How to Avoid Big Tech and Still Beat the Stock Market
Kevin Landis of Firsthand Funds explains what it takes to outperform and the right questions to ask.
Can an investor outperform the market without owning shares of the biggest, best-known companies? That is the self-imposed mandate of Kevin Landis, founder of Firsthand Capital Management Inc., which runs the Firsthand Funds, and this week’s guest on the Masters on Business podcast. “You don’t need me to tell you to own Microsoft,” Landis says. “What value do we add owning Apple, one of the most widely held stocks in the world?”
Landis may be on to something. The firm’s Firsthand Technology Opportunities Fund gained 102% over the past 12 months without many of the biggest market drivers of 2020. In other words, no Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Tesla Inc. or Netflix Inc. The fund was created in 1999, and has gained 21.1% annually over the past 10 years, compared with 13.9% for the S&P 500 Index and 18.5% for the Nasdaq Composite Index.