Good Investing Talks - Philipp Haas, how did you build a successful fund with YouTube?

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Philipp Haas has a great public track record and shared a lot of stock knowledge on YouTube - to finally launch a fund.

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I really like their tool and it's a high recommendation by me. And now, enjoy the video. Hello, Philip. You're currently in Munich or where are you? Yeah, yeah, around Munich. We had to move out a little bit because we got small kids and you have a little bit more space, a little more nature out there, but it's not far

and we're close to lakes. It's high living quality. You have just defined yourself as a father, but what is your role in the financial industry? industry in the finance world. Are you a finance YouTuber? Are you a fund manager? What is your role?

I would say I'm a fund manager and now I'm really a fund manager since five weeks and all the other things I did before. I think we're aimed to reach that target. Your story is quite interesting because you've built a fund business that is already very successful with free ingredients. One is transparency. one is the power of social media the third is a good performance your fund is currently at a size of around 10 million or so yeah today it's 24 million okay then i really have to update my

numbers and congrats to the great growth of the assets and the management and let's take this as a chance to go back in time and understand how you've built your fund business if you YouTube, it's quite interesting that we can take a look at your channel back in 2016, I think, or somewhere back in the past to the first video you've published. I would translate this video title with the Fair PE, a stock ping strategy based on fundamental data and trends. What is the Fair PE, and do you still use this Fair PE today in your investing approach? Yes. And I think it's impressive because the strategy hasn't changed since 2016 when I developed this model.

It's pretty basic at the end, but I think it combines a lot of concepts. Because when I started, you start, I don't know, as a value investor normally. And then you try to find low P.E. stocks. I don't know. It's 18, 19. And then you realize, okay, a lot of companies, there's a reason why the P.E. is so low. And then I try to combine the thing with quality and with a fair price. I think in the end, it's a GAP investment model, grows at reasonable prices, and that's my

strategy. Because on the other hand, what we're also seeing today a lot is people that just buy a story. I mean, there are a lot of good companies, but if I buy a company for 30, 40 times revenue, I think a lot of things is baked in. and I try to find those good companies who trade for reasonable multiples. And I think this model, at the end, there is 16 criteria, and I judge it from 1 to 10, a score. And then there's an average score between 1 and 10. And for example, a 10 would be the perfect company.

It doesn't exist. And the 9 would be a world-class company. I think I did 500 to 1,000 analyzed like that. And I think that just 5, 6, 7, or maybe 10. companies with a 9 plus score and for them it's a really high PE I think is justified and then if you're like an above average company would be 8 and then it's a 20 times PE but I mean the model was developed when there was just still interest rates in the market and now in times of negative interest rates maybe you also can increase a little bit the fair PE ratios that that's

is not included in the model for sure it's basic and you can say it's subjective, but, yeah, and first, yeah, I'm not a native, and I'm reading every day, maybe one, two hours in English, but I'm not talking so much in English anymore, because we went a different direction, my YouTube channel is completely in German, and because I always had the target group of German investors for the fund, where the market opportunity. And that's, I apologize for my English, but I think the people will understand. And the model I'm still using today, that was the question, but I have another model was based on a fair PE, if you're translated like that. It's called QFMA. It stands for quality, fundamental

momentum, and alpha. And it has four steps. The first step would be. be 0.5% or even less waiting in the portfolio, this has just to be a quality company. The valuation doesn't have to be very attractive, but the next step would be done 1%. Then it should have an attractive valuation for the fair PE or another model, SOTP, or some of the parts or fair revenue. The third step would be momentum position, that the long-term momentum is positive. And the most important, I call the core position, then I try to find an investment case with an alpha idea where I think I see something in the market or in this company, what the market hasn't found yet. And if I'm right, I will generate alpha.

And if I'm not right, it's often not so problematic because it's not baked in the price. Yeah, that's my investment strategy, if you want to sum it up. Don't worry about your English. I already had interviews with natural German-speaking conversation partners, and they survived it as well, and we did a good interview, so don't worry about it. In your models of analyzing stock, you have a certain trend factor embedded. So what role does trend play for you? Yeah, I mean, if you're a value investor, you always make a little fun about trend investing,

