4 investors, $100,000: Who’s winning 6 months in? | Portfolio Challenge

**Bryce** (0:00)
We're just over halfway through the year, so it's time to check in on who is up and who is down in our yearly Betashares portfolio competition. Welcome to Equity Mates, a show where we explore what's possible in the world of investing. My name is Bryce.

**Ren** (0:14)
And I'm Ren, and today we're joined by two special guests who have joined us throughout the year for this portfolio challenge. Cam Gleeson, investment specialist at Betashares. Welcome back to the show.

**Cam Gleeson** (0:25)
Thanks, guys. Great to be here.

**Ren** (0:26)
And Ali Selby, host of Buy or Sell and Basis Points here at Equity Mates.

**Bryce** (0:31)
Welcome back.

**Ali Selby** (0:32)
Very excited to hear everyone's update.

**Bryce** (0:34)
So if you've just joined us, the rules were pretty simple. We each had $25,000 to invest across a mixture of ETFs and individual stocks. Half of our portfolio had to be invested in DHHF. We then could invest in three ASX listed ETFs and three ASX individual stocks. Equal weighted, and we could rebalance every quarter.

**Ren** (0:58)
We had a core portfolio, and then we could build our own satellite. And the challenge for the year was who could build the best satellite? This challenge is brought to you by Betashares Direct. We're using the Betashares Direct platform and their custom portfolios feature to build our own portfolios.
So I guess maybe let's start with how we're all going.

**Bryce** (1:17)
All right, let's do it. Cam?

**Cam Gleeson** (1:20)
So $25,600, so up, but not by enough.

**Bryce** (1:25)
Nice.

**Ren** (1:26)
Okay, so off the base of $25,000.

**Cam Gleeson** (1:29)
So, yeah.

**Bryce** (1:31)
Up 600

**Ali Selby** (1:31)
That's up. Okay.

**Bryce** (1:34)
So 25,000 invested, current value $27,515. Okay, so up 2,500.

**Ren** (1:43)
You've beaten me. I'm at $26,484, so up about $1,500.

**Bryce** (1:48)
Okay.

**Ali Selby** (1:48)
Okay, I've got the silver then. I'm up $27 and $88. And 52 cents, guys. Nice.

**Bryce** (1:55)
Nice. So not only is this Can We Beat DHHF, but it's just turned into Can We Also Beat Each Other.

**Ren** (2:01)
That was always going to be the challenge. Now, it's been an incredibly volatile few months.
We had the AI trade sell off, and then we've had earnings season. Don't forget the Strait of Hormuz as well.

**Ali Selby** (2:15)
That was big news.

**Ren** (2:17)
We've had Australian property prices dropping.
We've had the budget. A lot's happened. And unfortunately for us, we can't trade in and out of these positions. The rules are at the end of every quarter, we can make a trade decision and we have to live with it. So why don't we go around and talk about the decisions we've made and the implications of it. Cam, why don't you start us off?

**Cam Gleeson** (2:40)
So we made these trades on the 2nd or 1st of July, I think it was. So we're sort of a month in now. So we can start to see some of the performance. But the bane of my portfolio really has been my direct stock holdings. So I made some trades there. I was quite long uranium that didn't work out well, it was a high-risk bet. But I traded out Deep Yellow, which is a uranium miner. And I also traded out my exposure to REA Group, thinking there was going to be no positive callous on the horizon.
I traded in Karoon Energy. I thought that they had taken a bit of a hit.
I wanted to get some energy into my portfolio as a hedge against the Stratahummus. And then I also traded in Lynas. I thought maybe Rare Earths might be due for a bit of a jump. So that were my trades, two stock trades.

**Ali Selby** (3:22)
How are they going so far?

**Cam Gleeson** (3:24)
Mixed bag, so we've got Karoon Energy at about 20%. But REA Group, which I sold out, is up by about the same anyway. And then Lynas, some production issues, they're down about 10%.
Deep Yellow, which I sold out, I'm down five. So, I'm actually marginally worse off for trading in the end.

**Ali Selby** (3:41)
There's a good lesson there, Karoon. There must be.

**Cam Gleeson** (3:44)
Don't overtrade.

**Ren** (3:45)
But you work for an ETF company. You're an ETF expert.

**Cam Gleeson** (3:49)
And my ETFs are all going okay.

**Ali Selby** (3:51)
They're all going very well.

**Cam Gleeson** (3:52)
It's the single stocks that are burning me.

**Ren** (3:54)
So what ETFs are you holding?

**Cam Gleeson** (3:56)
So I've got BEMG, which is Emerging Markets. This is really, I think, a great place to invest. There's a lot of volatility, particularly coming out of South Korea. But I think there's really good value there and excellent earnings growth.