About this page
Kabutaro is a Japanese company employee who started investing in stocks in 2007. This is his diary, kept since he started the site in November 2015.
It covers how the market felt at the time (Brexit, the Trump election, the COVID crash), IPO lotteries, dividends and shareholder benefits, as well as work and family life.
Full profile and track record (in Japanese)
The Japanese original is here: 独り言 by 株太郎と愉快な仲間たち
New posts are translated automatically from the Japanese original.
Blog rankings
This site takes part in two Japanese blog rankings. A click helps keep me motivated.
All posts
2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2020 2018 2017 2016 2015
2026 (25 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Oct 2, 2026 | I've fully recovered. It looks like I'll be playing futsal more often too, so I should be able to stay healthy. |
| Aug 31, 2026 | I kept building my assets steadily this month, but I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so next month I'll keep at it while taking better care of my health. |
| Aug 7, 2026 | Summer vacation starts today. It's 11 days off this year, but I have no particular plans, so I'm going to take it easy. |
| Aug 1, 2026 | Last month was packed with events: welcome parties, interviews for mid-career hires, mentoring and training support. It was tiring. Trading went well, though, and I grew my assets again this month. |
| Jun 30, 2026 | I got up early to watch the match against Brazil. Japan came so close, but it still showed there's a gap in ability. |
| Jun 26, 2026 | I took the morning off work to watch the match against Sweden. What a great game. |
| Jun 22, 2026 | A colleague was visiting from overseas for work, so we went to a seafood izakaya in the evening. Pleasantly tipsy on a Monday. |
| Jun 21, 2026 | Watched the match against Tunisia on TV with my family. Very satisfying. |
| Jun 19, 2026 | I had the day off, so my wife and I went out for a tempura lunch. It had been a while since I'd had proper tempura, and it was really satisfying. |
| Jun 15, 2026 | Got up early in the morning to cheer on Japan against the Netherlands. Japan has really become strong. |
| May 30, 2026 | After Golden Week it was hard work from day one, and new tasks kept landing on me after that. My industry is in its best period ever, so my motivation is high, but something about it doesn't quite sit right with me. |
| May 11, 2026 | My 16-day break is over and I went back to work. I'd done a little work during the holidays, but it was still hard work from the first day. |
| May 4, 2026 | I went to Atami for the first time in my life. It was packed with tourists, but I also tried pottery on a wheel for the first time, and it was a really good trip. |
| Apr 30, 2026 | Another month of solid, safe trading. My assets dipped a little again, but I was able to add to the stocks I wanted, so I'm personally satisfied. |
| Apr 28, 2026 | Today I went to a furniture store to buy a TV stand. I found one very close to what I was looking for. |
| Apr 25, 2026 | Golden Week starts today. 16 days off! |
| Apr 23, 2026 | My Coin Estate account is now open, and I successfully applied for the shareholder benefit of WHDC <3823>. |
| Apr 20, 2026 | I applied to open a Coin Estate account to get the shareholder benefit of WHDC <3823>. |
| Apr 4, 2026 | Last month Diners Club sent me an invitation for the Diners Club Premium card. I hesitated a little, but I applied. I want to have more experiences from now on, and I'm planning to take more overseas business trips on my own initiative, so I think the timing was good. |
| Mar 31, 2026 | Another month of solid, safe trading. My assets dipped a little, but I added quite a few dividend stocks, so I'm personally satisfied. |
| Mar 1, 2026 | From time to time I'd like to keep a list here of the things I can now cover with dividends, furusato nozei (hometown tax donations) and shareholder benefits. The idea is to make visible what my own efforts have achieved. Every year more things become free, and I can feel the effect. Water, rice, toothpaste, mouthwash, face wash, toilet paper, tissues, disaster supplies (portable toilets, emergency food), household appliances (hair dryer, vacuum cleaner) and eating out. |
| Feb 28, 2026 | I finished my tax return again this month. Since I started investing in startups through FUNDINNO last year, I used the angel tax incentive for the first time. |
| Feb 27, 2026 | Another month of solid, safe trading. My assets are growing steadily, and I was able to add more dividend stocks too. |
| Feb 18, 2026 | This month I went on an overseas business trip for the first time in about two years. I used to go often, but lately I'd had fewer chances to feel the air of other countries, so in a good way it reminded me of my old self. |
| Jan 31, 2026 | As usual, I got off to a steady start this year. I'm not winning big, but I want to keep piling up profits little by little. |
2025 (5 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Dec 31, 2025 | I finished the year's trading without trouble, but I got too greedy for profit and failed to sell at the right time, so a few stocks ended up in the red. I did the same thing a few years ago and told myself then not to repeat it, yet I did it again. In 2026 I want to trade so this never happens again. If I can fix this, I think it could lead to much bigger profits. |