But if you're for long times in the market, especially in a short term, it plays a role. And I use it for the waitings. I think I almost never buy a company just because the trend is nice. But if I have, for example, four interesting companies, they're very similar. Then I think it makes sense to invest more in the company with an attractive trend at the moment because you have other people looking for it. and also you have even more and more algorithms who invest in trend following and often it's also a risk protection because if the trend is positive and you think the company is attractive then probably your risk is a bit lower because if the trend is very negative and you think it's the best chance ever maybe you're overlooking something or nobody cares about what you're thinking and maybe this change but it can take a long time or even you make it. a mistake. And if you look at the really huge mistakes, also big name investors did,

then they fall in love with one company. They think, yeah, I'm right. I have the big ego. And they're buying, buying, buying, Netrinkel's negative. And I don't want to do that. For sure, I stay invested, but not more than 1%. And that's something, even if I make a mistake or something happens, what you cannot calculate. The fund performance of this year is not dependent from, this 1% position. You've mentioned two concepts. I want to do a follow-up question on. One is algorithm.

The other is mistakes. So let's start with the algorithm. You have a huge portion of quantitative data in your framework to analyze stocks. And do you worry that this will be copied and you will lose the alpha generated by this quantitative setup? It's very hard to copy it. I think it's very hard to copy because the model works for me and I looked at a thousand companies and I didn't analyze with my model.

I think if you just start, it's very difficult and you have to have the knowledge of so many different companies that you say, okay, that's an eight management or six management. And also like an alpha idea, it's not something what's in the model, some idea you have. And for sure, if somebody sees that's my alpha idea, maybe people can copy. it. But if I'm invested, it also helps the stock price then. So I think I wouldn't want to complain. And also what you see on my YouTube channel, I always want to share what I'm doing. A lot of things are going good. But some stuff that also doesn't work. But you learn from it. And often you get very good feedback from people. And I also am using for that.

So it's not like a quantitative model where you have like some formula and then you, this formula and then somebody can copy it because the main input factors are subjective grades from me, from my knowledge, from my judgment, and I think that's hard to copy. But I think people should think more about quality, evaluation, momentum and alpha and try to combine those things. And it's maybe also from the personality. I try to combine the things or the best thing what works for me from different schools of investing and I don't want to be seen just

I'm just a value investor, just a gross investor, just a momentum investor. I try to pick everything up what works for me and if you combine it, I think it can work pretty well. Maybe let's go to the next point. I want to do a follow-up question on it. It's mistakes.

What mistakes have you done over time with this model and how has it changed based on the mistakes you did? I think they had two kind of mistakes. I mean, mistakes where I didn't apply the model, because at the end, is the trend positive or negative? It's also a judgment call sometimes. Or sometimes, and still the final decision still does a human,

and sometimes you're not so consequent, and that's a mistake I don't like, yeah. And then there are mistakes. I wouldn't say, call it mistakes, but investments which went wrong. But if the model was right and I would do it again, that's the normal cost of doing business. And I developed those models after huge mistakes I did.

For example, the fair PE model. There was a company, a German e-commerce company. It's called Get Goods. It doesn't exist anymore. That was a mistake. They were growing fast. The valuation was much more, attractive than competitors and they had

huge margins in electronic e-commerce. And I always wondered why can they be so much better than the others? And the management team, they had really not your CVs. But it looked so attractive, so I bought it and it went bankrupt and it was a fraud at the end. I don't know

what it was, but it went to zero. And then I realized that I have to more include the soft factors in my model. And also I studied at the University of some Garland in Switzerland. There we have the Sangarland management model with stakeholder, et cetera. I mean, I think they're pushing that for 20 years. Now it's got more mainstream, but maybe

that also influenced me. So I think mistakes in the model is more that I don't apply the model correct, but I really believe in the model. And if investment doesn't work, then you reduce the risk and et cetera. I didn't, the huge mistakes were not like on a single stock basis the last three, four years, but more a macro was complicated. I mean, we had two China crisis first with Trump, now with the regulation. And that's for me more difficult because I'm at the end, a bottom up analyst. So I look at the company and I try to judge the prospects of the company.

