Welcome to Asymmetric Investing by Travis Hoium

Today, I am happy to announce the launch of the Asymmetric Investing newsletter—a deep dive into high-potential stocks that puts the Riiv Project’s business model analysis and theories into action. Together, these newsletters form the “how” of disruption (Riiv Project) and the “what” to do about it (Asymmetric Investing).

Asymmetric Investing will analyze stocks that have almost unlimited growth potential long-term. I will lean into the fact that investment returns can be asymmetric with limited capital loss (ie. whatever you invest) and unlimited upside potential.

What You Get with Asymmetric Investing

As an Asymmetric Investing subscriber, you will get 2-4 company deep dives each month, portfolio updates (before I make trades) once per month, and periodic updates on the universe of stocks covered.

This is a research newsletter—not a stock-picking newsletter that will end with a recommendation. The decision to buy or sell is an individual one. In a deep dive, I will provide:

1. Investment idea and thesis

2. Analysis of the market, company, and stock

3. Opinions on the future of a company, stock, and industry

As mentioned, the decision to buy, sell, or hold is YOURS. Anyone reading this newsletter must understand their own risk tolerance. If you are a risk-taking investor and want ideas for a portfolio with a venture capital-style risk/reward profile, this newsletter is for you.

The Asymmetric Thinking

As a baseline, I will be looking for stocks with a return potential of 1,000% or more over the next decade. With the right mindset, analysis, and time horizon we can find the next Apple, Google, or Tesla before they become the biggest companies in the world.

There won’t be hard and fast rules for what stocks covered, but I’m looking for:

• Big addressable markets

• Great emerging brands

• Pricing power

• Two-sided markets

• Operating leverage

• A visionary leader

• Winner take all market

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it lets you know where my head is at.

I am hunting for companies and management teams that think big and can generate life-changing returns for investors if they succeed. Failure for some of these stocks is EXPECTED and WILL be tolerated.

Principles of Asymmetric Investing

We can set ourselves up for asymmetric returns without blowing up our portfolios by following these principles.

1. Asymmetric investments are PART of a diversified portfolio.

2. Finding asymmetric returns REQUIRES taking lots of shots on goal. In other words, even the asymmetric portion of your portfolio needs to be diversified.

3. HOLD stocks for a long period of time because we don’t know how a company will generate asymmetric returns (see Netflix becoming a streaming company).

4. Keep investing REGULARLY in your asymmetric portfolio, which reduces valuation and timing risk.

Our Advantage Over Wall Street

TIME —that’s it—that’s our advantage. You won’t hear me complaining about a quarter or a stock movement over a day or a week because asymmetric investors think in decades.

Wall Street analysts, hedge funds, and media members are structurally incapable of thinking in decade time periods. That’s our advantage and I will lean into it.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

As part of this newsletter, I have started a brand new brokerage account that I will fund each month with $500 and allocate those funds to the universe of stocks I cover here. I won’t buy anything I haven’t covered and I will always email you BEFORE I make a trade, which you will be able to see through Commonstock’s portfolio tracking tools, which you can follow here (the portfolio is just cash right now):

Why $500 per month? It’s an attainable amount for a large percentage of people, and it’s a large enough sum that over 10-20 years it can lead to life-changing returns. But it is also an arbitrary placeholder and should be adjusted for your portfolio size, risk tolerance, and ability to invest regularly. If you can afford $50 per month, great. If you can afford, $5,000 per month, great.

My Ask of You as an Asymmetric Investing Subscriber

This is a labor of love, but it’s also very time-consuming. As a result, the Asymmetric Investing newsletter will be a paid newsletter, but you will receive an introductory free month (starting now). For future newsletters, there will be a free section at the top of each post and if you want to read the full analysis, it will cost $20 per month.

Think about it this way:

1. If you put $500 into one stock that goes up 10x it’ll pay for your newsletter subscription for nearly 20 years.

2. If you pay a mutual fund manager or an investment advisor 2% to manage a $50,000 portfolio you will be paying them $83 per month. If your portfolio is bigger than that… it’s a REALLY BIG BILL.

I also want your feedback and suggestions. Is there a stock you love? Something you want me to write more about here or on the Riiv Project? Email me at travis at riiv.io. I would love to hear from you.

The first deep dive is coming on March 31, 2023.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.