| Dec 26, 2025 | Today was my last workday of the year. A year really flies by. This year I reached an annual salary of 40 million yen as a company employee, and I felt I'd made a big leap. Work is always busy and very hard, but I approach it positively with a growth mindset. I now have 20 people reporting to me, and I have the ambition to grow that next year, so I'll go into it with even higher motivation. I'll comment on my trading at the end of the year. |
| Dec 13, 2025 | Visitors came from overseas on business this week. For two evenings I got to enjoy yakiniku and shabu-shabu (free, of course, ha). |
| Nov 30, 2025 | Went out with the family today. The course was: osteopath, lunch, an event, then yakiniku. |
| Nov 29, 2025 | First update in a while. In November I reached my profit target, but I sold Medical & Biological Laboratories (免疫生物研究所) far too early. I was so focused on work that I hadn't examined their IR news closely enough. Honestly, I should have added to my position before it rose. I had plenty of chances... I'm not losing, so I'll switch gears and look for the next stock. |
2024 (1 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| May 1, 2024 | With the world situation unstable in April 2024, my assets went down. I'm seeing some stocks that look close to the bottom, so I want to find them and invest. |
2023 (1 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Dec 31, 2023 | A year has passed since 2022, and I still haven't established my own trading style. Emotions still creep in. Work, on the other hand, has gone very well, and I reached an annual income that puts me in the top fraction of a percent of salaried workers. But being greedy, I've already switched my focus to the next goal. Humans really are greedy. |
2022 (1 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Dec 30, 2022 | This year ended with a rate hike at the very end, leaving a sour market, but layoffs at overseas companies are calming down, so I'm a little hopeful for next year. This year I also traded with more focus on dividends, so I feel I'm managing risk better than before. I feel I'm close to establishing my own trading style, so I hope to reach that point next year. |
2020 (2 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| May 30, 2020 | March was the bottom, wasn't it? I managed to grow my assets beyond where they were before the COVID crash, but not as much as I'd hoped. I think it's because the fear from the Lehman shock still lingers. Still, I tell myself that trading this carefully is why I've survived this long, and I'll keep investing cautiously. Thanks to the COVID bubble I was able to swap some non-dividend stocks for dividend stocks, which was lucky. The question now is whether it's "sell in May." I've bought a fair amount on margin (with plenty of cushion), so I'll be watching how these stocks do from June on. |
| Mar 29, 2020 | The impact of the COVID shock has started to hit the real economy. Stock markets usually move six months to a year ahead, so there may be another leg down, but I think the bottom is starting to come into view. Just like after the Lehman shock, in a few years people will probably say, "That was the bottom." |
2018 (3 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Aug 20, 2018 | Luckily, my daughter made it to the national finals of the PTNA Piano Competition again this year, in the A1 class, so the whole family went. With first and second graders, the level is high, and even an amateur like me could feel how impressive they were. I'm so grateful to my daughter for giving us such a wonderful opportunity again this year. The market has been bad this year for the first time in a while and my assets are down, but I'll face the market and try not to be outdone by my daughter's hard work. |
| Jul 28, 2018 | First comment in a while. In May I took a big hit on Sorghum Japan HD, and my results for the year turned negative. Then came the crashes in June and July, and I'm struggling to grow my assets. |
| Mar 30, 2018 | I hit the minimum target I set every year in just three months. Profits are piling up at a very good pace this year, so I'll stay focused and trade carefully from April to keep it up. |
2017 (16 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Dec 31, 2017 | I met my minimum target again this year. The two stocks I bought at year-end are rising nicely, so January 2018 should get off to a good start too. I hardly won any IPOs, but they're a sure way to make money, so I plan to add more brokers from 2018 on. I'm going to post my 2017 IPO results to the FISCO Social Report. |
| Dec 10, 2017 | Bitcoin futures start at 8 a.m. on December 11. I'm very curious to see how they move. As I wrote two months ago, I have no intention of trading at all; I'm just watching the price. Personally, I hope the futures listing gives some sense of where a fair price lies. Simply put, the fair price should be around the mining cost, but according to various columns that seems to be in the 30,000-yen range. In the worst case, we may need to be prepared for a correction to around that level. After that it depends on how much Bitcoin holders love Bitcoin. The tricky part going forward is that the amount that can be mined is shrinking, which should naturally push mining costs up, so how that gets adjusted will matter. |
