this means the price must rise every month. Gold can still provide long-term protection even when it disappoints over a shorter period.\n\nMy conviction still needs a limit. If gold reached around 30% of the account, I would rebalance it towards 15-20% and spread the proceeds across other holdings. That would mean selling roughly one-third to one-half of the position. I will judge it as one combined holding rather than separating newer units from older ones. I can remain convinced without allowing gold to dominate the portfolio.\n\nRheinmetall: patience without pretending\nRheinmetall was the most useful test of my thinking this month. At one stage the position was roughly 40% down; in the latest snapshot it is worth £89.37 and is down £29.95, or 25.10%. My thesis rests on rising European defence spending, the company's importance to Europe's military supply chain and its ability to turn a huge order backlog into production, revenue and cash. Preliminary second-quarter figures were encouraging: revenue rose nearly 70% to about EUR 3.3 billion, operating profit reached EUR 562 million and the backlog exceeded EUR 80 billion. Cash flow remained the weak point because of deferred advance payments and investment in new production.\n\nThe honest complication is that, if I had the holding's current value in cash, Rheinmetall probably would not be my first choice today. I might prefer Alphabet, Apple, the S&P 500 or another high-quality business. The relevant question is not which option gets me back to my old purchase price; it is which offers the better prospective return for the risk. I am holding because the defence-spending and backlog thesis remains intact and I have not found a clearly better opportunity - not because I need the share price to return to break-even.\n\nI would sell if the business repeatedly failed to convert backlog into revenue and free cash flow, if European defence orders declined materially, if production problems prevented delivery, or if margins deteriorated without a credible recovery path. I would also consider a stronger defence asset. Automation and robotics may eventually improve output and margins, but expanding production can weaken cash flow before it strengthens it. The evidence I need is better delivery, cash conversion and operating performance - not simply a recovering share price.\n\nThe companies I still want to own\nSpaceX remains a position I am happy to hold as one share. The latest value is £81.65, down £37.29 or 31.35%, but that price movement has not changed the reason I own it. I use Starlink, so the usefulness of the technology is not abstract to me. Orbital data centres and the wider value of launch, satellites and communications add to my confidence, although none should be treated as guaranteed earnings. If the holding became cash, I would have a real choice between buying SpaceX again and adding to gold.\n\nSymbotic remains one of my favourite long-term assets. At £110.24, it is down £6.20 or 5.32%, and I would buy again if I had spare cash. The test is whether it can turn backlog into revenue, profit and cash. Walmart's scale gives it a serious proving ground. The second-quarter update showed 70 systems in deployment and guided for third-quarter revenue of USD 700-720 million. The next results will test consistency.\n\nAirbnb is another business where personal experience has strengthened my view. The position is worth £139.59 and is up £20.03, or 16.75%. I recently had a problem with a stay, but Airbnb's support was extremely helpful and I received a refund. That does not tell me what the shares are worth, but it does show why customers trust the platform. Airbnb is one of the first places many people I know check when arranging a trip. The FIFA World Cup may have helped bookings across more than one quarter. Second-quarter results, scheduled for 6 August, are the next test, but I should judge the business on repeat demand, nights booked, margins and free cash flow rather than one event.\n\nQuality, infrastructure and the core of the account\nMy conviction in Meta and Alphabet also remains intact. I use Meta's products every day, and I see AI as a way to improve the relevance and effectiveness of advertising rather than simply as an expense. Meta's second-quarter revenue grew 28%. Costs and expenses rose 55%, although that figure included major legal and severance charges, and the company is still committing large amounts of capital to AI infrastructure. Its new El Paso data-centre venture shows how it is financing part of that build-out: BlackRock-managed funds will own 80%, Meta will retain 20%, and Meta will initially occupy the whole campus under lease agreements. The structure gives Meta more financing flexibility, while leaving it with meaningful long-term commitments and residual-value guarantees.\n\nAlphabet remains one of the safest individual businesses I believe I can own. I do not think AI automatically destroys Google Search; AI products still need reliable information, distribution and computing infrastructure, and Alphabet is positioned across all three. Its second-quarter revenue rose 24% to USD 119.8 billion. Berkshire Hathaway also agreed in June to invest USD 10 billion in Alphabet through a private placement, paying USD 351.81 for the Class A shares and USD 348.20 for the Class C shares. I see that as useful supporting evidence for my own conviction, but it is not a substitute for doing my own valuation work.\n\nThe S&P 500 and Nasdaq funds continue to do exactly what I want them to do: give the portfolio exposure to broad US growth without requiring every individual decision to be right. I would keep roughly the same index allocations if I rebuilt the account today. I also do not regret selling ASML for a strong realised profit, even though it continued rising afterwards, because that sale protected a gain and helped fund later decisions. Realty Income remains a slower monthly-income holding, with this period's £0.56 dividend providing nearly all the closing cash. NextEra is also worth closer attention: its proposed all-share combination with Dominion Energy would create a much larger utility group, and its second-quarter FPL net income rose to USD 1.412 billion. I had not researched the merger properly during the month, so it belongs on the next review list rather than being treated as automatic good news.\n\nPortfolio construction and what success means\nIf I had to identify three long-term anchors, I would choose gold, Pershing Square Holdings and Berkshire Hathaway. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq funds are also fundamental to the structure, while SpaceX, Symbotic and Rheinmetall carry more company-specific or execution risk. Fourteen holdings is manageable only if I stay honest about which positions require deep research. I do not need to know every price every day, but I do need to know what would invalidate each thesis.\n\nPershing is a core holding because I trust Bill Ackman's concentrated approach and I am comfortable owning it at a substantial discount to net asset value. At 31 July, PSH reported NAV of £57.21 per share against a London price of £38.08, a discount of roughly 33%. That gap is not guaranteed to close, so it supports the thesis rather than replacing it. Berkshire gives me operating businesses, insurance, cash and disciplined capital allocation in one holding. Its Alphabet investment supports my confidence in Google, but Berkshire must still deserve its place on its own merits.\n\nThe account holds £0.56 in cash. If the market fell around 20%, I would invest new wages rather than sell a holding. I would then test whether gold had provided the protection I expect. The low-cash policy is deliberate, although it could still leave me unable to act immediately.\n\nThe comparison with my core funds is uncomfortable but useful. The portfolio is now 0.52% above its original capital, while the VUAG holding is up 14.30% and QQQA is up 20.50% in the account. UK CPI increased by approximately 1.7% from February to June, the latest comparable period available when this review was completed. These fund figures are not a perfect like-for-like benchmark because they reflect my own purchase dates, but the gap still shows the opportunity cost of my individual decisions and gives me a clear standard to monitor.\n\nBenchmark comparison\nPORTFOLIO SINCE INCEPTION\n+0.52%\nVANGUARD S&P 500 (VUAG)\n+14.30%\nUBS NASDAQ-100 (QQQA)\n+20.50%\nUK CPI, FEBRUARY-JUNE\napprox. +1.7%\n\nFund returns are the account's reported returns on the remaining holdings at the 6 August snapshot, so they are directional comparisons rather than a time-matched benchmark. CPI compounds the official monthly changes from March to June; July data had not yet been published.\n\nMy hierarchy of goals is therefore clear. Protecting the original £1,999 is the first rule, beating inflation is the minimum return objective, and the original 10-15% target remains an ambition. I will also compare the result with the index funds, because protecting capital does not remove the need to understand what a simpler strategy would have earned.\n\nBehaviour, lessons and the next four weeks\nMy behaviour improved during this period. I checked prices less frequently, stayed involved in the research and made no impulsive trades. Rheinmetall reminded me that avoiding a realised loss is not a reason to hold; the business must still justify the capital from today. Microsoft showed the opposite danger: one quick success should not teach me that every strong feeling deserves a larger bet.\n\nI am not planning any major purchases or sales in the next four weeks. I am more likely to hold Microsoft unless a genuinely better use for the cash appears. I will watch Symbotic's execution, Airbnb's results, Rheinmetall's delivery and cash conversion, and the NextEra-Dominion combination. The most important lesson is that I can trust my judgment when it is supported by research, while remembering that a good outcome does not prove every part of the decision was right. My instruction for the next month is simple: do not make any impulsive trades.\n\nRULES I AM CARRYING FORWARD Hold on the strength of the thesis, not the old purchase price; rebalance gold if it reaches 30%; and do not make impulsive trades.\n\nOverall conclusion\nThe account ended the review period almost flat and moved just above starting capital in the 6 August snapshot. The fund comparison still shows that a simpler strategy has performed much better so far. Even so, this was a useful month. Microsoft rewarded careful research, Rheinmetall tested my sell discipline, and I allowed the rest of the portfolio to move without inventing trades. My process is calmer and more deliberate than it was when I began.\n\nThe next challenge is to turn conviction into clearer rules. Gold needs an allocation limit, Rheinmetall needs a forward-looking business case, and Microsoft must be judged on the business rather than a fast gain. The right question is not whether every holding is green; it is whether each pound still has a defensible reason for being where it is.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/view/capital-research-review-05/", "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/capital-research-review-05.pdf", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/capital-research-review-05.html" ] }, { "title": "Capital Research Review 04", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-04", "description": "The past four weeks have been the most active period of the portfolio so far. I traded Microsoft, re-entered Alphabet, sold ASML for a strong profit, added to gold, bought SpaceX, increased Symbotic and introduced Pershing Square Holdings.", "pageType": "portfolio-summary", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-23", "contentText": "Capital Research Review 04. 23 June 2026. The past four weeks have been the most active period of the portfolio so far. I traded Microsoft, re-entered Alphabet, sold ASML for a strong profit, added to gold, bought SpaceX, increased Symbotic and introduced Pershing Square Holdings.\n\nSnapshot\nPERIOD END\n~£1,981\nPERIOD HIGH\n£2,055.86\nCASH BALANCE\n£40.07\n\nThe past four weeks have been the most active period of the portfolio so far. I traded Microsoft, re-entered Alphabet, sold ASML for a strong profit, added to gold, bought SpaceX, increased Symbotic and introduced Pershing Square Holdings.\n\nThe account also moved from slightly above its starting value to its highest recorded level and then fell back below the starting line within the space of one week. That movement has reminded me how quickly confidence can grow when investments are rising and how quickly the same portfolio can make those gains feel irrelevant.\n\nDespite finishing the period around £1,981, I think several of the decisions made during these weeks were good. However, I have also used most of the cash I spent the previous month building.\n\nThat is now the main issue I need to address.\n\nReturning Above the Starting Value\nThe portfolio began this period by increasing from £1,983.39 to approximately £2,007. That put the account around £8 above the original starting value.\n\nThe gain was not large, but returning above the starting point was still encouraging. The portfolio had experienced a meaningful drawdown, recovered, raised cash and then moved back into positive territory.\n\nAt that stage, the cash balance was approximately £261.19. I was still waiting for Alphabet to return towards the price I wanted. My preferred range was around $360 to $365, and I did not want to use the entire cash balance at once.\n\nI also made a short Microsoft trade. I invested approximately £140 in Microsoft because it was one of the few enormous technology companies whose share price had been relatively weak over the previous year. Compared with some of the more aggressively valued technology companies, Microsoft appeared to offer a better balance between quality and risk.\n\nThe trade worked, and I sold the full position for a profit of approximately 10%. Financially, that was a strong result over a very short period.\n\nHowever, I made an important mistake in the way I documented it. I had not properly written about the Microsoft purchase when I made it. I only explained the trade after it had already been closed successfully.\n\nThat is not how this journal is supposed to work. The purpose of the website is not to create a record where every decision appears sensible in hindsight. It is supposed to document the reasoning while the outcome remains uncertain.\n\nA profitable trade can still expose a weakness in my process. Going forward, significant decisions need to be recorded when they happen, regardless of whether I feel confident that they will work.\n\nFollowing the Alphabet Plan\nThe following week was active. The portfolio reached approximately £2,023 during the stronger part of the week before pulling back towards £1,979.98 on the working valuation.\n\nDespite the weaker ending, I was pleased with the decisions I made. I re-entered Alphabet at approximately $359.90. This mattered because it followed the plan I had set during the previous weeks. I had sold Alphabet, raised cash and said I would reconsider the company if the price returned towards $360 to $365.\n\nWhen it reached that area, I bought it again. I did not chase the share price immediately after selling. I waited for the entry I wanted and then acted. Whether the investment rises immediately is less important than the fact that the decision followed a clear process.\n\nI also sold the entire ASML position and realised a profit of £40.59. The position had risen by approximately 30%.\n\nASML remains one of the most important companies in the semiconductor industry. Selling it was not a statement that the company had become bad. I believed the position had produced a strong enough return to justify taking the profit and improving the portfolio’s flexibility.\n\nI do not want to become afraid of selling a great business. There is a difference between trading high-quality companies randomly and taking a considered profit after a meaningful rise.\n\nAt the same time, I need to be careful that taking profits does not repeatedly leave me without exposure to the best businesses. That is the difficult part of portfolio management. There is rarely a perfect answer.\n\nI also bought one additional share of SGLN. Gold was down by approximately 14%, and I wanted to strengthen the hedge while broader markets appeared increasingly expensive.\n\nI did not want to keep averaging down indefinitely. One additional share felt reasonable, but the position still needed to remain within a sensible size.\n\nAfter these decisions, the cash balance was approximately £283.65. I had more flexibility than at any previous point in the portfolio.\n\nBuying SpaceX\nThe fifteenth week produced the strongest account value so far. The portfolio reached £2,055.86, placing it £56.86 above the original starting capital. That represented a return of approximately 2.84%.\n\nThe most important new investment was SpaceX. I bought one share because I genuinely believe SpaceX could become one of the most important companies in the world. Its position across space launch, satellites and communications creates opportunities that are difficult to compare with a normal public company.\n\nI also wanted exposure as early as I reasonably could. I understood that it was speculative. The share could easily have fallen immediately after I bought it, and the valuation could be difficult to justify using traditional measures.\n\nInstead, the investment initially rose by more than 30% and became the largest positive contributor in the account almost immediately.\n\nThat was exciting, but I tried not to confuse the early gain with proof that the investment was guaranteed to succeed. A new and highly volatile position can move sharply in either direction. The fact that it rose after I bought it did not suddenly remove the risk.\n\nQQQA and VUAG were also among the strongest investments. QQQA was up approximately 24%, while VUAG was up almost 12%. These positions had quietly become two of the most successful parts of the portfolio.\n\nThat reinforced the value of broad-market exposure. I spend much more time thinking about individual companies, but the ETFs have produced strong returns without requiring me to correctly analyse every business inside them.\n\nAirbnb, Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet were also positive. Several positions remained under pressure, though. Gold was the largest unrealised cash loss, down approximately £49. Rheinmetall was down around 28%, while Meta and Symbotic were also negative.\n\nI increased the Symbotic position to average down and strengthen my exposure to robotics and automation. I still believed in the long-term theme, but I knew that I could not continue adding simply because the share price was falling. At some point, Symbotic needed to prove the investment case through its own execution.\n\nAveraging down only works when the original analysis remains correct. Otherwise, it increases the size of the mistake.\n\nHow Quickly the Picture Changed\nThe sixteenth week reversed much of the previous progress. The account fell from £2,055.86 to approximately £1,981, a decline of around £74.86. That placed the portfolio approximately £18 below the original starting capital again.\n\nSpaceX was the main reason for the change. The investment moved from being more than 30% up to being slightly negative in a very short period.\n\nNaturally, it would have been satisfying to sell near the high and buy it back after the decline. However, that was not the reason I purchased the company. I bought SpaceX as a long-term position, not simply as a quick trade based on its first few days of price movement.\n\nThe pullback did not change my view of the company, but it did remind me that an unrealised gain can disappear far more quickly than it was created. I need to avoid mentally spending profits that have not been realised.\n\nThe main new investment during the week was Pershing Square Holdings. I bought two shares at 3,922p each, for a total cost of £78.44.\n\nThe main attraction was the discount to net asset value. My understanding is that I am receiving exposure to Pershing Square’s underlying investments at a lower price than the stated value of those holdings.\n\nI have also followed Bill Ackman for years and respect his willingness to make concentrated investments when he believes the opportunity is strong. Pershing Square gives the portfolio exposure to an investor-led strategy rather than another company selected entirely by me.\n\nI see it as a potential long-term compounder. I am not expecting it to create the type of immediate movement I saw from SpaceX. The purpose is to own a vehicle that can potentially compound capital over many years while giving me access to a different investment approach.\n\nThe Cash Problem\nAfter purchasing Pershing Square, the cash balance fell to approximately £40.07. That is the clearest problem at the end of this period.\n\nI like the companies and assets I bought. Alphabet followed the entry plan, ASML produced a strong realised profit, SpaceX gives me exposure to a business I have wanted to own, and Pershing Square adds a different type of long-term investment.\n\nHowever, using the cash means I have lost most of the flexibility that I deliberately created. Cash gave me the ability to wait for Alphabet. It allowed me to buy Microsoft and consider SpaceX and Pershing Square without first selling an existing holding.\n\nNow, if a genuinely exceptional opportunity appears, I have very little available capital. I would either need to add new money or sell something else.\n\nThat is not necessarily disastrous. A portfolio exists to be invested, and holding too much cash indefinitely can also reduce returns. The issue is that I moved from approximately £284 in cash to around £40 very quickly.\n\nI need to become more deliberate about how many new ideas I introduce within the same period.\n\nWhat These Four Weeks Have Taught Me\nThe first lesson is that good results can hide weaknesses in the process. The Microsoft trade was profitable, but I failed to record it properly when I made it. SpaceX initially rose by more than 30%, but that early gain did not mean the position was safe.\n\nThe outcome and the quality of the process are connected, but they are not the same thing.\n\nThe second lesson is that unrealised profits are temporary until they are taken. I do not regret holding SpaceX through the pullback because I bought it with a long-term view. However, the movement from a large gain to a small loss showed how quickly the appearance of the portfolio can change.\n\nThe third lesson is that every new investment has an opportunity cost. Buying Pershing Square did not only add Pershing Square to the portfolio. It also reduced the cash available for every other future opportunity.\n\nThat does not make the purchase wrong. It means I need to consider the loss of flexibility as part of the decision.\n\nThe fourth lesson is that I need to avoid endlessly averaging down. Gold, Rheinmetall and Symbotic have all tested my willingness to remain patient. There may be good long-term arguments for each, but I cannot allow the fact that a position is red to become the main reason I keep adding.\n\nNew capital should go towards the best opportunity available, not automatically towards whichever holding has fallen the most.\n\nAt the end of these four weeks, the account is slightly below its original starting value. That result does not fully reflect what happened during the period. I realised profits in Microsoft and ASML, returned to Alphabet at the price I had planned, reached the highest portfolio value so far and introduced two new long-term investments.\n\nI also watched a large SpaceX gain disappear and reduced my cash to approximately £40.\n\nThe portfolio is becoming more interesting, but it is also becoming more complicated. My immediate priority is not to introduce another new idea. It is to rebuild some cash, review the role of every existing position and make sure the account remains consistent with my original objective.\n\nThat objective is capital preservation first, followed by sensible long-term growth.\n\nA strong week should not make me careless, and a weak week should not make me emotional. The quality of the portfolio will be determined by whether I can remember both.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/view/capital-research-review-04/", "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/capital-research-review-04.pdf", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/capital-research-review-04.html" ] }, { "title": "Capital Research Review 03", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-03", "description": "The past four weeks have not produced a dramatic return. The portfolio has remained close to its original starting value, finishing at £1,983.39 compared with a cost basis of approximately £1,999. On the surface, that means the account is down £15.61, or around 0.78%.", "pageType": "portfolio-summary", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Capital Research Review 03. 22 May 2026. The past four weeks have not produced a dramatic return. The portfolio has remained close to its original starting value, finishing at £1,983.39 compared with a cost basis of approximately £1,999. On the surface, that means the account is down £15.61, or around 0.78%.\n\nSnapshot\nPERIOD END\n£1,983.39\nCASH BALANCE\n£246.34\nVS COST BASIS\n−0.78%\n\nThe past four weeks have not produced a dramatic return. The portfolio has remained close to its original starting value, finishing at £1,983.39 compared with a cost basis of approximately £1,999. On the surface, that means the account is down £15.61, or around 0.78%.\n\nHowever, the most important development during this period has not been the total return. It has been the introduction of a meaningful cash position and the decisions that have followed from it. I sold Alphabet, realised a profit and then resisted the temptation to immediately replace it with another investment.\n\nThat has proved more difficult than I expected.\n\nSelling One of My Best Holdings\nAt the beginning of this period, the portfolio was worth approximately £2,000. Around £1,780 was invested, while roughly £220 was held in cash. The cash came mainly from selling Alphabet.\n\nAlphabet had become one of the strongest and highest-quality positions in the account. I sold the holding and realised a profit of approximately £40.63. I was pleased to bank the gain. Until that point, most of the portfolio’s recovery existed only on paper. Selling Alphabet meant part of that recovery had become a realised result.\n\nIt also created a cash position equal to approximately 11% of the portfolio. That made the account feel more protected. I no longer needed every holding to continue rising because I had money available outside the market.\n\nHowever, selling Alphabet also created a new problem. I had removed one of the businesses I trusted most.\n\nAlphabet was not a speculative investment that had suddenly risen for no clear reason. It was a highly profitable company with a strong balance sheet, an established advertising business and meaningful exposure to artificial intelligence. I therefore did not want to take the proceeds and immediately invest them in a weaker company simply because I disliked seeing cash in the account.\n\nIf I did that, the sale would have achieved very little. I would have exchanged a high-quality business for a lower-quality idea while pretending that I was managing risk.\n\nThe purpose of the sale was to create flexibility, and that flexibility only had value if I was willing to wait.\n\nThe Account After Alphabet\nThe following week felt like a transition. The portfolio was worth approximately £1,986.69, with around £220.82 held in cash. The account was slightly below where it began, but it did not feel broken. It had already recovered from the earlier low around £1,860, moved above £2,000 and then settled back near breakeven with cash available.\n\nQQQA, VUAG, ASML and Airbnb were among the stronger holdings. They continued to give the portfolio exposure to large technology companies, the broader market, semiconductor infrastructure and travel.\n\nGold, Rheinmetall, Realty Income and Meta were less helpful. Gold was down approximately 9.3% and had become one of the largest cash losses in the account. Rheinmetall was down around 26%, making it the biggest percentage loser.\n\nThese positions created an interesting contrast with the Alphabet sale. I had sold one of the strongest holdings and continued owning some of the weakest. That can look illogical when viewed only through recent performance. However, I did not want to make decisions solely based on whether a position was green or red.\n\nAlphabet had reached a point where taking profit and building cash felt sensible. Selling Rheinmetall or gold required a separate decision about whether their original roles in the portfolio still made sense.\n\nI continued to believe that gold had value as a hedge, even though its short-term performance was poor. I also continued to believe that higher European defence spending could support Rheinmetall over the longer term. That did not guarantee either investment would recover. It simply meant I needed a better reason to sell than the fact that the numbers were red.\n\nMy preferred plan was to use some of the cash to buy Alphabet again if the price returned towards a more attractive level. I began focusing on approximately $365 as an area where I would seriously reconsider the position. The important thing was that I did not want to chase it immediately after selling.\n\nIncreasing the Cash Position\nDuring the eleventh week, the portfolio declined slightly to approximately £1,974.37. The fall was around £12.32, or 0.62%. It was disappointing, but it was completely different from the earlier drawdown. The account remained close to the starting value, and no single investment had destroyed the week.\n\nMeta, VUAG and the remaining Nasdaq exposure helped hold the portfolio together, while ASML and Symbotic were weaker. I sold one QQQA share for £25.41, increasing the estimated cash balance to approximately £246.34.\n\nThe QQQA sale was a small trim rather than a rejection of the technology sector. I kept exposure to the Nasdaq, but the sale increased my flexibility. This felt like a more measured decision than removing the entire position.\n\nThe cash balance was now large enough to be meaningful, but at the same time it increased the pressure to eventually do something with it. Cash looks sensible when markets are falling. It can feel uncomfortable when strong companies continue rising without me.\n\nThat is where patience becomes difficult. It is not simply the ability to wait through a decline. It is also the ability to watch opportunities move away without responding emotionally.\n\nThe danger was that I would eventually convince myself to buy something average just to end the discomfort of waiting. I needed to remember that holding cash was itself a decision.\n\nA Small Recovery\nThe final week of this period brought a modest recovery. The account increased from approximately £1,974.37 to £1,983.39, a gain of £9.02, or around 0.46%.\n\nThe portfolio remained slightly below the original cost basis, but it moved in the right direction without Alphabet being in the account.\n\nASML, Symbotic and Rheinmetall were the main contributors. ASML rose by approximately 7.1%, adding around £9.16 to the portfolio. The recovery reinforced my belief in the long-term importance of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.\n\nSymbotic rose by approximately 13.3%, adding around £8.22. The gain was useful, but it did not remove the risks surrounding the position. A company capable of rising 13% in one week can also fall by a similar amount.\n\nRheinmetall gained around 8.6%, adding approximately £7.45. This was encouraging after a difficult period, although I did not think one stronger week justified aggressively increasing the position.\n\nNextEra Energy was the largest weekly drag, falling approximately 5.9%. Meta and gold were also weaker. The result was a portfolio that improved slightly but remained mixed underneath, which is probably an accurate description of the entire four-week period.\n\nWhat I Have Learned About Cash\nThe biggest lesson from these weeks is that cash is not simply money waiting to be invested. It is an active part of the portfolio.