And I think I don't have an edge what Mr. Xi or Mr. Trump will do, for you sometimes you have some feeling and you also you're managing the risk a little bit with the momentum but for sure if China internet halves even if you reduce the risk you still feel it in the performance yeah does the model work differently with different company sizes like how does it work with small caps and how does it work with large caps um well the big difference is liquidity um I mean I I managed the model for my private portfolio with a return, I think, 1,100% since 2012. But at the end, I didn't have market impact with this portfolio. So with the fund, maybe if you change from the momentum from 4% to 1% or from 1% for 4%,

you would think twice whether you change this weightings in a small cap stock and in a large cap, you just can trade it in one day. I think that's the huge difference. Otherwise, it's not. And maybe it's more easier to find alpha ideas in the small cap. But also, I would say there are alpha ideas sometimes in large caps, especially if the media is very negative to one topic and then often there are chances. So then do you think about limiting the size of your investment vehicles to still generate

alpha and smaller midcaps? No. No. No. My idea for the fund, it's called Haas, Invest for Innovation, is that you can invest in all the growth companies. I call the stocks offensive. And for sure, at the beginning, small caps have a bigger weighting, and maybe the portfolio would look at a little different if the fund is very huge. But it's not a small cap factor. And I would say my investment strategy is not based that is a small cap. It's just you can choose from more stocks. If you're small and I would say maybe stocks with 100 million market cap, they are 10 till 20% of the portfolio. So it's something, but it's not the core of the strategy.

And even if you would have 500 million, I think you still can invest in a hundred million company. You just don't can invest in a 4% waiting. Then maybe you have it just with a 0.5% of it. or something. Maybe let's go to your YouTube channel and take a look from the video from 2016, how the amount of videos has developed till today. And maybe let's try to scroll through it. And let's see how many videos this are. And YouTube is quite helpful. And it gives us a count of the videos. There are 1,491 videos you've put out since 2016. And I calculated it by the days. It's one video every 1.5 days.

This is really impressive. Maybe let's start with the question here about how did you get the ideas for the videos? Well, I would say like maybe 500 videos. They're like two minutes where explain some basic stuff. I mean, you have at the end in YouTube, you have two strategies. You can go for search or you can go for viral. And I wanted to first call search. And the shelf life of this content is also very long.

what's i don't know ebida or something people are still looking three four years later and i wanted to start this as a base um very i wouldn't not very professional but the videos are still out there and the others videos i think with my model i can analyze a stock produce a video about it in less than one day and um i mean i was doing that more or less full-time for two years trying to do one video a day and it's also like I would say like a part of my research process because I had the Vickyfolios in my private portfolio I did the research and then as an ad on I could produce a video and then that also people also I can help other people or I can discuss the stock and and you also can create a part-time business apart because if you just

have the stock market it's very volatile Some years, you lose money. So that was also the idea to have like a side business. And also to prepare for sure the start of an investment fund. And I think the model I did, especially with the low fees, I think it's the cheapest fund for private investors in Germany for stocks. And that's just possible because there's no middleman and there's no provision because people who know me can buy directly the fund.

And I think that's interesting. And I try to lower the fees for everybody with that. And maybe like with Strait Republic at some time, others have to comply. I don't know. At least you also see it with the broker fees that they came down. And I think, I mean, also active investing got a little bit like a bad reputation. But the problem is the most funds are too expensive and too close to the index. but per se if you're index independent and if you're cheap,

I think you will always have a relevance. And I think maybe we will see a revival of that. So the YouTube channel was a tool to create some extra income, but I think it was more a tool to create a trusted brand. And maybe more the trust is important as the brand. Is this true? Yeah. I mean, I realize this business at the end is pretty simple.

I would say you need 50% performance. and 40% brand trust, reach, and maybe 10% of it, entrepreneurship. And I think I try to focus on those three things, especially the two most important. You have to be good, but also people have to know that you're good. And often from the personality, a lot of people there may be very good, but I also have a friend who's a very good investor, but if you talk to him, you don't know what he's doing. And if I don't know it, he probably has huge problems that other.

normal investors will understand that. And I think it's also helpful that you are able to explain it in normal language, what you're doing. And like you see, my model, that's not rocket science. But if you're an experienced investor, you realize, okay, I'm using at the end, academic proven outperformance factors and combine it with a little bit alpha and a little bit knowledge. And that worked in the past, why shouldn't work in the future?

So, yeah, YouTube was definitely, the idea was a side business, but also for sure to prepare the start of a fund. And also what's very important for me is the topic financial education. I was involved in the start of a company called FinanceTIP DE. I think it's now the biggest financial education website in Germany where people get explained how to invest or how to do taxes especially. there's so many mistakes I'm made, especially in Germany, because the financial literature is, I would say, it's pretty low. I think it's improved a lot in last two, three years. Maybe also thanks to YouTube's channels like yours, but also like bigger ones to do more

mainstream content, but I think it helped a lot. And yeah, this was also a motivation for me. And also I wrote a book. Yeah, we have to link it below so people can find it. Yeah, it's just in German, but it's more. also about the soft topics in life and why investing so important it's not just about investing and it's based on yeah it's a more summer book yeah it's a road trip and and the contents the bit like included in the summer story i haven't read it but i've heard good things about it so

i will put it in my reading list for the summer it takes some time they will get back to summer but something to be happy about. Maybe it's also a good reason to say thank you for all the work you did for the investing community because you helped many people understand stock picking and were one of the channels that had a certain quality with it. So it's not that often that someone, you also worked as a fund manager at one big of fund in Germany that has this quality coming to the public and educating people here, especially in Germany, where it's financial education isn't that big of a topic.

