Although I hate the word, one of my favorite financial influencers is a man named Joseph Carlson. Every once in a while, Joseph Carlson will do a “Super Investors Are Buying Now” episode on his YouTube channel. These videos are excellent, and I will give my takes on a couple of the superinvestor’s picks for the year.

1. Brad Gerstner is a bit of a new name. He started a tech fund in 2011 and has 29% annualized returns. You may be thinking, “Well, obviously, he has 29% annualized returns; 2011 was literally the best possible year to start a tech fund.” However, Brad has outperformed the QQQ, which is the index most people use to measure tech performance. This guy absolutely knows what he is doing, so here is a pick that I feel strongly about.

   Gerstner’s fund-Altimeter Capital (not as good as Pax Romana Capital)-is big into Uber. Uber makes up 14% of their portfolio. I was on the Uber train a few months ago, and they have performed well since my prediction, which I cannot really pat myself on the back about because all tech stocks have been up wildly. Kicking yourself over missed stock picks is always dumb, but I am still seriously kicking myself over this one. Uber is a great company. When it IPOd, Uber was a poorly run company that could not make a profit, and honestly, the road to viability seemed fraught. But I noticed, and I should have noticed sooner, that Uber was trending upwards. Lyft is no longer much of a competitor. Uber is profitable. And Uber is doing what all great companies do when they are at the top: innovate. I am extremely optimistic about Uber’s future and what it will be.

2. Mark Massey is from Altarock Partners. Mark Massey is an investor who likes his investments to be concentrated, making him my type of investor. I have always subscribed to the theory that if you are doing it right, you should be all the way in. If you believe in the company, you have to be brave and concentrate your portfolio. That is why leadership is important. You are looking the executives in the eyes, giving them your money, and telling them to use it effectively. You have to trust leadership to trust yourself. I digress. Mark Massey has 4.5 BILLION dollars in eight positions. I have seven positions, but I don’t have 4.5 billy to invest. Here is one of his positions that I love.

   Microsoft is a stock I talk about every day, it feels, but I am telling you there is literally no better company in the world to buy into right now. Microsoft is an absolutely fantastic company with a massive moat, excellent leadership, a finger in every new tech industry, and my money. I think Microsoft is a great company, and if you look at nearly every super investor, they are in Microsoft as well. There is not much to say about Microsoft that I have not already written about in some form over the past six months.

3. Terry Smith has $22 billion AUM, which, even by super investor standards, is quite a bit of money. He has annualized 15%, and he focuses on buying good companies at good prices and then leaving them alone for years. What Terry Smith focuses on in particular, however, is ROCE or Return on Capital Employed. Basically, how profitable are you with the money you receive. I am not going to pick Microsoft again, but I do want to note that it is Terry Smith’s largest holding at 13%. My pick that I feel strongly about is Meta, and this is going to be negative.

   Meta is a company run by a lizard. I detest Mark Zuckerberg, which is why I shall never have a dime in Meta. However, looking (or trying to) at Meta objectively, I also think it is a poor investment. Meta has reached its cap with social media. Simply, there is no more room for social media to go, and they recognize it. There are no more possible customers, which is why they went for the whole Meta rebrand. The Meta rebrand has been an unmitigated disaster. The Metaverse is dead, and Meta killed it. The Metaverse put on display a shocking level of ineptitude and laziness that I have not forgotten. Apple will crush Meta in AR/VR. Previously, I believed they were not competitors, but after Mark publicly went after the Apple Vision Pro, I now believe they are competitors. Obviously, Mark feels threatened, which would worry me if I were a Meta shareholder because a battle between Apple and Meta is like a boxing match between either presidential candidate and Prime Mike Tyson. I am extremely pessimistic about where Meta is going, and it starts at the top.

4. Let’s finish up with my new MORTAL ENEMY, Nelson Peltz. Nelly has an annualized return of 9.6% (weakest on this list) and $6.5 billion AUM. Joseph believes that Nelly should get those board seats at Disney, and I could not disagree more. I would sooner see Disney World move to Mongolia than allow Nelson Peltz near Disney’s board, almost purely out of spite now. Nelson just annoys me, and he would bring nothing to Disney. I dislike all of Nelson’s picks, as I am supposed to. Nelson’s strategy involves going into bad companies and making them better. He is very good at this, but I would not want to be along for the ride. Also, Nelson if you are reading this, plz go away, thx!

Okay, so those were the picks that I liked and did not like from some large funds. I really liked writing that, so I may double back in a few days with some more large investors. Anyways, thanks for reading. Now go write letters to Nelson Peltz telling him to back off.