Timothy Pereira returned to the market in March and is up 16 per cent since. He still follows the strategy of investing in ‘technology platform companies dominant in a growing field,’ except option trading is now kept to a small part of his portfolio.
Timothy Pereira
Occupation
Estate administrator
The portfolio
Tesla Motors Inc., Apple Inc., GoPro Inc. and put options on Movado Group Inc
The investor
Timothy Pereira's portfolio has been through a lot since it was featured in a Me and My Money column in 2008.
Focused on a handful of technology companies, it fell hard during the market meltdown that ended in 2009. A strong rebound came afterward and raised the average annual return to 25 per cent for the nine years to 2011. "More people than I could handle wanted to invest their money with me," Mr. Pereira reports.
"Unfortunately I changed the strategy to become more and more risky," he adds. In 2012, nearly all his portfolio was placed into call options on Apple Inc.'s stock. He was right about the price going up – but it dipped first. Before the recovery came, the options expired worthless.
How he invests
Mr. Pereira's work then took him away from stocks. He got back into the market in March and is up 16 per cent since. He still follows the strategy of investing in "technology platform companies dominant in a growing field," except option trading is now kept to a small part of his portfolio.
Apple and Telsa Motors, an electric-vehicle manufacturer, fall into the category of dominant technology platform companies. GoPro, a maker of wearable cameras, fits to a lesser degree – it is also "a bet on the company's prospects as a brand and its takeover value."
A very small amount is being wagered against Movado, a designer and distributor of watches. "I think their business will be hurt by the Apple Watch."
Best move
His best move since returning to the stock market three months ago was buying GoPro stock, which is up more than 30 per cent.
Worst move
Having his Apple call options expire worthless in 2012.
Advice
"Find the leaders in newly disrupted industries or bet against the incumbent losers."
Want to be in Me and My Money? Contact Larry MacDonald at mccolumn@yahoo.com or his Website.