🗣️ Investor Talk #26: Pieter Slegers

Founder - Compounding Quality

Welcome to Investor Talk — where we interview successful investors to uncover their journeys, strategies, and the lessons they've learned. Get inspired by real stories and gain valuable insights to sharpen your own investment approach.

Every interview follows the same set of sharp, insightful questions — such as “What is your investment strategy?”, “What are your highest conviction stocks?”, and “What’s the biggest investment mistake you’ve made?”

In this edition, we have the pleasure of interviewing:

Name: Pieter Slegers @QCompounding
Age: 27
Residence/Country: Belgium
Invests since: 2010

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
It was the summer of 2010, I was 13 years old, and I started working at the local supermarket to save some money. It wasn't my thing at all; I was counting down the hours. That summer, friends of my parents came over and started talking about the stock market, which was completely new to me. After the summer job, I deposited all the money I had earned that summer into an investment account, with absolutely no knowledge or understanding of the stock market. I then invested all the money in a Belgian oil and gas stock. I made every mistake I could make: no diversification, no research, and so on. The result was that after one year, I sold the stock at a 60% loss.

In hindsight, this was the best thing that could have happened to me at that time. It was incredibly painful, but as an investor, you are bound to make mistakes, and it is much better to make them with a small amount of money than with a large one. I had two choices then: quit investing or study the stock market. I chose the latter. I started reading financial newspapers and books, which only fueled my interest in investing.

I always wanted to become a teacher, but I ended up studying Financial Management at the KU in Leuven. After my study, I worked for three years at a wealth management firm in Antwerp, where I, along with a colleague, was responsible for managing an equity fund. In summer 2022, I have started Compounding Quality, where I can combine my passion for investing with my desire to teach: educating people about investing.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆?