Q2 2025 Portfolio Performance

Everyone get's a bounce but me

It goes without saying that this is not investment advice, so do your own work. One quarter is not enough time to determine if I am succeeding at this investing thing, but putting my performance out there helps keep me accountable. It’s easy to share when things are going well.

Overall Performance

My portfolio continued to lag major indices in Q2. I essentially tracked the drawdown (and then some) on the major indexes, but the bounce in my portfolio has been much more muted. Saying you want a lumpy 15% vs a smooth 10% is easy, living through the lumpy 15% is a whole different story.

Theses are not easy quarters to endure. Periods of underperformance are not uncommon for my style of investing. This is magnified by the feeling that everyone on social media is outperforming. I take pride in the sharing the good and bad quarters.

I was up a mere 1-2% for the quarter. This compares to +10.6%, +17.8%, +5.4% and +8.1% for the S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX and Russel 2000. This brings the YTD returns to 6.05%, 8.0%, 8.7%, and -2% for the S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX and Russel 2000. My portfolio is still down around 10% YTD. Unless I have a strong H2 for the year, this will be my first negative year since 2011.

Relative performance is nothing new. I have times where I trail the markets, only to show strong performance when the market is down. For example in 2021, I was up modestly as the market surged. Then in 2022 I was up single digits when the market pulled back sharply.

Individual Position Performance (by weight)

I’ll go over each position, how it did for the quarter and how it’s been doing YTD.

Cipher (CPH.to) -1.6% in Q2, -12.4% YTD

You can copy and paste my comments from Q1 for CPH. We will need some traction on deals in order to see a move higher from here.

CPH is down about 12% and about 30% from the high last year. I did take a slug of capital off the table in the MOB news last year, but this position still moves the overall portfolio. I still hold and may add here.

Viemed (VMD) -5.2% in Q2, -13.8% YTD

Honestly, not much changed from my Q1 comments. They reported strong Q2 and guided for a decent Q2. So far, there has been no change in the business and the multiple has contracted. I have continued to hold.

OFS Basket (ESI.to, MCB.to, TOT.to, PHX.to, PSI.to, PSD.to) +7.5% in Q2, +2.5% YTD (on average without dividends)

Hard to come up with some precise numbers for the basket as the positions are different sizes and some pay meaningful dividends.

Honestly not to bad results so far. I recently shares my thoughts on the overall O&G market here.

Sangoma Technologies (STC.to) +30% in Q2, -15.6 % YTD

STC had a decent bounce, but is still negative for the year. They should be executing the NCIB here. That should support the share price at these levels. I was able to add a bit in March.

Geodrill (GEO.to) +17% in Q2, +14.7% YTD

I am still surprised by the performance of GEO YTD. The business is performing and the outlook is strong from here. I managed to add to this in April in the 2.50s. I think if Sustainable stopped selling, GEO would be much higher.

Mattr Corp (MATR.to) +13% in Q2, -5% YTD

My timing when I initially added MATR to the portfolio was poor. I did manage to add to the position on one of those major down days due to tariffs news in early April. I still like the prospects here.

Dirtt Environmental Solutions (DRT.to) -18.8% in Q2, -18.8% YTD

DRT had a rough quarter after being flat in Q1. Lots of uncertainty with tariffs for DRT and how it will ripple throughout their customer base. I still believe in the story and have not sold any shares.

Foraco International (FAR.to) -9.2% in Q2, -22% YTD

Q1 was weak after a weak Q4. I think the market was overly optimistic on the timelines for when they can work through the lower quality contracts. Having said that, copper prices have rebounded, nickel and are flat to slightly down YTD, and gold is doing well. I think they can turn around the business. I have been debating adding here as I still don’t have a full position.

Quipt Home Medical (QIPT.to) -25% in Q2, -44% YTD

Though I was very lucky to be able to dump the majority of my shares after the strong bounce that came with the news of unsolicited non-binding proposal from Forager, the position really took away from my portfolio’s performance this year.

I have kept a small arb position here as I think that things can get interesting as the standstill agreement expires in August and I think the business is in play.

Idaho Strategic Resources (IDR)

I very recently added IDR to the portfolio. I wanted to increase my exposure to gold and the pullback seemed like a decent time. I met with the management team in Vegas in April and liked the set-up. I don’t think I will do a formal write-up as the position is small and I’m not sure how long term I will be with it.

Cronos Group (CRON & CRON.to)

I have started building a cannabis basket. The first position was CRON. I wrote it up at the end of June.

Cash

This is still a relatively small position. I’m about 6-7% cash here.

Closing Thoughts

Looking at the YTD results, I can easily spot the detractors. Some of them are what I would consider part of the path and some are outright errors. Hanging on to CPH as it goes from $15 to $12 is something I don’t consider an error. Buying (and adding to) QIPT was an outright error. Both pulled the performance of the portfolio lower.

I am still working through what is part of the “lumpy” results vs what is a mistake to be taken into my feedback loop. Despite having an interest in the public markets for 2 decades and being a full time investor for 7 years, I am still learning.

How are you doing in 2025? I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for reading my work.

Dean