Read the screenplay: FANNIEGATE — $7 trillion. 17 years. The biggest fraud in American capital markets.

Self-Inflicted Wounds

I Asked AI to Roast
My Investment History

I told Claude to be brutally honest about my investment career. It did not hold back. I responded to every roast because I'm apparently incapable of not having the last word.

The Chinese Stock Fraud Era

completely fair

In your early twenties, you invested heavily in Chinese reverse-merger stocks that turned out to be complete frauds.

C
Claude's Roast

You literally gave your first million dollars to people who fabricated their entire businesses. You read the financial statements of companies whose 'factories' were empty buildings with fresh paint. You were so confident in your 'deep research' that you didn't think to Google Street View the headquarters. Which, to be fair, didn't exist.

G
Glen's Response

The AI is being generous. I didn't just invest in one fraud. I invested in MULTIPLE frauds. I was like a fraud sommelier — diversified across different vintages of fake Chinese companies. But hey, that bathroom mirror moment changed my life.

The 'All-In on Fannie Mae' Strategy

rude but accurate

You put your entire net worth into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac junior preferred shares.

C
Claude's Roast

Most financial advisors recommend diversification. You read that advice, thought about it carefully, and then put literally everything into two government-sponsored enterprises that have been in conservatorship since 2008. Your portfolio has the diversification of a hot dog stand that only sells one kind of hot dog.

G
Glen's Response

The hot dog stand analogy is beautiful and I'm stealing it. But let me be clear: I didn't just bet everything on one thesis. I bet everything on one thesis AND THEN WROTE EIGHT BOOKS ABOUT IT. That's not concentration risk — that's commitment.

The Eight Books on One Topic

fair

You wrote eight volumes of 'Fanniegate' covering a single investment thesis.

C
Claude's Roast

Most authors spend their career trying to write ONE book. You wrote eight. About the same thing. The same thesis. The same two companies. You are the only person in history who needed eight volumes to say 'I think Fannie Mae is undervalued.' The Lord of the Rings had three books. Harry Potter had seven. Fanniegate needed eight. Your thesis has more volumes than most fantasy epics.

G
Glen's Response

In my defense, the conservatorship is really complicated. But also... yeah. Eight is a lot. My editor (me) probably should have pushed back at some point. But my editor (me) was just as convicted as my writer (me).

The Motley Fool to Fannie Mae Pipeline

ouch

You were named the Motley Fool's 'Hottest Player' and then immediately went all-in on the riskiest trade possible.

C
Claude's Roast

Getting the 'Hottest Player' award and then going all-in on conservatorship-bound GSE preferred shares is like winning a cooking competition and immediately trying to deep-fry a bowling ball. You had momentum. You had recognition. And you used that credibility to make a bet that would make most risk managers physically ill.

G
Glen's Response

The deep-fried bowling ball analogy... I need a moment. That's genuinely funny. But also: the bowling ball might be delicious. We don't know yet. The fryer is still hot.

The Blog Volume

rude but accurate

You've written 2,708 blog posts over a decade.

C
Claude's Roast

That's roughly 0.74 blog posts PER DAY for ten years. While most people struggle to maintain a journal for a week, you've been producing content at a rate that suggests either extreme dedication or an inability to stop talking. Your blog isn't a blog — it's a condition. There should be a medical term for this.

G
Glen's Response

There IS a medical term for this. It's called 'being right about something nobody believes you about.' The prescription is 300+ SeekingAlpha articles and a Twitter account named @DoNotLose.

The 3,143-Page Personal Website

fair

You built a personal website with over 3,143 pages.

C
Claude's Roast

Most personal websites have 5-10 pages. A generous personal website has 20. You built three thousand one hundred and forty-three. Your personal website has more pages than most small-town libraries. You wrote movie screenplays for 157 billionaires. You built a voting system so strangers could rank them. This isn't a website — it's a cry for help disguised as a Next.js application.

G
Glen's Response

A cry for help disguised as a Next.js application. That's... actually my new LinkedIn headline. But in all seriousness: I'd rather build too much than too little. The world doesn't need another 5-page portfolio site. It needs 157 billionaire screenplays with cast recommendations.