Maybe tell us a bit more about the phase where you've been a fund manager, what you have taken away from this and where it did work? Yeah, I mean, I started with an investment block in 2014. And the investment, I think, was very helpful for me because I could develop my investment style. I did a lot of analyzes. You still can read it under Investor Searchbooknet. But as a business, I have to say it failed because I had two targets. I wanted to earn a little bit money.

This didn't really work. And I wanted that people know me and then buy my VickyFolux, for example. And that also didn't happen because the people are reading my blog. They were investing in stocks on their own and they didn't buy Vikifolus on VikiForos. At that time was still pretty exotic. Still is to some degree. And this didn't work out. But I always had, I mean, from the opportunity, because I knew if I have a blog, you can show what you did, then I think it wouldn't be hard to get an interesting job in an investment company.

And I didn't know so many. There was just one big one in Munich and I applied. And they also liked what they saw. And I started there as an analyst. I did the internet sector, like the big American and Chinese internet companies. And then after one year, I also did the fund. and also always had to target to also understand the industry more from the inside and I think I definitely would do it again.

I learned a lot there, but I also more confirmed me in my investment thesis that I can do things a little bit differently and I think there's a lot of opportunities to bring the investment fund industry in a little bit in the modern world and to do the things a little cheaper, a little bit more digital, a little more transparent, and that's what I'm trying to do. Like being able to put out this 1,491,191 videos over this five years also needs a certain drive and a certain energy and a certain long-term passion. What were the factors that what motivated you the most?

It isn't something that's, yeah, with a video, you might earn like 10 euros or something. something sometimes. It doesn't make sense monetarily. I think for me it's like a little bit like sport. I just like the game and I want to win it. And I try to become the best investor I can be. And I think that's the thing where relative to other things I can be or maybe I'm world class or at least in a German-speaking area. And then I'm getting ambitious. When I see something, then I try to be really good there. And on other topics, then I really neglect them.

But I think, but also general life, if you try to, money is some add-on. It's not what motivates me. And it's more like you want to be good. And it's also to be right. I think you also know, every other investor likes this feeling. If you have a thesis and it works out, it just gives you some pleasure, monetary, but also, like, emotional. And like a sportsman, that you try to become the best what you can be. So this also helped to find a discipline to put all the effort in this,

this competition drive of you. Yeah. Competition and passion for the topic. I mean, if you do a video, often you have a new idea for a stock and then you do your research and maybe you find the stock, what's the 10 bagger? and brings you to the, I don't know, to very good performance or the monetary reward. And then you never know what you will find if you start looking.

And I think it's very interesting. It's one of the jobs, what's every day is different, and you still can do it until you're 90. And, yeah, I think it's also it's downsides. You cannot really do vacations. And on the short term, you depend on the mercy of the market and sometimes it can be very frustrating

because also a lot of friends of mine who were ambitious I think they couldn't be good stock market investors because then they're used to eat if they work more, the result is better. And in the stock market, at least in the short term, that's not the case. If you're under pressure or if you're underwater and you work 80 hours instead of 60 hours,

the result doesn't get better, maybe even worse because you have to be a little bit, I would say, in a good mood. And also the combination of confidence, but also risk a worse. And if you cannot reach your goals with pressure in the short term. And this is maybe the downside. But yeah, I think you see it in the videos. And before I was when I was writing the blog, I was really like two years at the end looking at a small and small flat in Munich and writing this.

And yeah, but I always had this target. I want to start a fund business one day. And this, I think, was motivating me as well. But there's also a certain risk if you have fulfilled this target being like one of the best investors in Germany and posting about it. And you've reached it. The question is where you get the drive to find the next target. How are you thinking about this?

Yeah. I still have some targets in life, even if I would reach that, then maybe, yeah, that you help more people to invest better and then that they have more better lives, financial and independent lives. I think, yeah, and you never will see, you never be able to say that's the best investor. I think it's always a little bit. One of the best I said. Yeah.

