I’ve been wondering about it for several months, but I’ve now made the decision. I’m going to stop “value investing” (via my Daubasses portfolio).
If you’ve just discovered my blog with this article, I’ll leave you to read about my experience with value investing.
In sum:
- Several years ago, I was looking to increase my stock market returns
- This was before I fell in love with real estate investment in Switzerland
- I had chosen Les Daubasses (paid newsletter) for their effective “value investing” strategy which had a Cartesian reasoning that I liked
- Objective: +10% annualized return over the long term
The 2 reasons behind my decision
Since 2019, I’ve started spending more and more time on real estate investment with a rental property, then a second, and you know the rest.
It’s time-consuming, but I like it.
And like any good productivity geek, I know that focus helps to achieve success in any field.
Knowing that real estate offers me a greater return than the potential of my Daubasses portfolio, the latter has become a distraction in my strategy.
Also, the Daubasses newsletter and forum are hugely interesting but I never have the time to read them, or to learn or delve into this subject, in order to potentially find my own little nuggets of value.
I’ve therefore decided to overcome the “FOMO” effect and stop my Daubasses portfolio for these two reasons:
- Simplification of my global investment portfolio, by getting rid of the distraction and active management needed to buy/sell by strictly following the Daubasses signs. This is in order to put all my active management concentration into real estate in Switzerland (rental return and development).
- Not enough time or desire to dig into the gold mine of information provided by Les Daubasses (the forum is incredible). It’s very personal, as some investors will prefer the appeal of being 100% behind their screen in Warren Buffett mode, while others will see their future in the more tangible side (the well-known bricks and mortar!) of real estate.
Do I still recommend Les Daubasses?
You may legitimately wonder if my decision is hiding something.
And it really isn’t.
If I wasn’t so active in real estate in Switzerland, I would definitely have kept this value investing part of my portfolio. Because I have to admit that being a bit active when it comes to my investments satisfies this part that every investor has inside them of wanting to “do something” (N.B. I only have CHF 38'000 in Daubasses, which represents 4.6% of my total wealth invested in the stock market).
Daubasses return record
In order to know what we’re talking about, here’s the performance of my Daubasses portfolio.
It’s separated into two, as there’s the 2019-2023 period when our Interactive Brokers account was in one of our two names, and the period from the end of 2023 up to today when we have a joint Interactive Brokers account.
If I combine these two periods, we get an annualized return of our Daubasses portfolio of… 8.1% between June 2019 and March 2025.
Note to myself: I was expecting more, but overall, over a period of 6 years, it’s actually not so bad.
“But MP, it’s ‘just’ a few clicks every month at most!”
I can hear you saying this behind your screen. And a part of my brain agrees!
But the other part of my brain which has read “The One Thing” knows how much simplification and focus are catalysts for success.
I had the same problem when I had to give up several entrepreneurial projects in favor of the blog that you’re reading. And I would never regret this decision!
So yes, I could keep this little bit of my portfolio in “Daubasses / Value Investing” mode… but no!
How I’m going to divest from my value portfolio
I’m not on a kamikaze mission, so no, I’m not going to sell my entire Daubasses portfolio in one go now, and endure several losses.
My strategy is the following:
- I won’t buy any new Daubasses stocks, nor strengthen any position when Les Daubasses do it
- I’ll sell each Daubasses stock when Les Daubasses sell them
- It may take several years to sell off the whole portfolio, and that’s fine with me
Conclusion
The beauty of simplicity can also be applied to the world of investing. I’ve decided to concentrate on the active management of my investments in real estate rather than value investing.
The main reason for me: I can target a greater return via real estate (15%+ in rental, and much more in real estate development) than with Daubasses (10%+). However, it requires greater effort and time, and I’m OK with that.
Nevertheless, if I wanted or had to really get into value investing, then I’d still do it with Les Daubasses at the moment. Their forum is a gold mine for anyone who wants to devote the effort and time to it, and the same for their newsletter.
For me, when it comes to the stock market, I’m pleased to only have a single line with my favorite VT ETF:)
At least I’ve tried it, and I have no regrets!
How about you, did you already decide to review your investment strategy? Which part did you cut out?
