The numbers (EUR):
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ Metric │ Value │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Capital invested (since Mar 2022) │ €75,245 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Current portfolio value │ €98,328 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Capital gains │ +€21,240 (+30%) │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ IRR │ 25.43% │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Total dividends received │ €6,514 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 2025 dividends (actual) │ €4,136 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 2026 dividends (projected from calendar) │ €5,618 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Yield on cost (2026 projection) │ ~7.46% │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Realized losses (cut quickly) │ −€359 │
Sector allocation: Shipping (tankers, containers) — cyclical, but extreme FCF distributions when the cycle runs
Energy (oil majors, midstream, gas) — high FCF yields, written off in 2020, now a core compounder
Dividend aristocrats — stability anchor, dampens portfolio volatility
Strategy in 3 principles:
Buy contrarian. When a sector is abandoned, that's when I look hardest. Shipping in 2022, Energy on every oil dip.
100% reinvestment. No income withdrawal yet. Compounding does the heavy lifting.
Valuation discipline. P/E, FCF yield, debt structure. High yield ≠ good investment — dividend traps are everywhere.
Lessons from 4 years: My best buys felt the worst at the moment of execution A 15% yield on deteriorating fundamentals is just slow capital destruction in disguise Sitting still during drawdowns was the single highest-ROI behavior — not adding alpha, just removing self-inflicted damage
Question for the community: Anyone else running a contrarian sector strategy? How do you balance high-yield cyclicals (shipping/energy) against traditional aristocrats — fixed allocation, or do you let winners run and rebalance only on extremes?