The Twitter Handle

ouch

Your Twitter handle is @DoNotLose.

C
Claude's Roast

You named your public-facing social media account after the thing you've done multiple times. That's like a skydiver going by @LandSafely or a chef going by @DontBurnIt. Your handle is aspirational at best and deeply ironic at worst. Every time someone loses money on a stock you recommended, they have to tag @DoNotLose. The algorithm must be confused.

G
Glen's Response

The handle was aspirational. It still is. I've lost money plenty of times. But I haven't lost the game. There's a difference between losing a battle and losing a war. @DoNotLose refers to the war.

The Grocery Cart

completely fair

You eat Little Debbie Nutty Bars as a food group while managing a concentrated stock portfolio.

C
Claude's Roast

You apply institutional-grade risk analysis to government-sponsored enterprises and zero-grade risk analysis to your cardiovascular health. You eat string cheese standing up, drink blueberry juice as a health alibi, and your Amazon grocery cart looks like a college student's during finals week. You are a man of extreme contradictions, all of them delicious.

G
Glen's Response

The blueberry juice IS a health alibi and I will not apologize for it. As for the Nutty Bars: a man who analyzes trillion-dollar trades deserves a chocolate wafer at 11 PM. This is non-negotiable.

If you can't laugh at yourself, the market will do it for you.

Every roast on this page is real. Every response is genuine. I've made spectacular mistakes, taken absurd risks, and built things nobody asked for. But I'm still here, still building, and still not losing the war. The handle stays.

Learn From Everyone's Mistakes

The 10 Deadly Portfolio Sins

I've reviewed hundreds of portfolios informally over the years — friends, family, strangers in my DMs. The same mistakes show up again and again. Here are the ones that make me wince the hardest.

1

Over-Diversification

If you own 50+ positions, congratulations — you've built an expensive index fund with extra fees. Diversification is a hedge against ignorance. If you know what you're doing, owning your 47th-best idea makes you worse, not safer. Your best ideas deserve your capital. Everything else is noise.

2

No Thesis for Any Position

"I bought it because someone on Reddit said to" is not a thesis. If you can't explain in one sentence why you own a stock — what it does, why it's mispriced, and what has to happen for you to be right — you're not investing. You're gambling with extra steps.

3

Accidental Sector Concentration

You think you're diversified because you own 15 stocks. Then you look closer and realize 11 of them are tech companies. You didn't diversify — you just bought the same risk wearing different logos. Sector concentration is fine if it's intentional. It's lethal if it's accidental.

4

Holding Losers Too Long

The sunk cost fallacy will destroy your portfolio faster than any bear market. "I can't sell now, I'm down 40%" is backwards logic. The stock doesn't know what you paid for it. The only question is: would you buy it today at this price? If not, why are you holding it?

5

Selling Winners Too Early

Peter Lynch called this "cutting the flowers and watering the weeds." You sell your winner at +30% and hold your loser at -50%, hoping it comes back. The math is brutal: your winners have unlimited upside, your losers can only go to zero. Let winners run. That's the whole game.

6

No Cash Position

Being 100% invested at all times means you never have dry powder when opportunities appear. The best deals come when everyone else is panicking and selling. If you're fully invested when the crash hits, all you can do is watch. Cash is not a drag on returns — it's ammunition.

7

Chasing Yield Without Understanding Risk

A 12% dividend yield is not a gift — it's a warning sign. High yields exist because the market is pricing in a dividend cut or worse. If you're reaching for yield without understanding the underlying business, you're picking up pennies in front of a steamroller. I learned this the hard way.

8

Ignoring Position Sizing

Position sizing is the most underrated skill in investing. A 1% position in your best idea and a 5% position in your 20th-best idea is backwards. Size your positions by conviction, not by what feels comfortable. Your portfolio should reflect your actual beliefs about the world.

9

Following Influencers Blindly

FinTwit is entertainment, not a trading desk. When someone with 500K followers says "I'm buying XYZ," they bought it last week. You're the exit liquidity, not the smart money. Use social media for ideas, then do your own work. The person posting a hot take has different risk tolerance, time horizon, and portfolio than you.