\n\nCash reduces the account’s exposure when markets become expensive or uncertain. It also gives me the ability to respond when a high-quality company becomes available at a better price. More importantly, it creates time.\n\nWhen nearly all the capital is invested, every new opportunity requires selling an existing holding or adding more money. With cash available, I can make a decision without immediately disturbing the rest of the portfolio.\n\nHowever, cash also creates its own behavioural risk. I can become impatient. I can feel as though I am missing out, and I can start lowering my standards because I want the money to be doing something. The last four weeks have shown me that raising cash is the easy part. Redeploying it well is much harder.\n\nSelling Alphabet only becomes a good decision if I use the flexibility properly. If I replace it with a weaker business at an unattractive price, the realised profit will not mean very much.\n\nI have also learned that selling a strong investment can be emotionally complicated. Taking profit feels good, but watching the company continue without me does not. I need to avoid judging the decision entirely by what the share price does immediately afterwards.\n\nThe relevant question is whether the decision was reasonable based on the information, valuation and portfolio structure at the time.\n\nAt the end of these four weeks, the portfolio is worth £1,983.39 and the cash balance is approximately £246.34. The account is slightly below where it began, but I have realised a genuine profit, reduced some market exposure and created the ability to act when a better opportunity appears.\n\nI do not know whether Alphabet will return to the price I want. I also do not know whether holding cash will prove better than remaining fully invested. What I do know is that I do not need to force the answer.\n\nFor now, waiting is part of the investment decision.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/view/capital-research-review-03/", "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/capital-research-review-03.pdf", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/capital-research-review-03.html" ] }, { "title": "Capital Research Review 02", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-02", "description": "The previous four weeks ended with the portfolio sitting around £1,860 and my decision to reduce some of the speculative exposure. These four weeks have been about finding out whether that decision actually improved the account.", "pageType": "portfolio-summary", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Capital Research Review 02. 28 April 2026. The previous four weeks ended with the portfolio sitting around £1,860 and my decision to reduce some of the speculative exposure. These four weeks have been about finding out whether that decision actually improved the account.\n\nSnapshot\nPERIOD END\n£2,008.07\nPERIOD HIGH\n£2,025.84\nFROM THE LOW\n~9.7%\n\nThe previous four weeks ended with the portfolio sitting around £1,860 and my decision to reduce some of the speculative exposure. These four weeks have been about finding out whether that decision actually improved the account.\n\nThe portfolio has moved from being nearly 7% below its starting value to finishing slightly above it. That recovery has obviously been positive, but the more important development has been the change in how controlled the portfolio feels. I did not recover the loss by making one enormous bet or suddenly changing the entire strategy. The improvement came gradually from several different parts of the portfolio.\n\nThat has given me more confidence in the structure, although there are still several holdings that need to prove themselves.\n\nA Steadier Portfolio\nAt the end of the fifth week, the portfolio was worth approximately £1,931 against a cost base of around £1,999. The account was still down, but it felt considerably healthier than it had when it was sitting around £1,860.\n\nThe biggest difference was that the weakness had become more concentrated. The entire portfolio no longer felt as though it was falling apart at once. IonQ, Symbotic and Airbnb remained among the weakest positions, while Meta, Realty Income and NextEra Energy helped provide more stability.\n\nThis was exactly why I had included different types of holdings in the first place. Realty Income and NextEra were never expected to produce the most exciting returns in the account. Their purpose was to reduce the portfolio’s dependence on technology and speculative growth companies.\n\nThe improvement also made me think more carefully about the difference between a bad short-term result and a bad investment process. The portfolio was still below its starting value, but the structure was better than it had been before the rebalance. I had reduced some of the unnecessary volatility while keeping exposure to the ideas I still believed in.\n\nThat did not mean IonQ and Symbotic deserved unlimited patience. I still needed to judge whether the businesses were developing in the way I originally expected. Being a long-term investor cannot become an excuse for refusing to admit when an idea is not working. However, there was no evidence that I needed to make another immediate change simply because the account remained below £2,000.\n\nThe First Signs of a Recovery\nDuring the sixth week, the portfolio rose to approximately £1,960. It was still below the original cost base, but the movement was encouraging. After seeing the account near £1,860, a £100 recovery made the situation feel much more manageable.\n\nMost of the portfolio improved during the week, with gold and Rheinmetall being the main exceptions. Gold continued to be frustrating. It was supposed to provide protection during uncertain markets, but it had become one of the weaker positions.\n\nI had to adjust my expectations. Gold was not there to guarantee a positive weekly return whenever technology companies struggled. Its role was to provide a different type of long-term exposure and potentially protect the portfolio under certain conditions. That protection might become useful over years rather than days.\n\nRheinmetall also remained weak. The market appeared to be reconsidering some of the optimism that had already been priced into defence companies, especially as investors considered whether geopolitical tensions might begin cooling. I still believed there was a longer-term case for increased European defence spending. However, Rheinmetall reminded me that a strong theme does not automatically make a stock attractive at every price. If expectations have already moved too far, good companies can still fall.\n\nThe recovery in the rest of the portfolio showed why I had avoided panicking during the drawdown. When market conditions improved, the stronger companies began recovering without me having to constantly trade in and out of them. That does not prove holding will always be the right decision, but it showed that, in this particular situation, patience was more sensible than overreacting.\n\nReturning Above the Starting Line\nThe seventh week was the strongest of the period. The portfolio reached £2,025.84, placing it £26.84 above the original cost base of approximately £1,999. That represented an overall gain of around 1.34%.\n\nA 1.34% return is not particularly impressive on its own, but the number meant more because of what had happened beforehand. Only a few weeks earlier, the account had been down by almost 7%. Returning above the starting value showed that the drawdown had not permanently damaged the portfolio.\n\nThe recovery was also spread across several holdings. Symbotic, Meta, Alphabet, ASML, QQQA and VUAG all contributed. That was encouraging because it was not one lucky investment carrying everything else. The technology and growth section of the account was beginning to work again, while the broad-market ETFs were performing the stabilising role I wanted from them.\n\nSymbotic was particularly interesting. It had been one of the most volatile and uncomfortable investments during the decline, but it also recovered sharply. That showed both sides of owning a higher-risk company. The same volatility that creates painful losses can produce strong recoveries, and the challenge is deciding whether the business deserves to be held through both.\n\nI began thinking about whether it would make sense to protect some of the gain if the market became more unsettled again. However, I did not want to sell purely because the share price had risen. Selling a recovering position only makes sense if I believe the valuation has become unreasonable, the thesis has weakened or the money has a better use elsewhere. At that point, I was not convinced that any of those conditions were clearly present.\n\nThe account being above its starting value also created a different emotional challenge. During a drawdown, the temptation is to panic. During a recovery, the temptation is to become overconfident. I did not want a few strong weeks to convince me that all the previous risks had disappeared. Oil, inflation, interest rates and the geopolitical environment could still affect the account very quickly.\n\nHolding the Recovery\nThe eighth week was cooler. The portfolio finished at £2,008.07, down from £2,025.84 the previous week. That was a weekly decline of £17.77, or approximately 0.88%.\n\nDespite the decline, the account remained £9.07 above the original cost basis. More importantly, the portfolio was still approximately £170 above where it had been around a month earlier. From the low point, the account had recovered roughly 9.7%, which placed the weekly decline in perspective.\n\nIt would have been easy to become disappointed because the portfolio failed to continue rising, but markets rarely move in a straight line. A small decline after a strong recovery did not require a complete change in strategy.\n\nAlphabet, Meta, ASML, Airbnb, Symbotic and the broad-market ETFs remained among the more supportive parts of the portfolio. Gold, Rheinmetall, Realty Income and Berkshire Hathaway were less helpful.\n\nAlphabet was becoming one of the strongest and cleanest positions in the account. It had exposure to artificial intelligence, a highly profitable core business and a strong balance sheet. It felt increasingly different from the more speculative technology positions, and that distinction would become important when deciding how to manage the stronger holdings.\n\nWhat These Four Weeks Have Taught Me\nThe portfolio has ended this period only slightly above where it began. If I looked only at the starting value and the current value, it might appear that very little had happened. In reality, the account fell by nearly 7%, was rebalanced and then recovered back above the starting line. That journey taught me far more than the final return suggests.\n\nThe most important lesson is that patience only works when it is supported by discipline. Holding every investment regardless of what happens is not disciplined; it is passive. The more useful version of patience involves reviewing why I own each position, controlling the size of the risk and making changes when the structure becomes unhealthy.\n\nThe speculative exposure was reduced before the recovery. That meant I still benefited when Symbotic improved, but the portfolio was not as dependent on it.\n\nThe second lesson is that I do not need to react to every weekly movement. The Week 8 decline did not undo the progress made during Weeks 5, 6 and 7. Trading simply because the account had stopped rising would probably have created more problems than it solved.\n\nThe third lesson concerns the role of defensive investments. Gold, Realty Income and NextEra have not always behaved exactly as I expected. Defensive does not mean incapable of falling. Every asset responds to its own combination of interest rates, valuation, currency movements and investor expectations. I need to understand the role of each holding without expecting it to perform perfectly under every market condition.\n\nThese four weeks have also shown me how quickly my mindset can change with the portfolio value. At £1,860, the account felt under serious pressure. At £2,025, it suddenly felt as though the recovery had worked. The difference was only approximately £165, but emotionally the situations felt completely different. I need to avoid allowing those short-term numbers to control the quality of my decisions.\n\nAt the end of Week 8, the account is slightly above its starting value. I am pleased with the recovery, but I do not consider the job finished. The portfolio still contains weak positions, the hedge has not worked perfectly, and some of the strongest companies may eventually require difficult decisions about taking profit.\n\nFor now, the most sensible decision is not to force one. The account has survived its first drawdown and recovered without me abandoning the strategy. That is a better result than the small percentage gain alone suggests.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/view/capital-research-review-02/", "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/capital-research-review-02.pdf", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/capital-research-review-02.html" ] }, { "title": "Capital Research Review 01", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-01", "description": "The past four weeks have been the beginning of this portfolio and, more importantly, the beginning of me properly documenting how I invest. When I started the account, I put in approximately £1,997. My aim was not to make a quick return or build a portfolio around whichever companies were receiving the most attention at the time. I wanted to create something balanced enough to grow over the long term while still giving me exposure to some of the industries and companies I believe could perform particularly well.", "pageType": "portfolio-summary", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Capital Research Review 01. 30 March 2026. The past four weeks have been the beginning of this portfolio and, more importantly, the beginning of me properly documenting how I invest. When I started the account, I put in approximately £1,997. My aim was not to make a quick return or build a portfolio around whichever companies were receiving the most attention at the time. I wanted to create something balanced enough to grow over the long term while still giving me exposure to some of the industries and companies I believe could perform particularly well.\n\nSnapshot\nSTARTING CAPITAL\n£1,996.96\nLOW POINT\n£1,860.18\nDRAWDOWN\n6.85%\n\nThe past four weeks have been the beginning of this portfolio and, more importantly, the beginning of me properly documenting how I invest. When I started the account, I put in approximately £1,997. My aim was not to make a quick return or build a portfolio around whichever companies were receiving the most attention at the time. I wanted to create something balanced enough to grow over the long term while still giving me exposure to some of the industries and companies I believe could perform particularly well.\n\nThe original portfolio was built across several different areas. Alphabet, Meta and ASML gave me exposure to high-quality technology companies and the continued growth of artificial intelligence. VUAG and QQQA provided broader exposure to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, meaning the portfolio would not rely entirely on my ability to select individual companies. Berkshire Hathaway was included as a steadier, high-quality holding, while Realty Income and NextEra Energy added exposure to property, income and energy infrastructure. Gold was supposed to act as a hedge if markets became more nervous.\n\nI also included smaller positions in IonQ and Symbotic. These were the more speculative investments in the account. I liked the potential of quantum computing, robotics and automation, but I understood from the beginning that these companies would probably be far more volatile than the established businesses. Airbnb and Rheinmetall added two completely different areas of exposure. Airbnb gave me a consumer and travel-related investment, while Rheinmetall gave the portfolio exposure to increased defence spending.\n\nThe point was not for every holding to rise at the same time. The idea was that the different parts of the portfolio would support each other through different market conditions.