AMPLE SHADE CAPITAL

Annual Performance

Period ASC S&P 500

2023 +58.7% +26.7%

2024 TBD TBD

Cumulative +58.7% +26.7%

CAGR +58.7% +26.7%

Performance Breakdown

Period ASC S&P 500

2023

Q1 YTD +4.9% +7.9%

Q2 YTD +17.1% +17.3%

Q3 YTD +6.4% +13.5%

Q4 YTD +58.7% +26.7%

2024

Q1 YTD +10.5% +10.4%

Q2 YTD TBD TBD

Q3 YTD TBD TBD

Q4 YTD TBD TBD

About Me (RJ): I am the Founder and Portfolio Manager of Ample Shade Capital (ASC). I am an experienced business owner and operator in the real estate industry. I am also an experienced business professional and have provided Management Consulting services to companies like FannieMae, Deloitte and CGI for 15+ years. I hold an Executive MBA and Bachelor's in Finance and Management. 

Investing Methodology: I am investing in public equities for capital growth over the long term. (Public equities is a fancy way of saying businesses that are available for sale on the stock exchange.) I am not seeking to trade stocks with the goal of attaining quick gains. Real wealth cannot be built by constantly paying the tax man all the while you take all the risk. Also, it is not ideal to allocate your resources with a business-partner that is good at running 100m races when your goal is to run a marathon. Investing for the long term requires a partner with a long term outlook and one that is ready to share the commitment.

My belief is all investing is value investing, just our definition of when that value could be attained and how much of it may be attained differs. Few types of investing scenarios are the following:

1. Buy a business that has a value of $1 today, and is available for $.50. Limited predictability of value growth beyond $1-2;

2. Buy a business that should be worth $10 in 10 years, if things go as projected. Business is predictable and available for $1-2 today and has an intrinsic value of $.50-$1;

3. Buy an unprofitable idea, that has a plausible future, and may have a $50-100 future value in 10-20 years, which we can only hope will come to bear if market adoption, relevance, business model execution, economics, etc come to bear. It is available for $1-2 today.

I believe the #1 type are available reasonably frequently, have high cyclicality, and can be a good source of income. You are a trader, but with a slightly longer time horizon. I believe #3 are usually unpredictable, have no clear line of sight and based on a heap of assumptions. You may achieve 50-100x or 0x. You may land 1-2 of these in a lifetime, but you may be waiting a lifetime and still it may never happen. I believe #2 is the only way to grow and compound your capital for years and decades. Give your capital to businesses-partners with a reasonably predictable outlook, that have relevance in most cycles, are impacting our lives in a meaningful way, have strong economics, and have strong moats to keep going through thick and thin. 

The above scenarios are mostly highlighting a price and value relationship. Price is what you pay in hopes of getting the expected Value at some point in the future. My job is to figure out a business's real Value, determine the time/duration it may take for that Value to be realized by the business and the markets, and then Price the opportunity in a way that I receive a return that is suitable for waiting for that reality to occur. Complex? Maybe. Satisfying? Beyond measure.

In that spirit I am building a portfolio of businesses that I believe can run the marathon with me. Some over time will fall off and others will join. The list will change, hopefully infrequently, but it is the marathon runners that I seek to join me in my journey and vice-a-versa. I do not have a constraint on the number of holdings to have in my portfolio; such as 10 or 20. I do not seek to limit my forest to "x" number of trees. Each tree has its own journey and destination. I venture to find the strongest trees and add them to my portfolio. 

Lastly, I often remind myself that strong trees not only provide shade in fair weather but also cover in bad weather. While fair weather allows a tree to embellish in its strengths and produce in abundance, bad weather tests its foundation and resolve. Fair weather is a welcomed friend of all trees but bad weather is a welcomed foe of only truly strong trees. 

• "Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." -Warren Buffett

• "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "Be like a tree. The tree gives shade even to him who cuts off its boughs." -Sri Chaitanya

• "The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." -Nelson Henderson

• "The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit." -Moliere

• "Be as useful as a tree. Give life to others; be shelter to everyone; grant fruits to all. Be good like a tree." -Mehmet Murat Ildan

• "He that plants trees, loves others besides himself." -Thomas Fuller