Taking Stock in 2025
New and Old Stock ideas, reflections, long term strategy review
2025 was a great year in many ways. For my portfolio it was not.
I wouldn’t trade this underperformance for any of my personal blessings that came this past year. 2026 is on our doorsteps. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t having some investing fatigue this past year. I’m hopeful that enough time has past that I can rejuvenate myself in 2026 with some fresh ideas as well as improving weightings in existing holders. Reflecting has been helpful in finding that selling has been the biggest issue in the last few years (both ways). (Not) cutting the weeds being a large part of this.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
Warren E. Buffett
Selling is Hard
There are, for me anyway, three main challenges when it comes to selling:
Ego - If I thought this was a great idea to buy, it is surely admitting defeat to sell. This plagues a lot of people, other than the best of investors in the long term. It is something I would like to improve on and I think admitting it (especially publicly) is a great first step.
Timing - When exactly does a business change from good to bad? It isn’t as if one day, all of a sudden you get news that actually this isn’t a good long term business to be a part of. I would like to setup some rules for myself to help with this one. Mainly, a minimum hold period after I buy something (2 years seems reasonable to me, even for microcaps to actually play out from the thesis). After that if the business isn’t doing what it was supposed to do, I was wrong and should get out promptly (illiquid stocks do take time to get out of though).
Alignment with a Buying Opportunity - I need to do a better job of cultivating the bench for the portfolio so that I have better things to buy. Ideally, these should be “pushing” for things to be sold so that they can be bought. I should also be more patient and willing to sit on some cash. Historically, I have not done that and I suspect it is my temperament (patience) that is the cause, not the strategy.
Existing Stock Ideas
Below are some quick thoughts on my current favorite ideas going forward that are not new. If I had to guess, these would be the best performers over the next 3-5 years that I already own. I recently added to all three and they are major weights in the portfolio (updated portfolio coming soon). I think Charlie sums it up best.
The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting. It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait.
Charlie Munger
Happy Belly Food Group
Heal and Rosies are growing like weeds. They are making entry into some select US markets and are continuing to get great locations in existing Canadian markets. Yolks is also growing (it is not as much a fast food brand so won’t have that sort of growth). They are staffing up for expectations to around 2x the store count for Heal and I expect similar growth for Rosies. Strategically, they just sold their Holy Crap! CPG brand which I think signals they want to double down on their focus with QSR brands. It also signals they are fully willing to sell their brands for the right price, something the CEO has said before. To me, this is smart capital allocation as these brands are not necessarily “forever” names; some will be in style with high growth for a few years, others a bit longer, but most will fizzle at some point. Look no further than MTY brands for evidence of this as something that is normal in the industry. Selling once they are established to incubate others to grow makes a lot of sense to me as a longer term strategy for their capital. This strategy will take years to play out but so far they are executing well.
Constellation Software and related
AI fears seem a little overblown but only time will tell. From what I can tell, there are plenty of opportunities to reinvest the scalable model that CSU, TOI, PineTree, Sygnity, Lumine and future spins will employ. Valuation for the growth engine (even if we assume slower growth going forward due to size) is at relative lows compared to the past 5 years. Historically, investors have done well buying at these levels. I am comfortable holding and would even continue to add with new funds if there are no other opportunities that are obvious.
Zedcor
They are growing their towers. They are selling more to more customers and in more industries. I’m happy to watch this thing grow for the next few years. Enough said.
New Stock Ideas
Below you will find four “new” stock ideas that I find interesting. They all have high potential for big returns over the next few years based on the business growth and/or quality. They are all relatively small and unfollowed, although some have a growing following of individual and small institutional investors.
Aluula
Aluula holds a proprietary patent for molecularly fusing polymers, creating composites that are 50% lighter and significantly stronger than incumbents by eliminating heavy glues. They have successfully validated the technology in the niche windsports market and are now entering a rapid growth phase through confirmed commercial partnerships with major outdoor brands like Arc’teryx. Beyond consumer gear, the company is unlocking high-volume industrial revenue streams through aerospace and wind energy applications where weight reduction directly correlates to cost savings. Their “mono-polymer” chemistry solves a critical supply chain problem, offering one of the few high-performance materials that meets strict new industrial recycling mandates.
Essentially, this is an early-entry opportunity into a high-margin “ingredient brand” model with the technical moat to become the standard for lightweight durability, similar to the trajectory of Gore-Tex. Microcap investors have already caught on to this idea and the stock has surged as a result. So it means you need to believe in the long term TAM for this product to be a buyer, which I think has potential. Execution is the risk here.