| Oct 25, 2017 | I wonder how many times Bitcoin will fork in the next few years. A currency that keeps forking (right now it isn't even really classed as a currency) doesn't seem to have a future to me, but I'll keep watching (I have no plans to buy today's cryptocurrencies). Will Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) become the currency of the future, or will it be another tulip bulb? The technology itself is excellent, so I think using it for existing currencies makes sense. Personally, I think Estcoin may offer the goal these problems should aim for. I'm very interested in how Estonia, a eurozone country, will act and how people holding Estcoin will think. At some point I'm also thinking of making a website for cryptocurrencies. |
| Aug 18, 2017 | Stepping away from stocks for a bit: today my family went to the winners' commemorative concert of the PTNA Piano Competition A2 class, in which my daughter took part. Listening to the 63 little pianists who made it out of about 2,200 entrants, I was amazed again at how high the level is, and amazed that my daughter was among them. It was a truly wonderful experience. My dear daughter, thank you so much. Next year she moves up a level to the A1 class; please keep enjoying the piano. That said, I did sneakily take profits on IID <6038> to cover last night's dinner. Piano is expensive, so I'll work hard at stocks to support her as much as I can (and at my day job too, of course). |
| Aug 13, 2017 | With the profits locked in this month, I hit the minimum target I set every year. I've met it every year since 2013, but I won't let my guard down and will try to grow profits further in the remaining five months. I thought there wouldn't be an August sell-off this year, but with North Korea risk heating up, there have been big drops for the past few days. I don't know if it will stop in August, but I want to judge the bottom well. |
| Jun 20, 2017 | It's been exactly ten years since I started investing in stocks. At first I lost again and again, but after ten years I've come to get a feel for the market mood and chart patterns, and I no longer take big losses. I've also gained the mental strength not to be shaken by small ups and downs. That's probably my greatest asset. I'd love to make a small fortune and retire before the Tokyo Olympics. |
| Apr 28, 2017 | In the end, the North Korea shock had surprisingly little impact. Next month is "sell in May," though, so I can't let my guard down. |
| Apr 22, 2017 | Stocks fell sharply in April because of North Korea. It's probably the biggest down market since the Brexit shock in June 2016. The decline may continue until things settle down in North Korea, but there's no sign of a global economic slowdown, so I think now is the time to be patient. |
| Mar 29, 2017 | Today I sold Aucnet at the opening price. It was my first IPO win this year; the amount was small, but I made a profit. |
| Mar 17, 2017 | For the first time in a while I won an IPO allocation, for Aucnet, from lead underwriter Nomura Securities. It seems uncertain whether the first price will beat the offering price, but I plan to buy. |
| Feb 27, 2017 | This is slightly old news, but Nitori is considering entering apparel, and the RIZAP Group is acquiring Jeans Mate. For the past 20 years, apparel subcontractors have been losing work to low-cost Asia and slowly declining, so I hope the newcomers will manufacture in Japan. My parents still run a sewing business with just the family, and when I heard this news I thought, "A business opportunity!" and wrote this. I'd be happy if people at Nitori or RIZAP read this (well, unlikely) and it led them to look into Japanese sewing companies. Just as President Trump is prioritizing jobs in America, and since Japan is America's 51st state (ha), I'd like Japan to focus on domestic jobs too. |
| Feb 3, 2017 | Today I finished depositing money with Monex Securities and applied for the Nissen IPO. Their IPO allocation method is similar to SMBC Nikko's, so it feels fair. |
| Jan 31, 2017 | 2017 got off to a good start. I forgot to buy a few stocks I'd planned to buy, so I need to come up with some way to cut down on silly mistakes like that. This year I added Monex Securities as a new IPO account. I plan to start IPOs with Monex from the next one, Nissen. |
| Jan 24, 2017 | This month I short-sold for the first time in a long while. How many years has it been? The stock is Toshiba. I don't like shorting a company that's already on its last legs, but I told myself it was necessary to make money. People I know work there, so I want them to hang in there. Strange thing to say for someone who shorted it, I know. |
| Jan 10, 2017 | Since January began, I feel the market has become a little lighter. Four years on from the 2013 rally, I'm hoping foreign investors will go on a buying spree again. |
| Jan 7, 2017 | This year I want to introduce on this site the trading trends of foreign investors and key charts, which I've been thinking about for a while. There's so much I want to do, but I just can't find the time. Time really is precious. |