Yeah. And to be honest, it's not like, I'm not like this sportive ego that I have. have to be the best and others are worse. That's not what's motivating me. I think it's also strange for me as invested. I don't have this big ego. I always know that I'm wrong. And if I'm wrong, I cut my losses or I reduce the risk.

And I just want to, I think, creating a nice business. And I have some ideas all around investing. And I just like it. And maybe in 20, 30 years. I don't know. But now I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing. And because I also ask myself the question, what would you do if money wouldn't play a role? And slowly you come to this level and then I would say I would just read books about investing or topics a little bit related to that.

Talk with investing people and maybe travel. And at the end, in investing, you can combine those three things pretty well. So, yeah, it's also a lifestyle decision a little bit because the nice thing about investing is you can have a scalable business without having to manage like 100 people or something. And the same with media and YouTube as well. And the video, you also know sometimes video is a lot of work and it doesn't get a lot of views. And another video gets 10 times more views and was less work. So this relationship between input and output in this world is not always conquer. And so, yeah, this is also what I like.

Maybe let's take a look again at your YouTube channel. You have this 26,000 subscribers, which is strong for your German finance channel. In hindsight, what have been the factors that have made you successful? I would say for the input in the year's data, it's not super successful because I'm also, I didn't do so much mainstream content. because you can do two kinds of videos. Most of my videos I did and limited them for myself. I was doing research on some under-research company.

And for sure about a stock, nobody knows. The people are clicking less about than, I don't know, the next Tesla video or I don't know how you double your money next month, et cetera. I would say it's the continuity that everyday video. and more and more people realize okay he knows what he's doing because I have the track record with Vicky Fulio, I have the professional background from university

banking finance, I worked in industry and you compare that with others for sure a lot of people don't realize then a lot of people thought okay he has a little bit more professional background and in the long term maybe information is more valuable than the other one. Yeah, but

we'll see um and at the end it depends on the youtube algorithm and the algorithm depends on how longer people are viewing a video and how much they click on it so interesting maybe let's move to your second or most important social media presents or social investing presents it's viki folio maybe you can explain for the viewers that never heard vikifolia what it is yeah um vikifoli everybody can become a fund manager sounds a bit scary but it's not a real fund it's a certificate what's not so popular in the US so that's the big downside that you don't have an risk that the company who is emitting those certificates goes bankrupt it's protected to some degree yeah but it's for sure it's not the same protection than a real fund and it works like

that, you manage a portfolio, like you buy 2%, but you don't buy it virtual. It's just a game. And another company is guaranteeing the performance of this portfolio. And you can buy the certificate with the guarantee of the performance of this portfolio. So they also have to hedge. They have to buy the stocks, especially if you're a bigger Wikifolio, that they don't have a risk at your stocks doubled. And they have to pay the investors. So, um, I think it's very interesting. For me, it was one of the most interesting fintech companies in Europe, and I'm still a big, big fan.

And I don't know why it doesn't exist in the US, probably a bit of regulation. And you have a lot of transparency. You see all the time what's in it, what the people are doing. And also, I think, gave me some credibility combined with YouTube. Because on YouTube, you could see how I'm working, what I'm doing. And in Vikifoli, you could see it's not just a private portfolio, what was even much better. But you can also have an investable product and that I think, like, it forts each other. Then you have a little bit like a flywheel effect if you're irrelevant on both platforms.

Let's take a look at the eight Vikifolios you have managed. And it had different strategies. I think your biggest big portfolio with 15 million invested is the Nebenweerte, Europa, like small and mid-cups Europe, but you also have the sustainable dividend stars. It's the brand stupid, digital revolution, invest research, stock picker, venture capital strategies, owner operators, and invest research, multi-strategies.

How do you have the capability to manage eight strategies at the same time? I think also this KUVMR model or this FUP model helped me a lot, because for sure, some stocks there in all Wikifolios or you have some, it's not completely new portfolios. And I don't know. I mean, I'm doing this full time with the research. And, yeah, if you think a company is good long time, then you buy it. And maybe the ratings, they change a little bit through momentum. But, yeah, it worked for me. I have to say, and also after they're fund managers who manage four or five funds with billions under management.