\n\nThe First Two Weeks\nThe first two weeks were relatively calm. The portfolio remained close to where it started, which I considered a reasonable result for a newly constructed account. I was not expecting to learn very much from a portfolio that had only existed for a few days, but I did want to see whether the structure made sense once the prices began moving.\n\nThe early results showed me that the steadier holdings were helping offset some of the volatility in IonQ and Symbotic. Berkshire Hathaway, Airbnb, Rheinmetall, the Nasdaq ETF and gold were among the more helpful positions early on. Symbotic and IonQ were weaker, but that was not completely unexpected. They were the higher-risk positions and were always likely to move more sharply than the rest of the account. The important thing was that they were not large enough to decide the entire result of the portfolio.\n\nBy the end of the second week, I was reasonably comfortable with how the account had been constructed. It had a growth side, a defensive side, broad-market exposure and a smaller speculative section. However, it had not really been tested. It is easy to say that I am investing for the long term when nothing is falling. I knew the more useful test would come when the account began moving properly against me, although that test arrived much sooner than I expected.\n\nThe First Proper Drawdown\nDuring the third week, the portfolio fell to £1,860.18. Compared with the initial value of £1,996.96, the account had declined by £136.78, or approximately 6.85%. For a portfolio that had only just been created, that was a meaningful fall. Nearly everything appeared red at the same time, and the account suddenly looked very different from the balanced portfolio I thought I had built.\n\nThis was the first point where I had to separate my emotions from the actual condition of the investments. My immediate reaction was obviously disappointment. Nobody enjoys seeing the value of their account fall, especially so soon after putting the money in. However, I did not think the portfolio had fallen because one company had completely collapsed or because every investment decision had suddenly become wrong. Most of the decline appeared to be connected to the wider market.\n\nInvestors were dealing with geopolitical tension, higher oil prices, concerns about inflation and rising bond yields. There was also less confidence that interest rates would fall quickly. That combination was particularly difficult for the assets I owned. Higher yields can hurt expensive growth companies, property investments and utilities at the same time, while a more nervous market can place additional pressure on speculative companies such as IonQ and Symbotic.\n\nEven gold failed to provide the protection I had expected. That was an important early lesson. I had thought about gold as something that should rise whenever the rest of the market became nervous, but in reality gold can also be affected by interest rates, currencies and investor positioning. A hedge does not necessarily move in the opposite direction to the portfolio every single week.\n\nThe higher-risk positions remained my biggest concern. Although I still found IonQ and Symbotic interesting, they did not have the same financial strength or dependability as Alphabet, Meta or Berkshire Hathaway. They were the first positions I needed to question if the pressure continued.\n\nI decided that panic selling the entire portfolio would be the wrong response because the original reasoning behind most of the core holdings had not changed. However, doing nothing simply because I considered myself a long-term investor would also have been lazy.\n\nRebalancing the Account\nBy the fourth week, the portfolio was still sitting around £1,860. Instead of trying to predict exactly when the market would recover, I focused on the part of the account that I could control, which was the amount of risk I was taking.\n\nI reduced the two most speculative positions by selling 1.5 shares of IonQ and 0.8 shares of Symbotic. The sales realised a combined loss of approximately $10. I did not enjoy taking the loss, but I did not think it was large enough to justify remaining in positions that were creating too much volatility.\n\nI moved the money into SGLN, Meta and Realty Income. This was not a complete change in strategy. I still kept exposure to IonQ and Symbotic because the long-term opportunities remained interesting. I simply reduced their ability to damage the overall account.\n\nAdding to Meta increased my exposure to a profitable, high-quality technology company. Adding to Realty Income strengthened the income and defensive side of the portfolio, while adding to gold increased the hedge, even though gold had not yet performed how I originally expected.\n\nThe purpose of the rebalance was not to recover the losses immediately. It was to improve the structure of the portfolio. After the changes, I still had meaningful exposure to technology, artificial intelligence and speculative growth. The difference was that the account was no longer as dependent on the most unpredictable holdings recovering.\n\nWhat I Have Learned\nThese first four weeks have already taught me more than a straightforward rise in the portfolio probably would have. The first lesson is that diversification only becomes real when investments begin falling. A portfolio can look diversified because it owns several different ticker symbols, but that does not necessarily mean the risks are genuinely different. During the drawdown, technology companies, speculative investments, utilities, property holdings and gold were all affected by the same wider concerns around inflation, oil and interest rates.\n\nThe second lesson is that position sizing matters just as much as company selection. IonQ and Symbotic may still become successful investments, but that does not mean they deserve the same weight as established and profitable companies. An interesting idea can still become a bad portfolio decision if the position is too large.\n\nThe third lesson is that taking a loss does not automatically mean the original investment was a complete failure. The small loss on the speculative positions improved the overall portfolio. I would rather accept a controlled loss early than allow my pride to prevent me from correcting the account.\n\nI have also learned something about my own behaviour. Seeing the portfolio fall by almost 7% was uncomfortable, but I did not feel the urge to sell everything. I was able to look at which parts of the portfolio were causing the problem and make a measured change. That does not mean I handled everything perfectly. I may have underestimated how connected the different holdings could become during a risk-off market, and I probably began with slightly too much speculative exposure. However, I am pleased that my first reaction was not to abandon the entire process.\n\nAt the end of these four weeks, the portfolio remains below where it started. On the surface, that is not a successful result, but the account is now more controlled than it was at the beginning. I have experienced the first proper drawdown, taken my first realised loss and made my first meaningful rebalance.\n\nThe aim of this project is not to create the appearance that every decision works. It is to build an honest record of what I did, why I did it and whether the reasoning remained sensible afterwards. The portfolio has already tested that commitment, and so far, I am still here.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/view/capital-research-review-01/", "https://codiemarillier.com/documents/portfolio-reviews/capital-research-review-01.pdf", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/capital-research-review-01.html" ] }, { "title": "Why the Rulebook Exists", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/why-the-rulebook-exists", "description": "The rulebook is not abstract. It comes from early crypto profits, leverage mistakes, borrowed money, and the decision to treat investing as a serious long-term craft.", "pageType": "journal-entry", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-16", "contentText": "Why the Rulebook Exists. 9 June 2026. The rulebook is not abstract. It comes from early crypto profits, leverage mistakes, borrowed money, and the decision to treat investing as a serious long-term craft.\n\nI first became interested in markets during the first week of the COVID-19 lockdown. I was fourteen, and my father asked me and my siblings to each choose an online course. I picked a stock trading course on Udemy, taught by Mohsin Hassan, and then completed a more advanced course afterwards.\n\nThat early interest moved into crypto. I made money quickly, mostly through luck, then borrowed money from my parents and made more. The lesson looked positive at first, but the process was not mature.\n\nThe mistake came from leverage. I started trading crypto with leverage and eventually lost most of the money. I also tried different crypto projects with a friend, but the overall result was the same: most of the early money was gone.\n\nThat is why the rulebook matters. I do not use leverage to trade, I do not borrow aggressively to invest, and I want this portfolio to be built through disciplined ownership of real businesses rather than gambling behaviour.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/why-the-rulebook-exists.html" ] }, { "title": "Google Re-entry Plan", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/google-re-entry-plan", "description": "Why a great business can still require patience, and why sitting in cash can be the correct action while waiting for a better setup.", "pageType": "journal-entry", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Google Re-entry Plan. 5 May 2026. Why a great business can still require patience, and why sitting in cash can be the correct action while waiting for a better setup.\n\nAlphabet remains a business worth studying, but quality alone does not remove the need for entry discipline.\n\nThe plan is to define what would make the price attractive, what would break the thesis, and how large the position should be before any trade is made.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/google-re-entry-plan.html" ] }, { "title": "Microsoft Trade Reflection", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/microsoft-trade-reflection", "description": "A profitable trade can still teach process lessons. The question is whether the decision was repeatable, not just whether it worked.", "pageType": "journal-entry", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Microsoft Trade Reflection. 29 April 2026. A profitable trade can still teach process lessons. The question is whether the decision was repeatable, not just whether it worked.\n\nThe Microsoft trade closed for roughly 10% profit. That is a good outcome, but the review has to focus on process quality.\n\nThe useful question is whether the entry, size, patience, and exit were all supported by written reasoning that could be repeated.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/journal/microsoft-trade-reflection.html" ] }, { "title": "My First Letter", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/letters/my-first-letter", "description": "A first proper letter on why the weekly reviews are only part of the record, and why discipline, patience, risk, and process matter more than short-term account value.", "pageType": "letter", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-24", "contentText": "My First Letter. Reflection. 24 June 2026. 14 min read. A first proper letter on why the weekly reviews are only part of the record, and why discipline, patience, risk, and process matter more than short-term account value.\n\nTo the readers,\n\nThis is my first proper letter on the website, and in some ways it feels like the real beginning of what I am trying to build. The weekly summaries have been useful because they force me to record what happened, what I bought, what I sold, what moved, and what I learned. But a weekly review can sometimes become too focused on the account value. It can become too easy to say, “the portfolio went up,” or “the portfolio went down,” and then accidentally miss the more important point.\n\nThe more important point is what is happening underneath the numbers.\n\nWhat am I learning?\nAm I becoming more disciplined?\nAm I making decisions for the right reasons?\nAm I thinking like an owner, or am I just reacting to the colour of the screen?\nAm I building a process that can last for years, or am I just trying to look clever for a week?\n\nThat is why I wanted to start writing letters as well as weekly reviews. The weekly reviews are the record. The letters are the reflection. I want friends, family, and anyone else who reads this to get something useful from it. I want these letters to be honest, factual, interesting, and, where possible, a little bit humorous. At the same time, I want this to be serious. I am not writing this because I think I have everything figured out. I am writing it because I want a public record of the process. I do not want to be someone who says face to face, “I know what I am doing,” and then has nothing to show for it. I would rather build a record over time that people can actually look at. Not just words. Evidence.\n\nThat is really why this website exists.\n\nI want to be able to look back in a few years and see what I thought at different points in the market. I want to see what I believed, what I got right, what I got wrong, and how my thinking changed. More importantly, I want to be held accountable by my own words. It is much harder to pretend you had a plan if you wrote the plan down and then did something completely different. Before these last few months, I probably thought about investing too much like gambling. I did not fully understand the difference between trading the market and investing in the market. I thought that if you bought something and the price moved against you quickly, that was almost the same as being wrong. I now realise that is not necessarily true.\n\nIf I have a view that the economy, a company, an industry, or a theme is going to do well over time, then I need to give that idea a proper time frame. I need to put money behind the idea, size it sensibly, and then allow time to do its job. That is very different from trying to trade every short-term move. Over the long run, I think thoughtful investing has a much better chance of working than pretending I can guess every week’s price action.\n\nThe uncomfortable lesson is that even long-term investing is not calm every day. I thought the stock market would feel steadier than it does. It does not. Even with a small portfolio, prices move quickly. One week the account looks strong, the next week a winner gives back its gains, and suddenly the same portfolio feels completely different. The companies may not have changed. The price has.\n\nThat is one of the first proper lessons I have learned: price action can change much faster than your thesis.\n\nEarly on, when the portfolio first dropped below the starting value, I felt it physically. I did not like it at all. There was that feeling in my stomach that no investing book can properly prepare you for. The funny thing is, reading about volatility makes you feel very wise. Actually seeing your own account go down makes you feel like you should maybe take up pottery instead.But I did not panic. I turned off the screen, stopped checking it for a bit, and reminded myself that I was here for the long term. The account carried on moving around, but eventually it came back towards breakeven and then above it. That mattered emotionally, but it also taught me something. If I had panicked at the first drawdown, I would not have learned anything useful. I would have just reacted.\n\nWeeks three and four were probably the toughest emotionally because the account was under pressure and the wider market felt nervous. Strangely, though, I find it easier to say “I am here for the long term” when the portfolio is going down than when it is going up. When it is down, I can almost convince myself I am being noble and disciplined, like some calm value investor sitting through a storm. When it is up, that is when the harder test starts, because suddenly I have to decide whether to let a winner run, take profit, or stop myself from becoming overconfident after one good move. In that sense, the difficult part is not only surviving red days. It is staying sensible on green ones too.