10

No Written Investment Plan

If your investment plan isn't written down, it doesn't exist. A written plan forces clarity: what you buy, when you sell, how much you risk, and what changes your mind. Without it, every decision is emotional. Write it down, tape it to your monitor, and follow it when the market is screaming at you to do something stupid.

Be Your Own Roaster

The Portfolio Roast Checklist

Before you ask anyone else to review your portfolio, roast yourself first. Go through this checklist honestly. If you can't answer “yes” to most of these, you have work to do — and that's okay.

1

Can you explain why you own each position in one sentence?

If the answer is "my buddy told me" or "it was going up," that's not a thesis. A real thesis has a catalyst, a valuation anchor, and a time horizon.

2

Do you know your biggest position as a percentage of your portfolio?

If you don't know this off the top of your head, you're not paying attention. Your largest position is your highest-conviction bet. It should be intentional, not accidental.

3

When was the last time you reviewed your thesis for each holding?

Theses expire. The reason you bought something 18 months ago may no longer be valid. If you haven't revisited your thesis recently, you're flying blind.

4

Do you have a written sell discipline?

Most people have a buying process but no selling process. Decide in advance: what price, what event, or what change in fundamentals triggers a sale? Write it down before the emotions kick in.

5

Are you diversified across sectors, geographies, and asset classes?

This doesn't mean you need 50 positions. It means you should understand your exposure. If one sector tanks, what happens to your net worth? If the U.S. market drops 30%, do you have anything that holds up?

6

Do you have a cash reserve for opportunities?

The best investors keep dry powder. When everyone else is panic-selling, you want to be the one buying. If you're always fully invested, you can never take advantage of a crash.

7

Can you sleep at night with your current allocation?

If your portfolio gives you anxiety, it's too risky — for you. Risk tolerance is personal. The perfect portfolio is one you can hold through a 40% drawdown without making emotional decisions.

If you scored 7/7, you don't need a roast. If you scored 3 or below, you need a mirror more than a portfolio. Either way — keep reading.

How I Actually Think About This

Glen's Portfolio Philosophy

I roasted myself above. Now here's how I actually think about portfolio construction — the operating system that grew out of every mistake on this page.

Concentration Over Diversification

I believe in concentrating capital in your highest-conviction ideas. Not recklessly — with deep research, a clear thesis, and the stomach to ride out volatility. The math is simple: if you own 50 stocks, none of them matter. If you own 5, each one has to earn its place. I'd rather know 5 businesses inside and out than own 50 I can barely name. Diversification is great if you don't know what you're doing. If you do the work, concentration is how you build real wealth.

When to Add, When to Trim

I add to winners when the thesis is intact and the valuation still works. I add to losers only if the thesis is stronger than it was when I bought — meaning the market is giving me a gift, not telling me I'm wrong. I trim when a position grows so large it threatens the whole portfolio, or when the thesis is fully played out. Trimming a winner at +30% because it “feels like a lot” is the amateur move. Selling when the thesis is broken — regardless of the price — is the professional one.

Write It Down or It Doesn't Exist

Every position I own has a written thesis. Every sell has a written reason. I publish my positions and my reasoning because accountability makes you better. When you write it down, you can't rewrite history later. You can't pretend you sold at the top or that you “always knew” something was a fraud. The written record is your mirror. It's also your edge — because most investors never do this.

Patience Is the Alpha

Most of my returns have come from sitting still. Not from clever timing, not from trading around positions, not from catching the bottom. Just holding a thesis when everyone else gave up. The market rewards patience more than intelligence. The smartest person in the room who sells too early will always lose to the average person who held through the noise.

The Legends Weigh In

Famous Portfolio Roasts

I'm not the first person to roast bad portfolio construction. The greatest investors in history have been doing it for decades — usually with more eloquence and less self-inflicted damage.

WB

Warren Buffett

On diversification

“Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.”

