2024: Year in Review

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your encouragement and attention. I intend to post more frequently in 2025, having recently left my job. I hope to keep my posts short, light on hard analysis, and entertaining/readable. If you’re a new reader or follower, please consider becoming a subscriber:

2024 sure was somethin’ else. Imagine being the dude named Scalpavelli in the midst of this momentum orgy. Here’s how various strategies/commodities stacked up:

Scalpavelli returned approximately 29.3%, which I’m pleased with as 1) I had to grind really hard to beat the Nasdaq in this environment 2) This helps cement my 3-year / ITD CAGR well above any reasonable benchmark.

Here’s a recap of my pitches this year:

NGS 0.00%↑ — +90% since my writeup on December 23rd, 2023. My largest position, I gave a bullish update on August 17th, 2024 as well. The entire large horsepower compression sector remains red hot.

$YAMCY — -5.6% since my February 17th, 2024 writeup. I don’t own this currently but I plan to re-initiate a smaller position. Having recently looked into the Japanese market in more detail I just see a lot of other opportunities, but the improved capital allocation here since my writeup is worth noting. Management has been selling down cross-holdings to buy back shares.

MCS 0.00%↑ — +61% since I sold/my writeup! In fairness, my writeup itself was neutral on the share price — but damn. I nailed this analytically, but was too proud of my analysis and my decision to sell before the stock bottomed. Although I scalped a little bit on the way back up, I absolutely should have recognized that their re-finance was an extremely positive development relative to market expectations/pricing at $10 — that was a big mistake.

Nano Shitco Bundle Pack — Good grief. This post was insanely good. Go read it for yourself. As a funny side-note, I of course talked myself into selling ZVIA 0.00%↑ at the bottom.

PNRG 0.00%↑ — +97% since my August 10th, 2024 writeup ! I’m quite proud of myself, as a generalist, for discovering this stock. I missed half of the meat here but recently bought back in to a full position after talking through it with another analyst.

YELP 0.00%↑ — +18% since my August 11th, 2024 writeup. Not bad! I hope they continue to shrink their way to greatness.

PFIE 0.00%↑ — +73% since my September 15th, 2024 writeup as the result of a buyout. Boom.

NAPA 0.00%↑ — Unfortunately I didn’t even get to buy this one, as it doubled as part of a buyout announcement the next morning!

$BURBY — +17% since my October 27th, 2024 writeup. I don’t really see an edge at this point but intend to hold my position for LTCG.

NCSM 0.00%↑ — +56% since my November 2nd, 2024 writeup. Please note that my writeup did not mention their extremely strong working capital position, so I think it undersold the story. That said, I have been trimming my position.

Limestone — Ironically, my most popular article hasn’t produced returns so far. Writing an entertaining newsletter is sure a lot different than managing risks. I’m sure you will love my next limestone writeup :-).

Final thoughts

I learned a lot this year and received a lot of help and support from the online investing community. I hope that if I do more write-ups I will perform better and entertain my readers. If you’ve enjoyed my work, please share it as this is the best way to encourage me to produce more. Thank you!