\n\nWhat helped me was remembering that the aim is not to win every day. The aim is to protect capital, make sensible decisions, and keep learning.\n\nThat phrase — protect capital — means much more to me now than it did at the start. At first, I thought it mainly meant “do not lose money.” Now I think it means something deeper. It means do not make careless decisions. Do not let excitement control position sizing. Do not force trades just because cash is available. Do not turn a long-term thesis into a short-term panic. Do not confuse a good story with a good investment. My focus is still to make money. I am not going to pretend otherwise. I am passionate about making money and building wealth. But I want to do it properly. I do not want to make money by accident and then mistake that for skill. I would rather make slower progress with a process I can repeat than get lucky once and start believing I am Warren Buffett with a Trading 212 login.\n\nOne of the biggest changes in my thinking has been the difference between a good result and a good decision.\n\nA good result feels nice. A good decision matters more.\n\nA profitable trade can still be bad process if the reasoning was weak. A losing trade can still be good process if the decision was sensible, the risk was understood, and the position was sized correctly. I still do not like losing money - I do not think anyone wakes up excited to be down — but I am starting to understand that the goal is not to avoid every red position. The goal is to avoid avoidable mistakes.\n\nThere is a difference.\n\nASML gave me one of my biggest confidence boosts. It was a strong company, connected to one of the most important long-term themes in the market: semiconductor infrastructure and AI. I sold it for a strong realised profit, and I still think that was a disciplined decision. I protected capital, locked in a gain, and created flexibility. At the same time, ASML also taught me that handling winners is not simple. Sometimes selling is sensible. Sometimes trimming may be better. Sometimes the right company deserves more time. I am happy taking profit when a position is up strongly, because I would rather protect a gain than watch it collapse back towards breakeven. But I also need to keep learning when a winner should be allowed to keep working.\n\nGoogle was probably the decision I am most proud of so far. I sold it well, then waited for the price to come back towards the level I had already planned. I did not chase. I did not buy just because I felt left behind. I waited. When it came back towards my level, I acted.That may sound simple, but it is not. Patience is easy in theory and annoying in practice. Holding cash while other stocks move is uncomfortable. It feels like standing on the side of a football pitch watching everyone else play. But cash is not useless if it has a purpose. Cash gives optionality. It gives you the ability to act when prices come to you instead of chasing them when you are emotional.\n\nFor me, a sensible cash position is not a failure. It is one of the best hedges a portfolio can have. I currently think a cash level somewhere around 2.5% to 7.5% can make sense, depending on the market and the opportunities available. Too much cash can become opportunity cost, but too little cash can leave you unable to act. Week 16 reminded me of that clearly. After adding Pershing Square Holdings, the cash balance became lower than I would like, and rebuilding flexibility is now something I need to focus on again.\n\nSpaceX has been another important lesson. I bought it because I believe in the company long term, not just because I thought it would immediately go up. At first, it worked extremely well and became the biggest winner in the portfolio. Then it pulled back sharply. That is exactly the kind of thing that reminds you not to confuse one good week with genius. It would have been nice to take some profit when it was up strongly. I am not going to pretend otherwise. Everyone loves saying “I am long term” after a stock doubles, but nobody complains when they accidentally sell the top. Still, I do not see the SpaceX pullback as a major mistake. I bought it because I wanted early exposure to what I think could be one of the most important companies in the world over the next decade and beyond. If that is the thesis, then I should not judge the whole decision from one week of price action.\n\nThat said, SpaceX also taught me that excitement needs rules. A company can be incredible and still be volatile. A company can change the world and still be overpriced in the short term. Being excited about a business does not give me permission to ignore position sizing.\n\nGold has taught me something different. Originally, I was not as keen on holding gold. I preferred the idea of keeping more cash, because cash gives immediate optionality. But I eventually accepted that gold could play a role as a hedge. Since then, gold has gone down, and I underestimated how quickly that could happen. The strange thing is that I am not really frustrated by gold being down. In fact, part of me is happy when it falls, because I still have long-term conviction in the role it can play and it gives me a chance to lower my average cost over time. Gold is not there to be exciting. Gold is not there to make me feel clever every Tuesday afternoon. Gold is there to help protect the portfolio if the world becomes more unstable, if currencies weaken, if inflation remains a problem, or if investors move away from risk assets.\n\nI have learned not to expect a hedge to work perfectly every week. That was a big lesson. A hedge is not a magic umbrella that opens every time it rains. Sometimes it just sits there looking useless while you get wet. But if the long-term role still makes sense, then the short-term frustration does not automatically mean the thesis is broken.\n\nRheinmetall has probably tested my patience the most. It is down meaningfully, and at one point I considered whether I should cut part of the position if the loss got too large. I have now moved away from forcing that kind of rule. I do not want to sell a position just because the red number looks uncomfortable. If the business thesis breaks, that is different. If the company’s business model changes, if revenue deteriorates for a sustained period while competitors are doing well, or if the reason I bought it no longer makes sense, then I should reassess properly.\n\nBut I do not want to sell just to make myself feel better. That is not investing. That is emotional housekeeping.\n\nSymbotic is another position that has made me think hard. I still believe in the robotics and automation thesis, and in some ways, I believe in Symbotic more than almost anything else in the portfolio. The company is trying to solve a real problem in warehouse automation, and the fact that it has major customer relationships gives me confidence that the technology is not just theoretical. But Symbotic is volatile. Averaging down only makes sense if it is deliberate. For me, averaging down feels rational when I am taking profits from winners and reallocating into a position where I still believe the thesis is intact. It would feel more emotional if I was simply depositing more money because I did not like seeing a loss. The line between conviction and stubbornness can be thin, and I need to keep watching that carefully.\n\nThat is probably one of my weaknesses as an investor: I like risk. I am drawn to big ideas, strong companies, and the possibility of large outcomes. I am naturally optimistic about the future. I can imagine what companies might become if everything goes right. That helps me see opportunity, but it can also become dangerous if it is not balanced by realism.\n\nThankfully, I do think I am also a realist. I can get excited, but I can also bring myself back down to earth. That balance is something I need to keep improving.\n\nAnother weakness I have noticed is that I can be too easily persuaded by people who sound like they know what they are talking about. If someone speaks confidently, it can make me question my own view too quickly. That is not a good habit. I should listen to smart people, but I should not outsource my thinking to them. My ideas are my ideas. Other people can challenge them, but they cannot be responsible for them.\n\nThat might be the biggest personal lesson so far: no one can prove the future for me.\n\nNo one in the world knows exactly what is going to happen. Not analysts, not commentators, not friends, not people on YouTube with dramatic thumbnails, and definitely not me. The best I can do is build a thesis, understand the risks, size the position properly, and then review the evidence as time passes.\n\nI do not need to run around looking for people to confirm that my ideas are true. That is just insecurity dressed up as research. Real research should challenge me, not comfort me.\n\nReading has played a big part in this. The Intelligent Investor helped me understand discipline, value, and the danger of being pulled around by market emotion. The Most Important Thing made me think more seriously about risk, cycles, and contrarian thinking. The Dhandho Investor made me think about simple opportunities where the downside is controlled and the upside can still be meaningful. The Art of Spending Money and The Tipping Point affected me in a different way — they made me think more about behaviour, habits, compounding, and how small decisions can quietly become very large outcomes.\n\nThe Tipping Point probably changed my behaviour the most. It made me think about how small things compound until suddenly they matter. That applies to markets, but it also applies to discipline. One weekly review does not make me a good investor. One written trade reason does not make me disciplined. One patient decision does not prove anything. But repeated over time, these small habits can become a real process.\n\nThat is what I am trying to build.\n\nI want this portfolio to become a detailed track record for myself. I want this website to become more than a journal of trades. Over time, I want it to represent how I think as an individual — not just about investing, but about business, risk, capital, ownership, and the different ventures I pursue. I want it to become a broader reputational asset, but only if it is built honestly.\n\nIf future business partners, investors, family, or friends read this website, I want them to see that I did what I said I was going to do. I want them to see that I have been actively building a process since I said I would. I want them to see ambition, but also discipline. I want them to see that I am passionate about making money, but not careless with it. I want them to see someone who is willing to think deeply, write honestly, and improve. I want to become a world-class investor. One of the best ever. That is a very big thing to say, and I know it sounds ambitious. Good. It should. I would rather say what I want clearly than pretend to be less ambitious because it feels safer.\n\nBut wanting to become world-class does not mean acting like I already am. It means building the habits that could, over a long enough period, move me in that direction. It means studying companies properly. It means understanding capital markets. It means learning accounting, valuation, business models, incentives, cycles, and human behaviour. It means admitting when I do not know something. It means not confusing confidence with competence.\n\nMost importantly, it means being patient.\n\nPatience is probably the biggest lesson so far. Not passive patience. Not sitting there doing nothing because I am scared. I mean active patience: having a plan, knowing the level I want, waiting for it, and not being persuaded away from my own thinking every time the market moves.\n\nDiscipline means having a plan and sticking to it even when I do not feel like it.\nPatience means giving an idea enough time to play out.\nRisk means understanding what happens if the idea in my head does not happen in real life.\n\nThose three things - discipline, patience, and risk - are what I want to keep building around.\n\nI am only a few months into this journey. There is a very long way to go. The portfolio has already been above the starting point, below it, back above it, and back below it again. That alone is a useful reminder. Short-term price action is not the whole story. I am not worried about every move up or down. I am much more concerned with whether I am becoming a better decision-maker.\n\nIf the portfolio beats inflation over a year while I improve my process, learn more about markets, and avoid major mistakes, I would consider that a successful investing year. Of course I want higher returns. But returns without process can disappear quickly. Process, if it is good, can compound.\n\nThis first letter is the start of a longer public record. I hope future letters can show that I did the things I said I would do. I hope they show better thinking, better discipline, better analysis, and better judgement. I also hope they are honest enough to admit when I am wrong.\n\nBecause I will be wrong. Everyone is. The goal is not to be right every time. The goal is to be thoughtful enough, disciplined enough, and honest enough that being wrong does not destroy the process.\n\nFor the next stage, my promise to myself is simple: keep protecting capital, keep writing down my reasoning, keep learning, keep holding myself accountable, and do not let short-term emotion interrupt a long-term plan.\n\nThis is not financial advice. It is a record of my own thinking, my own portfolio, and my own attempt to become a better investor.\n\nThe money matters. But the process matters more.\n\nAnd if I can get both right over time, that is where things could become very interesting.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/letters", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "The Dhandho Investor", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-dhandho-investor", "description": "Look for simple, understandable opportunities where the downside is limited and the upside is meaningful.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai. Value Investing / Business / Low-Risk Opportunity. Takeaway: Look for simple, understandable opportunities where the downside is limited and the upside is meaningful.\n\nI chose The Dhandho Investor because it was recommended to me by one of my friend's dads, and it quickly became one of the most useful investing books I have read. The main idea I took from it was the concept of building or buying businesses in a way where the downside is limited but the upside is still meaningful.\n\nOne of the examples that stood out to me was the Patel family and the motel business. By using their own family as receptionists, cleaners, managers, and operators, they were able to keep costs extremely low. That meant they could offer better prices than neighbouring motels while still making the business work. That idea really interested me because it showed how using your own network, family, contacts, and available resources can create an advantage at the start of a business.\n\nThe book did not completely change the way I think, but it taught me valuable lessons about finding overlooked opportunities, keeping costs low, and thinking carefully about downside risk. It also helped me understand how value can exist where other people are not looking properly. For my own investing journey, the biggest lesson is to look for situations where the risk is controlled, the price is sensible, and the potential reward is still attractive.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Most Important Thing", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-most-important-thing", "description": "Do not just follow the crowd. Think independently, understand risk, and be patient when markets become emotional.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks. Risk / Contrarian Thinking / Market Psychology. Takeaway: Do not just follow the crowd. Think independently, understand risk, and be patient when markets become emotional.