I think it's possible, especially if you have a long-term vision, a long-term perspective. I think it gets much more work if you play, like, the quarter game, what I'm not doing, like, how will be the next quarter-line numbers. Normally, maybe in core positions, yes, but normally I don't care. I don't have an edge in that. and yeah so let's take a deeper look at your nameware at europe or small and midcaps europe wikifolio which is the biggest and how would you describe the strategy in this wikifolio what is your general approach here um well like the name said a small midcap in whole europe and i manage it with the coup from a model what i said quality first step then fundamental second

momentum and alpha idea. And I think the performance is good or excellent, but what's really impressive is the maximum risk of 20% over like six, seven years, because I think two or three times the small cap market tank 40% or something. So what works with the school for Mammono, if the momentum gets negative in stocks, I automatically go 1% weighting of the portfolio,

and then I have cash, but I'm not investing at the moment. So that also works well as a risk model. But for sure, in Vicky Fulia, I could, I don't know whether I did it. Maybe for a short time you can go to 80% cash, what an investment fund you cannot do. You always have to be at least 51% invested. So it's limited for sure in Apple's, not an absence to Apple's comparison. But I think it's a sign.

The performance should be even better because you see the first one and a half years I was doing nothing. It was really stupid. And so the performance per year should be even better if you say the strategy started one and a half years later. And so we have a 20% plus performance per year with maximum risk was 20%. And I think the ideas are good for sure. I'm investing more in technology and quality. But also I try to combine different industries, different countries.

And normally I'm not in the high flyer stocks. They're really expensive and just momentum driven. I'm not invested, but often then they go down and one day minus 30%. Normally I'm not invested in them, maybe maximum, like a quality position or with 0.5%. So I also think a lot about the risk and like an artist about the combination of this painting that you have a little bit from everything. And I think it worked pretty well for sure, not every time period, but over the next six, seven years. I think it's a pretty good product in this area.

Taking this picture of the artist currently have 95 positions in the portfolio. So we're drawing with 95 colors at the moment. Usually like if the other videos and the other guests, I usually have like 10, maybe 5 till 20 positions in their portfolio. Why weren't you boiling it down to less positions? And why did you go for this big, big color, portfolio? For sure, if I have like 10 ideas, I'm completely convinced,

convinced, sorry, and then maybe I would also invest more on them, but also I tried from the risk perspective. Then if you just have 10 ideas, you have much more volatility. And I think also the ranking Wikifoli, and the risk method, you benefit a little bit if you're more diversified. But for sure, if I'm convinced of something, I can go, I don't say all in,

but have a position to maximum 10%. This I would do. But some stocks I couldn't buy in Wikifolio, maybe I would have done it. And we also have to say, yeah, the valuations are pretty high in a lot of markets. So I don't have this no-brainer stocks at the moment. It's difficult to find.

And if from the valuation perspective, in China, there's some no-brainer stocks, but you have the regulation risk. And this is also a long-tail risk, you cannot completely rule out. So it's difficult. And so I more try to combine different stocks. And also I'm interested in a lot of topics. So, yeah. If you think about your top 10 positions and the amount of research you do for this top 10 positions,

I should have calculated how many they are, but I think they might be around 20, 24% of the portfolio. How deep is the research you're investing into this idea? How deep are you digging to make it a three-point position or something like this? Hey, tell money here. I'm sure you're curious about the answer to this question, but this answer is exclusive to the members of my community Good Investing Plus. Good Investing Plus is a place where we help each other to get better as investors day by day. If you are an ambitious, long-term-oriented investor that likes to share, please apply for Good Investing Plus. Just go to good-investing.net slash plus.

you can also find this link into show notes I'm waiting for your application and without further ado let's go back to the conversation so compared to the Wikifolio what do you want to do different in the fund and are you planning to deeper research and be more concentrated there as well or not

well if you compare Wikifolio in the fund we talk about it the fund is like the professional investment vehicle where people can invest millions. I can invest in more stocks. And also, I can trade more cheaply. And the fund is even a little bit cheaper than Wikifolio. I personally just get 5% performance fee and the annual cost is 0.7%. But I almost get nothing from that. It's just for running the business with the partners. So I think the incentives are right there. And yeah, I would, if I'm seeing something interesting, I would do definitely more core positions.

