Real Talk

What happened when I let someone else do my thinking – and what I learned about investing in what you actually know.

Angelina  ·  April 2025  ·  5 min read

About three months ago I signed up to Motley Fool. If you haven’t come across them, they’re a well-known investing platform that recommends individual stocks — their whole philosophy is to pick 25 and hold them for a minimum of five years. Long-term thinking. No panic selling. I liked that.

So I followed their recommendations and bought four stocks from their buy list. Then I added a fifth – my own choice. In total I invested somewhere between £10,000 and £15,000.

Then I watched all five of them tank.

The portfolio, honestly

XERO	DoorDash	Coupang	Shopify	3i	Google	Meta
Down -50%	Motley Fool pick	Motley Fool pick	Motley Fool pick	Motley Fool pick	My own pick	My own pick

Notice anything? The two stocks that are up – Google and Meta – are the two I chose myself. The five that are down are all Motley Fool recommendations.

Now, I could have spiralled. And honestly, for a moment I did. Checking your portfolio every day and watching it shrink is not a fun hobby. So I did the only sensible thing – I deleted the app from my phone.

Was it just bad luck?

When one stock drops, you chalk it up to bad luck. When all five drop at once, you start asking questions.

I did some digging and found a common thread running through all five: fear around AI. Not actual AI damage to these businesses, their underlying metrics are solid, but negative market sentiment about what AI might do to them eventually. Investors are spooked. So the share prices have taken a hit even though the fundamentals haven’t changed.

This is an important distinction. A falling share price doesn’t always mean a failing business. Sometimes it just means the market is nervous. And nervous markets create opportunities for patient investors.

That research genuinely reassured me. I’m holding all five. Motley Fool’s strategy is five-plus years and I’m sticking to it, because the thesis hasn’t changed, only the sentiment has.

But here’s what I actually learned

Google and Meta are up. And the reason I bought both of them is simple: I work with these platforms every single day in my marketing consultancy. I see the product decisions they make. I watch how businesses respond to their tools. I have a ground-level view of how valuable they are that no analyst report can replicate.

Warren Buffett has always said invest in what you know. I understood that intellectually. Now I understand it in my gut.

Following someone else’s recommendations isn’t necessarily wrong, Motley Fool’s logic is sound and I still believe in the long game. But my best instincts came from my own direct experience. That’s worth something.

What I’m doing now

Holding everything. Not checking daily. And paying more attention to the companies I encounter in my real working life, because that’s where my edge actually is.

If you’re sitting on a portfolio that’s dropped and feeling wobbly, check whether the business itself has changed or whether it’s just the sentiment. Those are two very different problems with two very different answers.

And maybe delete the app for a while. Honestly, it helps.

This is not financial advice. I’m a marketing consultant who invests her own money and writes about it honestly. Always do your own research or speak to a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.