\n\nThe Most Important Thing was one of the most important books I have read for understanding markets. Howard Marks helped me think much more seriously about risk, cycles, and the danger of simply following what everyone else believes.\n\nThe biggest lesson I took from this book was contrarian thinking. It taught me that some of the best investment decisions can come from questioning the popular view and being willing to think differently from the crowd. If everyone agrees that something is obvious, it may already be priced in. That does not mean always doing the opposite for the sake of it, but it does mean slowing down, thinking independently, and asking whether the market has become too optimistic or too pessimistic.\n\nThis book has made me want to become a more conservative and thoughtful investor. It reminded me that avoiding big mistakes is just as important as finding big winners. It also helped me understand that market cycles are emotional, and that investors often become most confident at exactly the wrong time.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Intelligent Investor", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-intelligent-investor", "description": "Investing should be based on discipline, intrinsic value, patience, and protecting capital.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Value Investing / Discipline / Intrinsic Value. Takeaway: Investing should be based on discipline, intrinsic value, patience, and protecting capital.\n\nThe Intelligent Investor had a massive impact on the way I view markets and investing. It helped me understand that investing is not about chasing whatever stock is going up the fastest. It is about discipline, patience, valuation, and protecting capital.\n\nThe biggest thing this book taught me was how to think about fair value and intrinsic value. Before reading it, it is easy to look at a company and only think about the share price. This book helped me understand that the real question is whether the business is worth more or less than what the market is currently pricing it at.\n\nThe Intelligent Investor also made me think differently about market emotions. The idea of \"Mr Market\" helped me understand that prices move around every day, but that does not mean the real value of a business changes every day. Sometimes the market is overly excited, and sometimes it is overly fearful. My job is not to react emotionally, but to stay disciplined and make decisions based on reasoning.\n\nThis book has played a massive part in how I want to pursue investing for the rest of my life. It made me more serious about writing down my reasoning, reviewing my decisions, and not letting short-term price movements control my behaviour.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Alchemist", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-alchemist", "description": "The journey, the lessons, and the person you become are just as important as the final result.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Purpose / Ambition / Personal Journey. Takeaway: The journey, the lessons, and the person you become are just as important as the final result.\n\nThe Alchemist is not directly about investing, but it is still one of the most important books I have read. For me, it was about following what you feel called to do, trusting the journey, and not giving up when the path becomes difficult.\n\nThe book taught me that the lessons you learn along the way can sometimes be more valuable than the final reward. That really connects with my investing journey because I am not only trying to make money. I am trying to build a way of thinking, a process, and a long-term skill that can stay with me for life.\n\nThe Alchemist also made me think about ambition and self-belief. It reminded me that if you genuinely care about something, you have to keep moving towards it even when the result is not immediate. That applies to investing, business, and life in general. There will be setbacks, mistakes, and periods where things do not go to plan, but those moments are part of the process.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Art of Spending Money", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-art-of-spending-money", "description": "Do not increase your lifestyle just because your income rises. Spend intentionally and use money to build long-term freedom.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel. Money / Lifestyle / Financial Discipline. Takeaway: Do not increase your lifestyle just because your income rises. Spend intentionally and use money to build long-term freedom.\n\nThe Art of Spending Money taught me a lot about the way people use money and how easy it is to spend more simply because you earn more. One of the biggest lessons I took from it was that I do not need to spend money just to keep up with other people.\n\nI know what I need to survive each week, and as my income grows, I do not want my spending to rise at the same speed. I want to keep living within my means and use extra money to invest, build assets, and create more income streams. That does not mean never enjoying money, but it does mean being intentional with it.\n\nThe book also told interesting stories about how people made and lost money, which helped me think more carefully about financial behaviour. Building wealth is not only about what you earn. It is also about what you keep, how you spend, and whether your decisions are helping your future or just feeding short-term image and lifestyle pressure.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "Man’s Search for Meaning", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/mans-search-for-meaning", "description": "Human beings are incredibly resilient, and having meaning can help you endure almost anything.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Purpose / Resilience / Perspective. Takeaway: Human beings are incredibly resilient, and having meaning can help you endure almost anything.\n\nMan's Search for Meaning was a deeply personal book for me. It taught me about what happened in the concentration camps and showed me a level of human suffering and resilience that I had never properly understood before.\n\nWhile reading it, my mind was genuinely blown by what people were able to endure. I did not realise human beings were capable of going through such extreme suffering and still finding meaning, purpose, and strength. It made me think very seriously about how lucky we are today, how careful we need to be with our decisions, and how important it is to treat other people properly.\n\nThe book also taught me that meaning can help people survive incredibly difficult situations. That lesson applies far beyond history. It applies to personal setbacks, pressure, mistakes, and difficult periods in life. For my investing journey, it gives me perspective. A bad week in the market, a losing trade, or a mistake is not the end of the world. What matters is how I respond, what I learn, and whether I keep moving forward with purpose.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Tipping Point", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-tipping-point", "description": "Small actions, habits, ideas, and trends can compound quietly before reaching a point where they suddenly accelerate.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Trends / Compounding / Behaviour. Takeaway: Small actions, habits, ideas, and trends can compound quietly before reaching a point where they suddenly accelerate.\n\nThe Tipping Point helped me understand how small things can build quietly over time before suddenly reaching a point where everything changes. That idea really stood out to me because it connects to business, investing, habits, and personal growth.\n\nThe book showed me that small changes can have huge effects once they compound for long enough. A product, idea, behaviour, or trend might look small at first, but if the right conditions come together, it can suddenly spread very quickly. That is useful for thinking about companies, especially businesses that rely on networks, platforms, consumer behaviour, or cultural change.\n\nIt also made me think about my own habits. Small good decisions repeated over time can compound into something powerful. But the opposite is also true. Small bad decisions can also build up and create bigger problems later. That is why process matters. Whether it is investing, money, discipline, or business, the small things I do consistently are what eventually create the bigger outcome.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "Material World", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/material-world", "description": "The modern world is built on physical materials, and understanding them helps me understand the real foundations of businesses, technology, and future investment opportunities.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "Material World by Ed Conway. Commodities / Supply Chains / Civilisation / Investing. Takeaway: The modern world is built on physical materials, and understanding them helps me understand the real foundations of businesses, technology, and future investment opportunities.\n\nMaterial World completely changed the way I look at the modern world. The book explains how six basic materials, sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium, are the foundation of civilisation as we know it today. Before reading it, I understood that materials and commodities were important, but I did not properly appreciate how deeply they sit underneath almost everything we use.\n\nSand stood out to me the most. It was the first material covered in the book, and it immediately hooked me because I had never really thought about sand as one of the most important substances in the world. From concrete and glass to the technology behind semiconductors, it made me realise that the modern world is not as “weightless” or digital as it sometimes seems. Even the most advanced companies still depend on physical materials, huge supply chains, and years of human knowledge.\n\nWhat blew my mind most was how all these materials work together. Without one of them, the world would look completely different. Copper is needed for electricity, oil has powered modern industry, iron built the physical world around us, and lithium is becoming more important as the world moves towards batteries and electrification. The book also made me think more seriously about companies such as ASML and the semiconductor supply chain, because it showed how complicated and fragile the systems behind modern technology really are.\n\nIt also made me think about the uncomfortable side of progress. Mining can be destructive, and some of the stories in the book showed how much damage can be done to land, history, and local communities. At the same time, the world still depends on these materials, and demand is likely to keep increasing. That tension is something I found really important. It made me realise that investing in the future is not only about looking at exciting technologies, but also understanding the raw materials, supply chains, and physical foundations that make those technologies possible.\n\nFor my own investing journey, this book reminded me to look beneath the surface. A company might look like a software, technology, or clean energy business, but behind it there are often mines, factories, logistics networks, energy needs, and scarce resources. Material World made me want to become better at understanding the full chain behind an investment, not just the company name or share price.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "Atomic Habits", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/atomic-habits", "description": "Small decisions do not feel important at the time, but when you repeat them every day, they eventually have a massive effect on the person you become and the direction your life goes in.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "Atomic Habits by James Clear. Habits / Discipline / Personal Development. Takeaway: Small decisions do not feel important at the time, but when you repeat them every day, they eventually have a massive effect on the person you become and the direction your life goes in.\n\nI started reading Atomic Habits at the beginning of the year because I had started developing a few bad habits at university. They were things that I knew were not healthy for me, especially in the long term. I knew that if I wanted to get to where I wanted to be in life, I needed to stop doing them. The problem was that I did not really know how to stop. I wanted to become more disciplined and consistent, but I did not have any sort of framework to work with.\n\nI had heard a lot of people say that Atomic Habits was an incredible book, so I decided to read it. To be honest, it definitely lived up to its reputation. It was really easy to understand, genuinely useful, and probably one of the best personal-development books I have read.\n\nThe main thing I took from the book was the idea of becoming 1% better every day. One small improvement does not seem like it is going to change much, but when you continue doing it over a long period, it starts to compound. The same thing can happen with bad habits. One bad decision might not feel particularly serious, but if you continue making that same decision every day, it can slowly become part of your normal routine.\n\nThat was something I began to notice in myself. Some of the habits I had developed were slowly starting to become part of who I was. I was lucky that I noticed it early enough to change them before they became a proper part of my identity.\n\nAnother big lesson for me was focusing more on systems rather than only focusing on goals. It is easy to say that you want to become more disciplined, healthier, more successful, or more consistent. However, saying that does not actually change anything. You need to create a system and an environment that makes it easier for you to do the right things.\n\nThe book made me realise how much my environment was affecting my behaviour. A lot of the bad habits I had created started because of the environments I was putting myself in. Those environments then created routines, and eventually those routines started to feel normal.\n\nProbably the most useful thing I learned from the entire book was to never miss twice. The idea is that you are never going to be perfect. You are going to make mistakes, break habits, or miss days. However, you should never allow yourself to do it twice in a row.\n\nFor example, if you are trying to stop doing something and you fall back into it one day, you should make sure you do not repeat it again the following day. One mistake does not have to destroy all the progress you have already made.\n\nI have used this idea a lot with writing. I have always enjoyed writing, and ideally I would like to write something every day. However, I had become really inconsistent with it. Since reading the book, I have tried to follow the rule that missing one day is not good, but it is okay. What I cannot do is miss two days in a row.\n\nAt first, this was quite difficult, but over time it has worked really well for me. Instead of missing one day and then completely falling out of the routine, I make sure I get back into it the following day.\n\nI have also used the ideas from the book to stop some of the bad habits I had developed. I am obviously not perfect, and there are still things I need to improve, but the book gave me a much better way of thinking about discipline.\n\nBefore reading it, I think I viewed discipline as something you either had or did not have. Now I think it is something you can build through your environment, your routines, and the small decisions you make every day.\n\nThe book also applies to investing. Being a good investor is not just about finding one incredible company or making one great trade. It is about building good habits around researching businesses, controlling your emotions, reviewing your mistakes, and continuing to learn.\n\nOverall, Atomic Habits taught me that I do not need to completely change my life overnight. I just need to make slightly better decisions, repeat them consistently, and make sure that whenever I make a mistake, I do not allow it to happen twice in a row.