Well hello there.

What a wild start to the year.

So the Coronavirus happened!

I was fortunate enough to have a brother living in Shenzhen China at the start of the year. Around mid-January, he fled China into Russia and explained to me over Wechat how bad it was where he lived.

He was telling me that people were dropping dead in the streets and the Chinese government was not even tallying the numbers of the dead people outside of Wuhan.

I sold my entire portfolio on Jan 31.

I felt stupid after I pulled the trigger because the market continued to rally to record highs. I drew on my 2008 experience and knew the large disconnect between reality and talking heads on CNBC saying it’s just a bump in the road. I knew If I stayed the course I could preserve capital and buy quality on the way down.

So that’s what I’ve been up to on lockdown. I am about 80% reinvested at the moment. I rebought most of my old portfolio but many names at under 1/2 price from when I sold them 2 months ago! I don’t think Coronavirus will hurt my Utilities over the long term hahaha, what a dumb market! I’ll keep picking up HUGELY discounted stocks that have cash. 

This really reminds me of 2008 and shows me how mentally unfit most of the world is at even holding on to amazing companies when a bit of tough times show up. Oh well. I will try and pick smart and profit off fear.

 I’m hoping to buy more on leverage at the 21,000 mark on the DJIA. Time will tell.

I’ve been picking up the names with strong balance sheets and low payout ratios and following Ben Graham’s value picks, ones that can weather a drawn-out storm.

Some of the names I’ve picked up are Brookfield, CU, CIBC, BNS, CWB, BRK, AXP, MFC, ATD, ACO.X, CNR, SU, ABBV, QSR to name a few.

I’ve also added a few that are a bit more sketchy but are too cheap to pass on. I bought a truck load of BPY:UN at about $10 per share. I’m confident their parent will keep them in good shape. I also added MX.T at $15 because my valuation chart showed me a $45 price even now. 

I don’t think the pain is over based on the unemployment but it is terribly hard to understand the market dynamics with the Feds meddling. I know the governments of the world won’t let the wealthy lose money so the market should recover this year.

I’m going to be buying a bunch more BRK and it will probably be my largest holding until earning are back to normal. I trust Buffett and Munger will be better equipped to navigate these waters for the next year or so.

I honestly think BRK is built for exactly these types of moments and will deploy some of that $120,000,000,000 cash pile they are sitting on to get some steals.

Just for my dividend updates, I had relatively few for Feb and March, just some stragglers of positions that were too small to liquidate.

Okay, Stay safe out there and things will get better.