General Comments / Chat, page-343

This week my RAC holding reached a significant milestone and it leads me to put down a note of thanks, reflect on the 10 months since my initial investment, the 11 months since I spoke to Dr Tillett and the journey that led me to Race Oncology. It meanders should you wish to continue ...
My Dad was an investor from the time that Grandad (a chicken farmer) allowed Dad to participate in a co-op capital raise as a teenager in the 50s.
Dad retired when the rolling cuts came to utilities in the 1990s in Victoria and managed his, and some family members' super in an SMSF for about 25 years. Diligently reviewing progress and decisions each day. Post the GFC, his benchmarking revealed that in the 14 or so years he'd been carefully managing these funds he trailed the All Ords accumulation index by perhaps 30% and any gains made in the time were from dividends because the net capital gain was zero.
He completely revised his approach across 2009-10 to go to a mix of TA & FA and by 2012 he was in his early 70s and had closed the gap on the AOrds Accumulation Index and was now stretching out a lead. In 2012 I asked him to manage some money for me that I otherwise had sitting in the bank and he diligently managed it alongside the super money but in a taxed environment and found the decision making quite challenging. Over time he ground out a decent beating of the market in the 5 years he was managing that money (in the 5%-15% pa ahead of market range) always tweaking and following a very diligent desk based research approach with parcels and cash allocations.
He would talk me through charts, decisions, risk management, stop losses and what he had learned; every time the tracking spreadsheet was opened on the cover sheet you would see the motto "RUN WINNERS, CUT LOSERS". I profited and learned a lot in this time.
In 2017 he was instantly killed in an accident and my family and I, amongst many others were devastated.
Taking time off from work, I attended my first round of AGMs in person, even taking my 4 year old daughter on the days she wasn't at kindy - she's a monkey but behaved beautifully, regardless everyone still thought I was crazy.
At the Gage Roads AGM I met a fund manager who put me into a gold company called Egan Street that he loved. That stock went sideways, down, sideways and a bit up before receiving an awful takeover offer dressed up to look like the best we could get. We angrily considered our options and contemplated an unhappy fate when an activist shareholder on Hot Copper announced he was willing to mount a takeover defence that proved to be better than any professional defence. I hooked the fund manager (who wasn't on HC) up with the activist to help boost share numbers by calling the activist on the phone. That activist is the man who is our Dr Tillet.
The takeover defence was a huge success and after a month of thinking about and analysing the decision I bought my first shares in Race Oncology.
Dad bought many stocks that could have been his RAC but always got shaken out in retracements: into NST at under $1, into MFG at $4, into CTD at $4 to name a few. I'd love to be able to share the RAC story with him.
If there was one hole in his investment approach it was not talking to enough people about the companies or people at the companies. It's those semi random conversations that led me here.
I am very grateful to Dr T at this time and to all of the people who have contributed to the RAC forum on Hot Copper, we have a wonderful opportunity here.
For me the only thing missing is getting the chance to participate in a capital raise ... there's a slight feeling of getting a free ride here. If we never need to have one that'll be fine but I'm ready if we do.

Thanks and GLTAH