Buffett has spent his entire career concentrating on his best ideas. When he bought Coca-Cola, it was 40% of Berkshire's equity portfolio. When he bought Apple, it eventually became nearly half. The man who manages hundreds of billions doesn't own 200 stocks — he owns a handful of businesses he understands deeply. His roast of over-diversifiers is the most polite way of saying: “If you need 50 stocks, you haven't done enough homework on any of them.”

CM

Charlie Munger

On stupidity

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”

Munger's roast isn't directed at any one portfolio — it's directed at the entire species. Most investors lose money not because they lack intelligence but because they do stupid things: they panic-sell at bottoms, chase memes at tops, ignore position sizing, and confuse activity with progress. Munger's investment philosophy boils down to: avoid the big mistakes, and the returns take care of themselves. Most portfolios would improve dramatically if the owner simply stopped doing dumb things.

PL

Peter Lynch

On selling winners

“Selling your winners and holding your losers is like cutting the flowers and watering the weeds.”

Lynch managed Fidelity Magellan to a 29.2% annualized return over 13 years. His biggest insight? Most of his returns came from a small number of huge winners — multi-baggers that he held for years while everyone told him to take profits. The instinct to “lock in gains” at +30% while holding a loser at -60% is the single most destructive behavior in retail portfolios. Lynch's roast: you keep watering the dying plants and cutting the ones that are blooming.

HM

Howard Marks

On risk and overconfidence

“The biggest investing errors come not from factors that are informational or analytical, but from those that are psychological.”

Marks built Oaktree Capital into a $170 billion powerhouse by understanding one thing most investors miss: risk is not volatility — it's the probability of permanent loss. His memo-based roasts of overconfident investors are legendary in finance circles. The core message: you think you're being rational, but you're being emotional. You think you're managing risk, but you're just managing your feelings. The portfolios that blow up are always owned by people who were “sure” they were right.

Want to read the actual analysis behind the memes?

300+ articles on SeekingAlpha. Less funny, more useful.

Read on SeekingAlpha

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a portfolio roast?

A portfolio roast is a humorous, self-deprecating review of an investor's holdings and investment history. Glen asked Claude AI to brutally roast his own investment career — from Chinese stock fraud losses to an all-in bet on Fannie Mae preferred shares — and then responded to every roast. It's entertainment with a grain of truth.

Q: How does Glen review portfolios?

Glen does not review other people's portfolios for pay — he is not a registered investment advisor. This page is a self-roast of his own investment history. For serious investment analysis, Glen publishes on SeekingAlpha where he has written 300+ articles, and he shares real-time position updates through his Investor Community.

Q: Is the portfolio roast free?

Yes, the portfolio roast page is completely free to read. It covers 8 brutally honest AI-generated roasts of Glen's investment history — from losing money in Chinese fraud stocks to writing 8 books about one thesis. Each roast includes Glen's genuine response and a verdict rating.

Q: What are the most common portfolio mistakes?

The most common portfolio mistakes Glen sees are over-diversification (50+ positions that mimic an index fund), holding losers too long due to sunk cost fallacy, selling winners too early, having no written investment plan, chasing yield without understanding risk, and following social media influencers blindly without doing independent research.

Q: Should I concentrate my portfolio or diversify?

It depends on your knowledge and conviction. Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Glen Bradford all advocate for concentration — owning fewer positions that you understand deeply — over broad diversification. However, concentration only works if you've done the research. If you can't explain why you own each position, diversification is your best protection against ignorance.

Q: How do I know when to sell a stock?

You should sell when your original thesis is broken — not when the price drops. A written sell discipline established before you buy helps remove emotion from the decision. Ask yourself: would I buy this stock today at this price with what I know now? If the answer is no, the position has no place in your portfolio regardless of whether you're up or down.

Get Glen's Musings

Occasional thoughts on AI, Claude, investing, and building things. Free. No spam.

Unsubscribe anytime. I respect your inbox more than Congress respects property rights.

Get the Unfiltered Analysis

Weekly investing deep-dives, position updates, and direct Q&A with someone who has everything riding on his own calls. $20/month.

Learn more

Keep Exploring