I mean, I had in my private portfolio, sometimes 10, 15% rating, even more. This I cannot do in the default. Sometimes it happens if the stock multiplies. You start with 4 or 5% and then it increases and I'm not selling then if I'm still think the company is attractive, valued and the trend is right. But yeah, for sure, if it's the first five weeks, now I invested the whole spectrum of stocks

but I'm not invested so much in core positions with this I would need more time now and I was also a little bit I don't say scared of the market I'm now much more optimistic but in summer it feels a little bit like 2018

where we had first the China problematic then you had the interest rate to them at the topic so and some markets were not working and just the US was working, I think this is not the case now. But for this, I was a bit reluctant to go with very high weightings. And we still see the market. Sometimes the stock is hitting its numbers and the stock tanks 30% at the moment. So it's maybe you have

to be a little bit careful. Especially as you start a fund, you don't want to have like the crazy volatility and maybe if you're a little bit like it's like a race yeah if you're 10% in front then you can do it more and you if let's look a bit back to the last five years and see what you've done on wiki folio on youtube how did both of this help for setting up the fund and what was the plus of it i think it helped a lot i think um the start of my fund wouldn't have been possible um five years ago. And I think YouTube and VQ4, you helped it a lot, for sure, also my professional background and the social media, but I don't have anybody who invested like 10 million

as a seat investor, what's like the typical case. And so I own 100% of the company who advises this fund. And I think I got the reach with YouTube, yeah, 25,000, for sure, a lot of private investors, but also people from the industry are watching that because a lot of my stock analyzes are off the beaten track. And Vicki Fodor gave me a credibility that I have a track record. So, yeah, I think it's a combination. I'm on both platforms.

They're bigger ones, but I think I'm a relevant player. And if you combine it, I think in combination, there's nobody and bows very strong. so I think that helped a lot now. But also even if you just have that, it's work and also like that you have the professional background that you know

how the industry is working because it's different to manage a Wikifolio and the fund. You have the fund flows et cetera and it's not so easy. How have you thought about fees for the fund you've set up and what is your take on this?

Yeah. I think I mentioned before. For me, it was always important to save a little bit of the reputation of the active investors. And I think if you do it cheaper, then also your performance is better. I also invest a lot of money in the fund by my own, so I don't want to pay so much fees. And for sure, I also have the idea that if I create a product was cheaper and maybe the performance is better, then it can become really, really big. and that people talk about it, that they say, hey, that's fair.

Because I think people, often they don't want to invest in stocks on their own, because a lot of people do, but some people, it's a full-time job. I mean, I'm doing 50, 60 hours a week or more and for nine years. So if you have a normal job, and I think it's pretty hard that you try to say, okay, I can do it better, maybe in some months, no, but from the setup. And you also have some tax advantages of unreal gains and those things. So I tried to create a product. What I would recommend my friends, even if I wouldn't be the advisor.

So that was a little bit of the idea behind. And also this topic, financial literacy, that you really have a product, what can compete with the MSA Award. Because if somebody asks you, ask you, where shall I invest? 10, 20,000 euro, your standard answers, yeah, you start with an MSA world ETF, but I think it's right with 10,000 euros. But if you have a little bit more, I think you wouldn't put everything there. So you should combine a little bit different approaches and topics.

And if you're almost as cheap as a passive index fund, I think your chances of our performance are pretty, pretty high, even if you don't believe that I'm the super duper investor. And yeah, and at the end, the industry, if I can live from my own investments, I don't need the fund business. And the costs are not so high. So you can normally the salaries are very high from those people. But if I'm the owner, I don't need a salary. So I can do it extremely cheap in comparison to others. Did you also recommend the fund to you, not only to a friend?

So are you invested yourself with big portions of your money? yeah i just did a video at the end it's for me it's a private family of the majority of my liquid net versus in there i showed it's over one million euro so i think the um incentives are right now i just earn if i make performance and i won't do so much i won't go in a risky way because the majority of my money is in there so i invested like my my own money because it's my own money So you have this fee, this 0.7 that covers the external costs and you earn when you hit this 5% performance fee. The performance is bigger as 5% or how is the... No, no, no, 5% performance fee means if the fund does 20%, 1% goes to me, 90% to the investors and has a high water, but it starts at zero.

It has not a hurdle rate, but it has a high water mark. what doesn't reset up every year. So I think it's pretty fair, pretty fair. A hedge fund has 2% and 20%. So we hear just 5%. And at the end, if the fund bets gets bigger, 0.5% cost. So if you compare to a hedge fund is one quarter of the cost.

And if you compare to normal investment for what a normal private investor would buy, you have probably 2% yearly costs and maybe also 10% performance fees. I would say it's less than a half. Maybe let's go back to your portfolio and help me understand one thing I haven't fully understood. When do you buy and sell certain securities or stocks you have in your fund? What are the de factoes that play a role for this? Hey, Tillman here. I'm sure you're curious about the answer to this question.