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The World for Sale", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-world-for-sale", "description": "Look beyond the company itself: supply chains, natural resources, governments, geopolitics and access to essential commodities can shape what happens to businesses and economies.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The World for Sale by Javier Blas & Jack Farchy. Commodities / Geopolitics / Supply Chains / Investing. Takeaway: Look beyond the company itself: supply chains, natural resources, governments, geopolitics and access to essential commodities can shape what happens to businesses and economies.\n\nThe World for Sale gave me a completely different perspective on the commodity traders who operate behind much of the global economy. Before reading it, I understood the importance of oil, metals and other raw materials, but I had never really appreciated how much influence the people buying, selling and transporting these commodities can have.\n\nWhat interested me most were the stories of the traders themselves. These were people operating across countries, political systems and sometimes extremely unstable environments, often making enormous decisions with very little attention from the wider public. The book showed how companies and individual traders could become deeply involved in major political and economic events simply because governments and entire economies depended on the commodities they controlled.\n\nThe biggest thing I took away from the book, though, was the risk created by global dependence. Modern economies are incredibly interconnected. A country can depend on another country for energy, metals, food or other essential resources, and when politics, war or economic disruption gets involved, that dependence can quickly become a weakness.\n\nFrom an investing perspective, this was probably the most valuable lesson for me. Markets are not just driven by company earnings or whether a business is well managed. Supply chains, natural resources, governments, geopolitics and access to essential commodities can all have a huge impact on what eventually happens to companies and economies.\n\nIt has made me think more carefully about what sits behind an investment. Instead of only looking at the company itself, I want to understand what that company depends on, where its resources come from and what could happen if those relationships were disrupted.\n\nOverall, I really enjoyed the book. It opened up an area of the financial world that I knew relatively little about and made the connection between commodities, politics and investing much clearer to me.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Coming Wave", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-coming-wave", "description": "One of the biggest challenges of the coming decades may be whether our governments and institutions can adapt quickly enough to manage increasingly powerful technology.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman. Artificial Intelligence / Technology / Government / Risk. Takeaway: One of the biggest challenges of the coming decades may be whether our governments and institutions can adapt quickly enough to manage increasingly powerful technology.\n\nThe Coming Wave made me think much more seriously about the risks that come with increasingly powerful technology, particularly artificial intelligence. What interested me most wasn't simply how capable AI could become, but whether governments and society are actually prepared for the speed at which these technologies are developing.\n\nMy biggest takeaway from the book was how difficult it is going to be to control technology once it becomes widely available. Throughout history, powerful new technologies have eventually spread, and AI seems likely to be no different. The difference this time is the scale and speed at which it could happen.\n\nWhat I found particularly interesting was the position governments are in. Technology is developing incredibly quickly, while governments, regulations and institutions generally move much more slowly. It left me questioning whether the systems we currently rely on are capable of dealing with something as significant as advanced AI.\n\nThe part that stayed with me most was what all of this could ultimately mean for humanity. AI has the potential to create huge improvements in productivity, science, medicine and everyday life, but the same technology can also create risks that are difficult to predict or contain. That doesn't necessarily mean the technology should be stopped, but it does mean we need to take the risks seriously rather than assuming we will always be able to control what we create.\n\nOverall, The Coming Wave made me both more excited and more cautious about AI. I still think the opportunities are enormous, but the book made me realise that technological progress alone isn't enough. One of the biggest challenges of the coming decades may be whether our governments and institutions can adapt quickly enough to manage it.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "Good to Great", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/good-to-great", "description": "If you want something to succeed over the long term, getting the people right is one of the most important places to start.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-08", "contentText": "Good to Great by Jim Collins. Leadership / Management / Business / Investing. Takeaway: If you want something to succeed over the long term, getting the people right is one of the most important places to start.\n\nGood to Great made me think differently about what actually creates long-term success in a business. There are obviously lots of factors involved, but the biggest takeaway for me was that ultimately it comes back to people.\n\nThe idea that stayed with me most was Level 5 Leadership. I found it interesting that some of the most successful leaders weren't necessarily the loudest, most charismatic or most publicly recognised. Instead, Collins describes leaders who combine huge ambition for the organisation with a surprising amount of humility. They care more about building something that lasts than about receiving personal credit for it.\n\nThat challenged the stereotypical image I had of what a great CEO or leader should look like. You often hear about the larger-than-life founders and executives who dominate the companies they run, but Good to Great showed me that strong leadership can actually be much quieter. What matters is the standard they set, the people they surround themselves with and the decisions they make over a long period of time.\n\nThe wider lesson for me was that people drive success. Strategy, technology and opportunities are important, but having the right people in the right positions seems to come before almost everything else. A great idea with the wrong people behind it can easily fail, while the right group of people can adapt when circumstances change.\n\nFrom an investing perspective, it also made me think more about management when looking at companies. Financial results tell you what a business has already achieved, but understanding the people allocating capital and making long-term decisions can tell you much more about where that business might eventually go.\n\nOverall, Good to Great reinforced the idea that genuinely great businesses aren't built overnight. They are built through disciplined decisions, strong people and leadership that thinks beyond the next quarter. The biggest lesson I took from it is that if you want something to succeed over the long term, getting the people right is one of the most important places to start.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "The Outsiders", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/the-outsiders", "description": "Treat every capital-allocation decision as an investment and put each pound where it can earn the best sensible return.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-08-11", "contentText": "The Outsiders by William N. Thorndike Jr.. Capital Allocation / Leadership / Business / Investing. Takeaway: Treat every capital-allocation decision as an investment and put each pound where it can earn the best sensible return.\n\nThe Outsiders made me think more carefully about what actually separates a great CEO from an average one. Before reading it, I mainly thought about CEOs in terms of how well they could grow a business, manage people and improve operations. The book showed me that one of the most important responsibilities of a CEO is actually capital allocation — deciding what to do with the cash a business produces.\n\nWhat stood out to me most was how differently the CEOs in the book approached decisions such as acquisitions, share buybacks and reinvestment. They were not particularly interested in following what other companies were doing or making decisions that looked impressive from the outside. They treated each decision as an investment. If buying another company offered an attractive return, they would make an acquisition. If their own shares were undervalued, they were willing to buy back large amounts of stock. If neither option made sense, they were comfortable holding cash and waiting.\n\nThe section on share buybacks gave me a much better appreciation of how powerful they can be when used properly. I already understood the basic idea of a company buying back its own shares, but the book made me think more carefully about how important the price paid actually is. If a company buys back shares when they are undervalued, the remaining shareholders end up owning a larger percentage of the business without having to invest any more money themselves. That can be an excellent use of capital.\n\nHowever, a buyback is not automatically a good decision. If management buys back shares simply because it has excess cash, especially when the shares are expensive, it can be a poor use of that money. What I took from this is that buybacks should be judged in the same way as any other investment — by the price paid and the return that capital is likely to produce.\n\nThe same applies to acquisitions. One of the ideas I appreciated more after reading the book was that making a company bigger does not necessarily make it more valuable. A CEO can grow revenue, expand into new markets and complete large acquisitions while still destroying shareholder value if they consistently overpay.\n\nWhat stood out about the CEOs in The Outsiders was their discipline. They treated acquisitions like investments rather than trophies. They were willing to act decisively when the economics were attractive, but they were also comfortable walking away and doing nothing when the numbers did not make sense. I liked this because it reinforced the idea that good capital allocation is not about constantly making deals or chasing growth. Sometimes the best decision is simply to wait.\n\nMy biggest practical takeaway from the book is that running a business well is only part of the job. Once a company starts generating cash, deciding what happens to that cash becomes incredibly important. It can be reinvested into the existing business, used to acquire another company, returned to shareholders through dividends, used to repurchase shares or kept until a better opportunity appears.\n\nThis is probably the lesson I want to apply most to businesses I am involved with in the future. I want to think about company money in the same way I think about investing: every pound has an opportunity cost. Rather than spending money simply because it is available or chasing growth for the sake of getting bigger, I want to ask where that capital can generate the best return while still keeping the risks sensible.\n\nFor me, The Outsiders showed that some of the best CEOs are also exceptional investors. They think independently, stay disciplined and understand that creating long-term value often comes down to one simple question:\n\nWhat is the best use of the next pound of capital?", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "Poor Charlie’s Almanack", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/poor-charlies-almanack", "description": "My biggest takeaway from Poor Charlie’s Almanack was the importance of learning what not to do, as well as what to do.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-08-18", "contentText": "Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger. Investing / Mental Models / Psychology / Decision-Making. Takeaway: My biggest takeaway from Poor Charlie’s Almanack was the importance of learning what not to do, as well as what to do.\n\nMunger repeatedly makes the point that you do not need to make brilliant decisions all the time to achieve good results. A huge amount can be achieved simply by avoiding stupidity, recognising common mistakes and staying away from situations where the odds are against you.\n\nThis resonated with me particularly because of my own experience with trading. One of the biggest things I have been learning is how damaging impulsive decisions can be. Sometimes the best decision is simply to do nothing. Patience is key, especially when it comes to long-term investing, and feeling as though you always need to be making a trade can lead you into decisions you would never make if you stopped and thought properly.\n\nIt also made me appreciate the idea of inversion. If you are trying to become a better investor, for example, studying what causes investors to consistently lose money can be just as useful as studying the people who have succeeded. If impatience, excessive leverage, emotional decision-making, overconfidence and following the crowd repeatedly lead to poor outcomes, then deliberately avoiding those behaviours already puts you in a much stronger position.\n\nSometimes succeeding is less about constantly asking, “What brilliant thing should I do?” and more about asking, “What obvious mistakes do I need to make sure I don't make?”\n\nI had wanted to read Poor Charlie’s Almanack for a long time. I had heard so many good things about Charlie Munger and the way he thought, and the book definitely lived up to my expectations.\n\nMunger was obviously an incredible investor, but what I found most interesting was how much of his wisdom extended beyond investing. Some of my favourite parts of the book were actually his thoughts on psychology, human behaviour, learning and decision-making.\n\nOne of the ideas I appreciated most was his concept of developing a latticework of mental models. Rather than becoming knowledgeable in only one area, Munger believed in learning the important ideas from a wide range of disciplines and then connecting them together.\n\nOver his life he drew ideas from subjects such as mathematics, psychology, economics, science and history and used them to improve the way he approached completely different problems.\n\nI really related to this. I have always been interested in a wide range of subjects, and the book reinforced my belief that this can be a huge advantage. Learning something in one area often gives you a completely different way of looking at a problem somewhere else. The more useful ideas you have available to you, the more ways you have of understanding what is actually going on.\n\nAnother major part of the book that stood out to me was Munger's understanding of psychology and human misjudgement.\n\nOne example that stuck with me was his discussion of Judith Rich Harris and the influence that peer groups can have on children. The basic idea is that the people children surround themselves with can have an enormous influence on their behaviour and development.\n\nI found this fascinating because the lesson extends far beyond children. The people we surround ourselves with affect the way we think, behave and make decisions. In investing, the same psychological forces can cause people to follow the crowd simply because everyone around them appears to believe the same thing.\n\nIt was another reminder of how important independent thinking is.\n\nMunger's discussion of incentives also made a lot of sense to me. People respond strongly to the incentives placed in front of them, sometimes without even realising it.