LONDON — During the webinar for Premium subscribers this week, we updated the two Biznews share bundles available for co-investment through EasyEquities. It also provided me the opportunity to explain the purpose of this exercise. No, despite my bank manager's urgings, I have not switched media for money management. Rather, the two share bundles – US Exponential and SA Champions – are a mirror of my own share investments, their selection informed through my study of Warren Buffett supplemented by knowledge from a job involving the monitoring of broad investment trends. The innovative fractional ownership facility offered by EasyEquities allows others to also invest in the bundle, either in full or in part, and in my exact proportions or not. Having a bet alongside me, if you like. My philosophy is to select the constituents with the intention of owning them forever, only changing when there is a fundamental change to the business invested in. It's not always possible to structure things perfectly from the outset, so there were quite a few changes in these bundles during their early days. But the holdings are mostly settled, although in the latest update you'll have noticed the sale of Alphabet and the introduction of two major US banks. But for the most part, the portfolios are a guide, one that offers the advantage of a quarterly update on what's been happening in the underlying companies. – Alec Hogg

The Biznews US Exponential portfolio:

It was another good quarter for the bundle, helped by the strong recovery in tech stocks after the September/October meltdown. Our core holding, Amazon.com, recovered almost all the losses from that scary couple months with a predictable impact on performance. In the 16 months since the portfolio was created, that 72% surge in the Amazon share price has been the major reason or a $100,000 initial investment turning into $126,513. With the rand having fallen from R13.90 to the current R14.60, that translates into a 33% growth in the bundle's value, or growth of 25% at an annualised rate.

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