But this answer is exclusive to the members of my community Good Investing Plus. Good Investing Plus is a place where we help each other to get better as investor day by day. If you are an ambitious, long-term-oriented investor that likes to share, please apply for Good Investing Plus. Just go to good minusinvesting.net slash plus. You can also find this link into show notes. I'm waiting for your application. And without further ado, let's go back to the conversation. One can say that you now bought into the fund.

Does this mean that you sold YouTube and Wikifolio to a certain extent? Or how are you waiting these activities in the future? No. YouTube will always be an WikiFoli will also be an important part. But for sure, WikiFoli, I won't do everyday video. Yeah, YouTube, the topics maybe will change a little bit. Maybe I will focus more on longer on quality videos and also do interviews, for example, with CEOs, that's something that I can show my research to others.

I think it's also efficient that the CEO doesn't have to answer the 20 city questions 100 times. You can also do it online and show it, what you're also doing with investors. And Vickyfolio, you see the Nivenweta or Europa or small cap is a different strategy than the fund, and I will manage it as before. The others, Vikifoli, I would do it a little bit more passive, like not trading every day. I think it doesn't have to harm the performance and maybe the maximum risk can increase a little bit

that I'm not trying to do so much market timing than in the past. Yeah, but I think I still have a lot of freed up time because I will do less YouTube. So I think it won't suffer, but for sure, yeah. YouTube, you won't see everyday video from me. But also, I think you can do it for two. years but at some time then yeah it's it's pretty pretty you also know it can it's a lot of work

and it also it feels good to slow down and live it there yeah i feel you sometimes it's sometimes it's hard to keep this output pace quite high yeah um we looked at the beginning we looked back five years and uh maybe let's try to look out five years and see where you might be in 2026 what What is your long-term plan for the next five years? I don't know whether I'm happy to share that here. It's the best news. Please share it. For me, it was definitely important to start a fund.

I think it's not as good that for me was a 10-year's plan. And now it looks pretty good at least it worked. But for sure, when that works well, I have maybe. more ideas for a funder maybe to make the company a little bit bigger because now it's pretty small, but I never want to create a huge company, yeah, but maybe that you have some people where you can talk to, maybe have a little bit different investment products and maybe create a very inspiring company culture. I think that's also a bit missing in the industry and that could also motivate me to create their second family. I don't know. But also living quality.

At the moment, you're very free. That's also very nice. And as soon as you have employees, you also have more responsibility. So I have to think about it. And I wouldn't be too unhappy if it wouldn't work out. But, yeah, we'll see how the performance will be. This is like also in this business. If the fund doubles in one or two years, then the money comes.

And if not, not. So we'll see. but yeah i'm i'm optimistic and i have some ideas still in my life even if the fund is successful in which spaces you could need help because currently you're doing it as a one-man band and you have some tasks that might be better if you have someone who helps you and specializes on this yeah i think on investing wouldn't be bad to have like one one analyst who can help you a little bit with some tasks, because I would say

my specialities of big picture and be fast and then maybe one who does the more detailed work, and maybe also on the content business, sales for sure, you know, but that's also nice in the business. You don't need too many people, some, because I was thinking about doing startup

when I was younger after university, but I never found a real co-farm. because I'm from a business university and you need for my ideas you need a technical co-founder so it's pretty difficult to find especially if you're from university and you don't have so much to show for so I decided to go for a business where you don't need a co-founder and I'm also happy for that because if you have 100% of a company it doesn't have to become so big that you can live pretty well of it and because and you You don't have to compromise with co-founders, with investors, et cetera.

So, yeah, I'm also happy with that decision. I have come to an end with my questions. Is there anything you want to add for the end of our interview that gives this new context on you, that it's needed context on you? I think, yeah, you find a lot of things about me in YouTube, about my book for sure, how I'm thinking is all in German. My target market is Germany. So if you're German, feel free to contact me. If you're, for example, interested in the fund, let's make a short video call to show more information if you have questions. And, yeah, I think you realize I'm motivated to improve the industry, to improve the products, improve to maybe lives for some people.

And, yeah, that's something what you can not just hopefully see from this interview, but maybe also from the things I did. and that's I think that's it then thank you very much for the value you add and thank you very much to the audience to stay up till now and bye bye bye to your aisle

thanks too much bye bye as in every video also here is the disclaimer you can find a link to the disclaimer below in the show notes the disclaimer says always do your own work

what we're doing here is no recommendation and no advice so please always do your own work. Thank you very much.