I don’t have to call the bottom. I just need to buy a quality business at a reasonable price
In the stock market, I don’t try to guess the exact day when a price will hit bottom. It’s always easier to see in hindsight than in real time. What matters more to me is finding a quality business, understanding why the market doesn’t like it right now, and judging whether the price offers an attractive long-term return.
Recently, I’ve been building or increasing positions in companies such as Mastercard, Microsoft, Brookfield Asset Management, MSCI, and S&P Global. This wasn’t blind dip-buying. I was looking for companies with a competitive advantage, a strong market position, and the ability to grow earnings and free cash flow over the long term — and at a price that made sense to me.
My simple framework
Before buying, I ask myself three questions:
Does the company have a durable competitive advantage? This could be a network effect, a brand, switching costs, unique data, or strong customer relationships.
Is the investment thesis still intact? I monitor revenue and earnings growth, margins, free cash flow, debt, and whether the company is losing ground to its competitors.
Is the price reasonable given the company’s future prospects? Even an exceptional business isn’t automatically a good investment at any price.
A falling price isn’t, by itself, a reason to buy. It’s a reason to revisit the analysis. If the market is reacting to short-term pessimism while the company’s long-term economics remain largely unchanged, an opportunity may arise. If the business itself is deteriorating, a lower price may be entirely justified.
What my positions show
Broker screenshots from November 4, 2026, show the unrealized performance of several of my positions:
Position
Average purchase price
Price in screenshot
Unrealized return
Mastercard
511,27 USD
669,61 USD
+31,0 %
Microsoft
394,00 USD
554,26 USD
approximately +40,7 %
MSCI
533,96 USD
671,71 USD
+25,6 %
Brookfield Asset Management
47,15 USD
54,34 USD
+15,3 %
S&P Global
441,23 USD
482,10 USD
+9,3 %
For Microsoft, the approximately +40,7 % return is calculated using the average purchase price of 394 USD and the screenshot price of 554,26 USD. For the other positions, the percentages are taken directly from the position detail screens in IBKR. Prices and average purchase prices are shown rounded; the screenshots were taken at different times, so the percentages may not exactly match calculations based on the figures shown. These are not realized gains or the portfolio’s return for 2026, but the unrealized value of specific positions at the time the screenshots were taken. I built these positions over different periods.
And no, I’m not claiming that I called the bottom. Some of these companies could have been bought even more cheaply. That’s normal in investing, and in hindsight, it almost always looks that way. What matters to me is that I bought a quality business at a price I considered reasonable — and that the company’s long-term thesis remained intact.
Patience is part of the investment thesis
Sentiment can turn quickly, but it doesn’t have to. A valuation multiple can stay low longer than I expect. That’s why I don’t base my entire thesis on the market revaluing a stock soon. I want to own companies whose intrinsic value can grow through performance, cash flow, and good capital allocation.
So my strategy isn’t “buy every dip.” It’s to look for quality businesses, buy them at a reasonable price, keep checking the fundamentals, and give time a chance to reveal their quality.
How do you distinguish between temporary market pessimism and a genuine deterioration in a company?
This article describes my personal investment approach and positions shown in screenshots from 4. 11. 2026. It is not investment advice. Investing involves the risk of loss.