I’ll go over what my overall performance and how each of my holdings has performed in 2023 in this post.
Before getting into the numbers, I feel that I should say that 1 year is too short of a timeframe to judge my investing performance. I think 2-3 years is adequate. At least that’s what I tell myself when the indexes trounce me.
Overall performance was up 13-14%. This compares to the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and TSX at 25%, 45% and 8% respectively. (I am writing part way through the last trading day so these numbers may be off slightly).
Much has been said about the disconnect between smallcap and larg cap (or microcap and megacap) valuations. Yes there is a disconnect. Will it last? Will it get larger? Will interest rates go up/down from here? I don’t know.
The rolling 2 and 3 year returns starting with $100 for the indexes and myself are shown below.
Having a positive 2022 (even though single digit) really helped even during the Nasdaq ripping this year.
Individual Company Performance (Worst to Best)
Feel free to pass this along if you use me as your contra.
Geodrill ($GEO.to) -34%. Ooof. GEO ran into some operational challenges during the year. Despite the margin compression, shares are still very cheap. Gold continues to perk up which should help with the juniors getting capital to look for our favorite shiny rock. FWIW sentiment for gold feels very low to me.
Sangoma Technologies ($STC.to) -30%. Ouchie. This was the third year in a row with negative returns for this one. I wish I could hang onto my deadlift this well. I am watching closely to see how the new CEO executes and if STC can maintain margins given their large services/ARR. Every time I start to feel smart I pull up the 3 year chart for STC and reread some posts from 2021.
Viemed ($VMD) -24%. Using the US ticker price as VMD has delisted from the TSX. Given the position size, this was the largest detractor from performance for 2023. I topped up my position in the low 8s. The business is humming along well and I don’t believe they are expecting any competitive bidding coming up, so hoping 2024 is a good year.
High Arctic Energy Services ($HWO.to) -17%. This is since I removed from my OFS basket and started counting it as a special situation. I don’t know what happens, but I feel downside is low.
Redishred ($KUT.v) -16%. This pretty much mirrors 2022 performance. Though I knew that paper prices would drive the narrative for KUT, I don’t think I appreciated how much they would drive the narrative. They are growing shredding services at a good pace, so this minimizes the impact of paper prices. We start lapping better comps in paper prices in Q2.
Foraco International ($FAR.to) flat for last 4 months. New position that I’m still building. Working on a full write-up.
OFS basket +5-15%. This is very hard to judge as I have been adding during 2023. I am going to do a post specifically on this part of my portfolio and how it has been performing.
Cipher Pharmaceuticals ($CPH.to) +46%. This was the largest contributor to my returns this year. They are deploying capital in an intelligent way. Still cheap, but still uncertainty.
OneSoft ($OSS.v) +85%. Hide your kids, hide your wife, AI is coming. They have slowly built the client base and continued to roll out new features. It’s expensive, but has lots of potential. I took some off the table in the 0.80s.
Nephros ($NEPH) +140% for average last 8 months. Of course the company I kept to myself while I built a position has done the best. Lots to like here, but it’s all in the future. Looking back at past performance won’t do much good. I have a write-up finished. I’ll publish it at some point.
There are some small positions that I am looking to add to add make a full position. Though they are not statistically significant.
Closing Thoughts
You’ll notice that there are lots of the same names here that where present last year. I tend to hold my positions for several years. I tend to take my time building a position and conviction, so there are not many new ideas. Something I’m toying with is to do a write-up on companies as I pass on them.
I would give myself a C+ for this year. Though results are not impressive, it’s more than enough to pay for my living expenses. FWIW, I’m finding more ideas this year than I did last year. Maybe it’s a sign of something to come, maybe not.
Thank you for reading. Wishing you a happy and prosperous new year. Also a new deadlift PR. Those are great too.