Outsider

I’m a former poker player, gambler, risk-taker, whatever you want to call it.

I didn’t go to college.

I have never worked for a large financial institution, pension fund, or investment bank.

I don’t have wealthy parents. Nothing was given to me for free.

I’m an outsider of the finance industry, a misfit.

My chances of making it successfully into this industry were probably very slim.

I was introduced to the investing world, specifically small public companies, in late 2014 by a good friend of mine. I was in my mid-twenties at the time. I had decent savings for my age, but it was mostly sitting in a bank account doing nothing. I had never owned a stock in my life and never studied finance in any way, shape, or form.

After buying a couple of stocks based on recommendations from my friend and seeing them start to move up early on, I got hooked up pretty quickly. One of those first two stocks, by the way, was $XPEL, which would have been a 50-bagger+ had I held on to it. Early lesson: don’t sell great companies too soon!

During the next couple of years, I devoured anything I could get my hands on about investing. I read books, watched tutorials, participated in online message boards, and did a lot of trial and error. I even attended a few microcap conferences, such as LD Micro in Los Angeles, and took 1x1 meetings with management teams. Here I was, 26 years old, with some savings to invest and a dream, interviewing management teams of publicly traded companies in LA after reading a few investing books. I mean, who does that? I was too much of a newbie to realize you ‘‘couldn’t’’ do that.

When you think about it, this really is the beauty of investing in small companies. Anybody can do it. Management teams are accessible and happy to talk to anybody interested in their company. There are very few professionals in this space. It’s a great place to start and to learn without being burdened by the conventions of the finance industry.

During those years, my friend and I also started blogging on Espace MicroCaps. We would share educational articles and fundamental research on our current top picks. Our goal was to educate people (at the same time as I was educating myself) and build a community of like-minded investors. I met great investors and made several friends through this experience.

Fast-forward to 2017-2018, I had developed my investing strategy and my own style. My portfolio was thriving. During the first four years, I compounded the money in my TFSA at 40%+ CAGR (this is unaudited, so you’ll have to take my word for it).

My friend and I negotiated a deal to become consultants for a microcap fund that would launch in early 2018, the Rivemont MicroCap Fund. We would be able to recommend our best investment ideas and portfolio strategies to the Rivemont team, which would then implement them based on their analysis.

At that point, I figured I had to get my CFA charter if I wanted to manage money someday. There are basically two ways to enroll in the CFA program: either you have a college degree or four years of work experience (in any field). I didn’t have a degree, but I had previously worked in other jobs (not in finance) and could qualify through the second path.

I don’t know the statistics, but I’m willing to bet that there aren’t a whole lot of people who enroll in the CFA program, one of the toughest and most rigorous programs in finance, without a degree or experience in finance. Again, who does that? Total misfit.

I got down to work right away. I studied several hundred hours per exam (there are three exams in total). It was one of the most grueling things I ever did. But you know what? I passed the three exams on the first try and ranked above the 90th percentile score of all candidates on every exam. It was unreal.

Against all odds, I finally had my ticket to a legitimate path in the asset management business. It came down to two things: hard work and perseverance. You can achieve pretty much anything you want if you have these two qualities. If you are willing to outwork other people and persevere through thick and thin, chances are you’ll end up in a pretty good place over a long enough period of time.

I eventually joined Rivemont as a senior analyst and then as portfolio manager of the Rivemont MicroCap Fund, but I’ll save this story for another time (I still manage the fund, by the way).

Now, here we are, back to my roots, starting a blog to share fresh content and ideas, but most importantly because writing allows me to realize how much I still don’t know. It keeps me honest. It keeps me hungry to find new concepts and ideas to share.

Succeeding in any field requires you to work hard every day and constantly improve yourself.

That’s what the journey is all about!

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