2016 (27 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Dec 16, 2016 | Again today, many employees left the company I work for. It's really painful to see people I was working with until recently leave. When they come to say goodbye, I don't know what to say. Nothing is harder than this. The era of lifetime employment in Japan is over; we've entered a time when each person has to think for themselves and build their own career. I too felt my position was at risk, so I started stock investing, IPOs, affiliate marketing and so on to see if I could earn a living outside my main job. You never know what will happen, so it might be a good idea for all of you to take another careful look at your plans for the future. |
| Dec 15, 2016 | All the IPOs I started this year are finished. The result: 152 applications, 1 win, a 0.66% win rate. The odds are better than the lottery, so next year I'll keep applying steadily and try to win more. |
| Nov 30, 2016 | I missed the Trump rally, and again this month my results weren't great. It's a market where I could afford to be more aggressive, but within my trading rules, this may be the best I can do. December has plenty of IPOs, so I really want to win one. |
| Nov 22, 2016 | Something I felt while exchanging messages with someone who asked a question through the contact form. The question was roughly: "Kabutaro, would you consider publishing your trades in more detail (the stocks you buy and so on)? Even as a paid service?" If I published that information and people traded based on it, I think their win rate would be about 50%. That's because I can't tell them in real time when to sell, and everyone has a different amount of capital. I wanted to buy Nintendo during Pokémon GO too, but I didn't have the cash, and although I had margin capacity, it would have exceeded my own margin limit, so I gave up. Also, if I offered it as a paid service, I suspect that would be legally problematic, and investment advisory services are half scams anyway, so I really think the best thing is to raise your own trading skill. I'm sure there are many people struggling with investing like this, so I want to make this a site where everyone can share those worries. I need to work harder at improving the chat and message board features so that all kinds of people can interact. |
| Nov 22, 2016 | Trump's victory was unexpected. As predicted, Trump won and stocks fell, but I was stunned when they fully recovered the next day. This is why I can't quit stocks. Who could have predicted a move like that? My own stocks were almost back to where they were by the 22nd. One thing I've been noticing these past few days is the movement of IR-related stocks. They seem to be moving a little more lightly, and I hope this continues. |
| Nov 4, 2016 | Japanese stocks have fallen sharply on the risk from the US election. My holdings are down about 5%. This is the biggest drop since the Brexit shock. The mood is "Will Trump win?!", but in the US Clinton still seems to have the edge. Normally I'd expect the scenario to be: Clinton wins and stocks recover after the election. Brexit was also an unexpected result, though, so I can't let my guard down. |
| Oct 31, 2016 | I made it through another month. For the past few months the market has been really sluggish and hard to make money in. I read a lot of blogs, and the comments seem mostly negative. If we give up now, we won't be able to ride the next big rally, so let's be patient and get through this. |
| Oct 22, 2016 | Today we had a matsutake feast for dinner with ten matsutake mushrooms sent from my wife's parents. They send them every year around this time, and I'm happy to get to eat matsutake I could never buy myself. The perk of having family in the countryside (especially a region with great food) is that things you normally can't eat arrive regularly. My parents also send us mandarins I'd never had before (they're unbelievably good), which is a big help. This time my younger daughter (2 years old) wanted to try the matsutake, so we let her, and sure enough she spat it out. Maybe you have to be an adult to appreciate that taste. |
| Oct 6, 2016 | Restructuring (layoffs) can happen at any company, and at mine too, quite a few people have left over the past month or two because of poor results. It could happen to me at any time, so I've been thinking through various worst-case scenarios. I have kids, so becoming a full-time individual investor is risky, and I don't have the skills to make it as an affiliate marketer, so finding a new company seems the safest option. Some of the people who left quit without lining up their next job. I spend my days asking myself whether I'm overthinking it. |
| Sep 27, 2016 | The market keeps being hard to win in, and my holdings aren't moving either, so I'm struggling. But over the past few days I feel the market as a whole has started to move, so I'm looking forward to taking some profits soon. |
| Aug 31, 2016 | Only a thin profit, but I added to my assets this month. Looking at the past several years, August does seem to be the market's bottom. I hope the market starts rising, even a little at a time, from next month. I still haven't put together a summary of the articles I've been featured in. I plan to write it up in September. |
| Jul 29, 2016 | This month I made a good profit on LINE, my first-ever IPO win. An article about me appears in Diamond ZAi, which went on sale on July 21, so please take a look if you're interested. When I have a little more time, I'd like to introduce the article on this site too. |