\n\nI can relate to this personally through work. There is obviously a financial incentive to work harder when you are being paid well, but it is not purely about money. How well you are treated also makes a significant difference to how motivated you are and how much effort you are willing to put in.\n\nIt seems obvious when you say it, but it is easy to forget when looking at other people's behaviour. Rather than immediately asking why someone is behaving in a certain way, it can be useful to first ask: what are they being incentivised to do?\n\nThat is something I think can be useful when looking at employees, managers, businesses and investments.\n\nOne of the simplest lessons in the book was also one of the ones that stayed with me most.\n\nMunger discusses Carl Braun's approach to giving people instructions. The important part was not simply telling someone what needed to be done, but also explaining why they were being asked to do it.\n\nI thought this was incredibly useful.\n\nIf somebody understands the reasoning behind a task, they are much more capable of thinking for themselves while completing it. They are no longer blindly following an instruction; they understand the outcome that is actually trying to be achieved.\n\nIt is a very small idea, but I can see it being extremely valuable in business. If I am ever managing people or asking someone to do something important, I want to remember to explain the reasoning behind it rather than simply telling them what to do.\n\nOverall, what I liked most about Munger was the way he approached life as a continuous process of learning.\n\nHe was rational, incredibly curious and willing to learn from almost anywhere. He understood that human beings are naturally prone to making irrational decisions, and instead of assuming he was immune to those mistakes, he tried to build systems of thinking that helped him avoid them.\n\nThat is probably what I will remember most from Poor Charlie’s Almanack.\n\nYou don't have to know everything. You don't have to constantly be doing something. And you don't have to make genius decisions every day.\n\nLearn broadly, understand incentives, think independently, be patient and become very good at avoiding the mistakes that repeatedly destroy other people's results.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "When Breath Becomes Air", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/books/when-breath-becomes-air", "description": "The present is the only part of life we really have control over, so make proper use of it.", "pageType": "book-reflection", "lastUpdated": "2026-08-20", "contentText": "When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Memoir / Mortality / Purpose / Family. Takeaway: The present is the only part of life we really have control over, so make proper use of it.\n\nWhen Breath Becomes Air is one of the most moving books I have read. Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon who had spent years working towards the career and life he wanted, only to be diagnosed with terminal lung cancer just as he was reaching the point where all that work was beginning to pay off. What makes the book so powerful is that it is not simply about dying. It is about what happens to your priorities when you suddenly realise that the future you assumed you had may no longer exist.\n\nWhat stayed with me most was Paul's relationship with his wife, Lucy, and his family. As his illness progressed, it became increasingly clear that the people around him mattered more than almost anything else. Family has always been extremely important to me, so this part of the book did not necessarily change the way I think, but it reinforced just how valuable those relationships are. Careers, money and achievements can all disappear incredibly quickly, whereas the people you share your life with are ultimately a huge part of what gives it meaning.\n\nOne of the parts I found most difficult was Paul and Lucy's decision to have their daughter, Cady, despite knowing that Paul was unlikely to be alive for much of her childhood. Initially, I struggled with the decision. Part of me felt that it was slightly selfish for Paul to knowingly leave Lucy as a single mother and for Cady to grow up without her father. The more I thought about it, though, the more I understood why they made that decision. For Paul, it was another way of choosing life while he still had it. It also meant that Lucy would not be completely alone after his death. I still think it is a complicated decision, and the book does not try to make questions like this easy, which is one of the reasons it stayed with me.\n\nThe biggest lesson I took from the book was the importance of the present. Time continues moving whether we use it well or not. We spend so much of our lives thinking about what we are going to do in a year, five years or ten years, but none of us actually knows how much time we have. Paul had spent years preparing for the future, and then almost instantly that future changed.\n\nRather than making me less ambitious, the book probably had the opposite effect. It made me want to achieve even more with the time that I have. I do not want to reach the end of my life and realise that I had opportunities to pursue the things I genuinely wanted but never had the courage or discipline to do them. I know there will always be more that could have been achieved, but I would at least like to know that I properly went after the ambitions I had.\n\nThe ending was incredibly sad. It was one of the few books that genuinely brought me close to tears. But alongside that sadness, I finished it feeling grateful and motivated. Grateful for the people and opportunities I have now, and motivated to make better use of them.\n\nI would absolutely recommend When Breath Becomes Air. It gives you a perspective on just how quickly life can change and forces you to think about what actually matters when time becomes limited.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio" ] }, { "title": "Alphabet: Re-entry Discipline", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/research/alphabet-re-entry-discipline.html", "description": "Why a great business can still require patience on price.", "pageType": "research-note", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-16", "contentText": "Alphabet: Re-entry Discipline. Company Notes. Current holding. Ticker: GOOGL.\n\nPortfolio role: Quality growth holding / AI and platform scale. Risk level: Medium. Research focus: Price discipline, business quality, and re-entry patience. Decision impact: Helped frame the decision to rebuild a smaller Alphabet position instead of chasing the earlier sale price..\n\nAlphabet is a high-quality business, but quality does not automatically create a margin of safety.\n\nThe research note focuses on patience, valuation discipline, and what must be true before re-entering the position.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "ASML and the AI Infrastructure Thesis", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/research/asml-ai-infrastructure-thesis.html", "description": "Understanding the role of semiconductor equipment in long-term AI growth.", "pageType": "research-note", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-16", "contentText": "ASML and the AI Infrastructure Thesis. Company Notes. Sold / lesson. Ticker: ASML.\n\nPortfolio role: AI infrastructure watchlist name after a profitable sale. Risk level: Medium. Research focus: Semiconductor equipment quality, cyclicality, valuation, and when to let winners run. Decision impact: Turned the ASML sale into a process lesson about trimming versus fully exiting high-quality winners..\n\nASML sits upstream of many AI infrastructure ambitions. That makes the business strategically important, but not immune to valuation risk.\n\nThe note studies business quality, cyclicality, customer concentration, and whether the position size reflects the uncertainty.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "Gold as a Portfolio Hedge", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/research/gold-as-a-portfolio-hedge.html", "description": "Why a hedge can still be uncomfortable to hold when markets are strong.", "pageType": "research-note", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-16", "contentText": "Gold as a Portfolio Hedge. Risk Management. Current holding. Ticker: SGLN.\n\nPortfolio role: Macro hedge and portfolio stabiliser. Risk level: Lower. Research focus: Why a hedge can be useful even when it feels uncomfortable to hold. Decision impact: Clarifies why gold is held for balance and stress protection, not excitement or short-term return chasing..\n\nA hedge can feel unproductive when risk assets are rising. That discomfort is part of why the role has to be defined before it is needed.\n\nGold is reviewed as a portfolio stabiliser, not as a promise of return or a reason to ignore valuation elsewhere.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "Handling Winners", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/research/handling-winners.html", "description": "Learning when to trim, when to hold, and when not to let fear control profitable positions.", "pageType": "research-note", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-16", "contentText": "Handling Winners. Portfolio Construction. Portfolio rule. \n\nPortfolio role: Process note for profitable positions. Risk level: Medium. Research focus: When to trim, when to hold, and how to avoid selling just because a gain exists. Decision impact: Creates a review framework for winners like QQQA, VUAG, SpaceX, and previously ASML..\n\nHandling winners is difficult because both greed and fear can pretend to be discipline.\n\nThe note studies how to review valuation, thesis strength, concentration, and tax or frictional costs before trimming.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "Rheinmetall Risk Review", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/research/rheinmetall-risk-review.html", "description": "Separating long-term defence demand from short-term price weakness.", "pageType": "research-note", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-16", "contentText": "Rheinmetall Risk Review. Watchlist. Current holding. Ticker: RHM.\n\nPortfolio role: Thematic defence exposure under review. Risk level: Higher. Research focus: Separating a still-interesting defence theme from position-level drawdown risk. Decision impact: Keeps the Rheinmetall position under stricter review without forcing a panic sale..\n\nThe Rheinmetall review separates the long-term demand story from the practical risk of short-term price weakness.\n\nThe question is not whether the theme is interesting. The question is whether the position size and entry price are sensible for the account.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/process" ] }, { "title": "Static Page Summaries", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/pages.html", "description": "Plain HTML summaries of the main public site routes.", "pageType": "ai-summary", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "/ - The homepage is the mobile-first entry point for Codie Capital Research, explaining the site quickly and pointing first-time visitors to My First Letter, the latest portfolio update, current portfolio, and the main sections.\n/portfolio - The portfolio page records Codie’s own current holdings, August 2026 review account value, starting value, cash, latest return, winners, drags, portfolio role notes, and latest action plan.\n/journal - The journal page lists portfolio review cards and journal entries with dates, account values where available, main trades, and lessons.\n/letters - The Letters page publishes My First Letter, a long-form reflection on discipline, patience, risk, and building a public investing record.\n/books - The books page is a bookshelf index of books Codie has read, with each book linking to its own full reflection page.\n/process - The process page sets out the investing rulebook: protect capital, size positions properly, write reasoning, keep cash discipline, avoid leverage and impulsive trades, and review regularly.\n/about - The about page explains Codie’s investing background, early interest in markets, first Bitcoin investment, family real estate influence, lessons from mistakes, and reading development.\n/disclaimer - The disclaimer page explains that the site is a personal investment research and portfolio journal, not investment advice, not FCA-authorised, and not a recommendation.\n/ai/ - The AI page is a complete plain HTML archive for ChatGPT, AI review tools, Google crawlers, and simple browser-fetch tools.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/", "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal", "https://codiemarillier.com/letters", "https://codiemarillier.com/books", "https://codiemarillier.com/process", "https://codiemarillier.com/about", "https://codiemarillier.com/disclaimer", "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/" ] }, { "title": "Portfolio and Roles", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/portfolio.html", "description": "AI-readable portfolio record, holdings, role structure, transaction summary, winners, drags, and action plan.", "pageType": "ai-portfolio", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-07", "contentText": "Account value £2,009.30. Starting value £1,999. Return +0.52%. Cash £0.56.\n\nSGLN SGLN / iShares Physical Gold: 5.72 shares, Portfolio hedge and macro protection, Current holding.\nQQQA QQQA / Nasdaq-100 ETF: 5.57 shares, Broad technology-led US equity exposure, Current holding.\nVUAG VUAG / Vanguard S&P 500 ETF: 2.04 shares, Broad US market exposure, Current holding.\nRHM Rheinmetall: 0.087 shares, Defence demand and European security exposure, Current holding.\nO Realty Income: 3.28 shares, Real estate income exposure, Current holding.\nNEE NextEra Energy: 2.04 shares, Utility and renewables exposure, Current holding.\nMETA Meta Platforms: 0.52 shares, Advertising, AI, and platform scale, Current holding.\nSYM Symbotic: 3.268 shares, Robotics and warehouse automation, Current holding.\nSPCX SpaceX: 1 share, Early exposure to space infrastructure, satellites, and Starlink, Current holding.\nPSH Pershing Square Holdings: 2 shares, Discount-to-NAV exposure to Pershing Square portfolio and Bill Ackman’s capital allocation, Current holding.\nABNB Airbnb: 1.223 shares, Asset-light travel platform exposure, Current holding.\nBRK.B Berkshire Hathaway: 0.3884 shares, Diversified operating businesses and capital discipline, Current holding.\nGOOGL Alphabet (Class A): 0.28 shares, Search, cloud, AI, and platform scale, Small rebuilt position.\nASML ASML: Closed, Semiconductor equipment exposure, Closed on 9 June 2026.\nMSFT Microsoft: 0.14171835 shares, Quality software and AI infrastructure exposure, Current holding.\nIONQ IonQ: Closed, Quantum computing exposure, Closed.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/portfolio", "https://codiemarillier.com/journal/capital-research-review-05" ] }, { "title": "Readable Route Manifest", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html", "description": "A plain HTML manifest listing every important page with URL, summary, topics, and last updated date.", "pageType": "ai-manifest", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Machine-readable and human-readable route map for AI review tools and simple crawlers.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-content.json", "https://codiemarillier.com/sitemap.xml" ] }, { "title": "Machine-Readable Site Content JSON", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-content.json", "description": "A JSON file containing readable text content and metadata for every main page and journal page.", "pageType": "json-manifest", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "JSON archive for AI tools that need all site content in one structured file.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/site-map-readable.html" ] }, { "title": "All Content Text Archive", "url": "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/all-content.txt", "description": "A plain text archive of site content, portfolio facts, books, process rules, and journal entries.", "pageType": "plain-text-archive", "lastUpdated": "2026-06-22", "contentText": "Plain text archive generated from site data.", "internalLinks": [ "https://codiemarillier.com/ai/index.html" ] } ] }