Research capacity
People and time dedicated to understanding businesses deeply, separate from daily market work.
Long-term direction · Not active today
Owning, not trading Businesses Built to Last
Over time, Jacob Decker intends to own shares in durable businesses and hold them for years, judging them by what they become rather than what they do this quarter.
What we will look for
Why equities
Ownership Over Years Not Quarters
Our current work in FX and futures teaches risk, sizing and review. Ownership asks for something different: patience to hold a good business through difficult years. We will begin only when we have the people and process to do it properly.
Long-term perspectiveIntended holding periodYears
Status todayDirectionClearly labelled on every page
From trading positions to owning businesses
0Shares held today
YearsIntended horizon
QualityThe first filter
1Discipline for every horizon
What we will look for
Six Qualities Before Any Purchase
Durable advantage
A reason customers will still choose the business in ten years.
Honest management
People who report plainly, allocate carefully and own their mistakes.
Sound balance sheet
Strength to survive bad years without being forced into bad decisions.
A sensible price
A wonderful business can still be a poor purchase at the wrong price.
Understandable
If we cannot explain how it earns money, we will not own it.
A long runway
Room to reinvest and grow for many years, not a single good season.
Ownership shaped
by patience
Our work starts with understanding. We will study a business until we can describe its customers, its costs and its competitors in plain words. Decisions are written down, with the reasons that would make us wrong.
We will hold through ordinary volatility, because the price of a share moves far more than the value of a good business. Patience is not inactivity: every holding will be reviewed against the reasons we bought it.
An ownership approach built for decades, combining research, restraint and honest review.
Areas we will study
01
Financial infrastructure
02
Building and materials
03
Business services
04
Growing cities
05
Telecommunications
06
Energy
07
Technology services
08
Consumer staples
These are broad fields of research for the future. Jacob Decker holds no shares today and names no companies here.
How an ownership decision will be made
The process is deliberately slow. Every stage is written down, so that the reasons for owning a business can be checked against what actually happens.
01Study
Read everything public about the business and its industry, and write a plain-language description of how it earns money.
02Question
List what would have to be true for the business to be worth owning, and what would prove us wrong.
03Value
Estimate a sensible range of value and refuse to pay more than it, however attractive the story.
04Size
Decide position size so that a mistake is survivable, before any purchase is made.
05Own
Hold patiently through ordinary volatility while the original reasons remain true.
06Review
Revisit the written reasons regularly and sell when they no longer hold, not when the price is uncomfortable.
Patient capital
Capital set aside that can be left untouched for years without straining the company.
Written process
Rules for study, valuation, sizing and review agreed before the first purchase.
Honest review
A record that shows our reasoning, so we can learn from both good and poor decisions.
"We would rather own a few businesses we understand completely than many we understand partly. When we do begin, we will begin small, write down our reasons and let the record, not our enthusiasm, decide how quickly we grow."
Jacob Decker, ownership principle
Where we stand
- Status
- Long-term direction
- Active today
- No
- Capital
- Company's own
- Horizon
- Years to decades
- Current focus
- FX & Futures