| Jul 12, 2016 | I won 100 shares in the LINE IPO. It's my first win, but there's all kinds of speculation about LINE, and I'm nervous about whether it will beat the offering price. Since it's my first win, I hope it goes even a little above the offering price. |
| Jul 1, 2016 | This week the Brexit turmoil calmed down a little and the market was stable. It wasn't a big amount, but I sold stocks I'd bought at the bottom and made a decent profit again this month. On another note, this week I was interviewed by Diamond ZAi. Hardly anyone around me invests, so I rarely get to talk about investing, and it was a very worthwhile and fun conversation. We ran well over the planned hour, and I'm sorry about that. During the interview I learned things I didn't know, which I'll use as a reference for future investing. |
| Jun 24, 2016 | The UK actually voted to leave the EU. Last night most reports said Remain would win narrowly, so I was relieved, but by today's lunchtime reports it had flipped. It's the first crash of more than 1,000 yen in a long time. My stocks took quite a hit too, but since the Lehman shock I've been very careful, so I have no worries about margin calls and should get through it. Still, watching your assets shrink isn't good for your mental health. There's no sign of the fires in the EU dying down yet, so I'll stay on guard from next week too. |
| Jun 21, 2016 | Last week saw the first crash in a while. It's very similar to the January 2016 crash. My holdings took quite a hit too (I have no intention of selling). Also, for some reason, Diamond ZAi asked me for an interview today. Why a small-fry individual investor like me?! I've replied to the email and will wait for their answer. |
| May 31, 2016 | Another month of safe, steady profits. I hope the postponement of the consumption tax hike has a positive effect on the stock market from here. |
| Apr 28, 2016 | I kept piling up profits steadily this month. And in my eighth year, my assets finally passed 10 million yen. I want to treat this as a new starting line and keep working hard. |
| Apr 12, 2016 | I thought I'd win a few more, but IPOs just aren't hitting. |
| Apr 4, 2016 | My accounts at SMBC, SBI, Nomura and Mizuho, which I applied for as IPO brokers, are finally open. Together with my existing Rakuten and Daiwa accounts, I now have six brokers. |
| Mar 31, 2016 | Another month of safe profits. Today this site received an inquiry asking whether I'd become a FISCO social reporter. I'm not good at writing, and the content would apparently be commentary on the overall Japanese stock market, investment themes and individual stocks, so honestly I'm hesitating over whether I could write such serious articles. |
| Mar 16, 2016 | IPOs just aren't hitting. I thought I'd win a few more. To improve my odds, I've started the paperwork to open accounts at SMBC Nikko, Nomura and Mizuho. |
| Feb 25, 2016 | I lost the IPO lottery for Yoshimura Food Holdings (2884). Without an account at the lead underwriter, it really is tough. I'll try opening accounts at Nomura, Mizuho and SMBC. |
| Feb 16, 2016 | This crash reminded me of the Lehman shock for the first time in a long while. Today I applied for an IPO through SBI Securities for the first time. |
| Feb 1, 2016 | The stock lending I started at the end of last year is bringing in unexpected income. It's on stocks I just leave sitting there, so it's like a windfall. |
| Jan 29, 2016 | I'd made decent profits on drone-related stocks, so the damage was small, but this month's market reminded me of the Lehman shock for the first time in a long while. Today the Bank of Japan apparently introduced negative interest rates, applying a rate of minus 0.1% to part of banks' deposits above a set amount. I was at work and couldn't catch the news well, which was a little frustrating. |
| Jan 4, 2016 | I wonder if this year's ten-bagger stocks will be drone-related. |
2015 (9 posts)
| Date | Post |
|---|---|
| Dec 18, 2015 | Today I sold Sakura Internet (3778). I didn't think it would hit the daily limit-up, but that was a bit of a surprise. It's apparently limit-up in PTS trading too, so I misread it. The feel of it reminds me of Pharma Foods (2929), which became a ten-bagger. |
| Dec 17, 2015 | Sakura Internet (3778), which I'd been buying little by little before any news came out, seems to have announced good news. It came just as I was planning to accumulate it long term, so I only have a measly number of shares. |
| Dec 10, 2015 | It's only about a child's allowance, but stock lending is quite interesting. Seeing systems like this makes me feel the wealthy are favored. |
| Dec 3, 2015 | These are stocks I'm just holding, so hoping to earn even a little, I tried stock lending for the first time today. Let's see how much it brings in. |
| Dec 2, 2015 | Only one month left this year. Again this year I had few trades where I rode the wave well, so I haven't added much profit, but I'll keep at it steadily. A big downturn looks likely soon, but I want to find the bottom and make a profit. |
| Nov 16, 2015 | I've updated my 2015 trade history. I've been selling the stocks that are in profit, so my win rate looks high, but I also have quite a few holdings in the red. |
| Nov 15, 2015 | Before I turn 40, I've been seriously thinking about what I really want to do. |
| Nov 14, 2015 | Doing this kind of thing is more fun than my current job. |
| Nov 13, 2015 | I've finally started building the website I've long dreamed of. |