Three buys in the Trading 212 SIPP today: yet more Apple (AAPL), yet more Microsoft (MSFT), and yet more BlackRock (BLK). Three compounders. Three businesses that are bigger, more profitable, and more deeply embedded in the global economy today than they were five years ago — and in my view, likely will be five years from now. Keep building, keep believing, let compounding do the rest.
── Apple (AAPL) — The Ecosystem and Buyback Machine ──
I've written about Apple on this page more times than I can count. Every time I buy more, I ask myself: is the thesis still intact? And every time, the answer is yes — not because Apple is reinventing itself every quarter, but because it doesn't need to. Apple's business model is built on one of the most durable competitive advantages in corporate history: an ecosystem of hardware, software, and services that over 2 billion people use every single day. The iPhone is the anchor — the device that sits in your pocket, connects to your Watch, syncs with your Mac, streams to your AirPods, and pays through Apple Pay. Switching out of this ecosystem is a genuine hassle, which means most people don't. That stickiness — that switching cost — is Apple's moat, and it's one of the widest moats in business.
The services business — App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Pay, AppleCare, fitness, news, arcade — is now generating over $100 billion annually and growing. These are recurring, high-margin revenue streams that smooth out the hardware replacement cycles and make each installed device more valuable over its lifetime. Every iPhone sold isn't just a one-time hardware sale. It's a multi-year subscription relationship that generates revenue for a decade or more. That's a business model worth owning.
And then there are the buybacks. Apple is the most aggressive share repurchaser in history. Year after year, the share count shrinks. Every share you own today represents a slightly bigger slice of the Apple pie than it did last year. The buybacks alone — with no revenue growth — add perhaps 2-3% to earnings per share annually. Add modest revenue growth, services expansion, and the occasional new product category, and you have a compounding engine that's been working for decades and shows no sign of stopping. At today's valuation — not screamingly cheap, but not unreasonable for a business of this quality — I'm happy to keep adding.
── Microsoft (MSFT) — The Enterprise Juggernaut ──
Microsoft is the most quietly dominant company in technology. It doesn't generate the headlines Apple does. It doesn't have the cultural cachet of a product people line up outside stores to buy. But it has something arguably more valuable: it is embedded in the operating DNA of nearly every business on earth. Office 365 — now Microsoft 365 — is the productivity layer for corporations, governments, universities, hospitals, charities, and small businesses across the planet. Teams is the communication hub. Azure is the cloud infrastructure that a huge portion of the internet runs on. And GitHub, LinkedIn, Windows, Xbox, and the emerging Copilot AI suite layer on top.
Azure is the growth engine that excites the market, and for good reason. Cloud infrastructure is a secular trend — businesses are not going back to running their own servers. Azure is the #2 player globally behind AWS, but it's growing faster and its integration with the Microsoft 365 and enterprise software ecosystem gives it a unique competitive advantage. If you're a Fortune 500 company already running Office, Teams, Windows, and Active Directory, choosing Azure for your cloud migration is the path of least resistance. Microsoft's ability to bundle and cross-sell across its product suite is unmatched.
The AI angle is particularly compelling. Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI and the integration of Copilot across the Microsoft 365 suite — Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and GitHub — puts AI tools directly into the workflow of hundreds of millions of knowledge workers. If AI is the next major computing platform shift, Microsoft is positioned about as well as any company on earth to monetise it. Enterprise customers are already paying for Copilot licences. The revenue is real, not theoretical.
The financial profile is magnificent. Operating margins above 40%. Free cash flow in the tens of billions. A fortress balance sheet with more cash than debt. A dividend that's been growing for years. And a management team, led by Satya Nadella, that has proven it can execute across multiple product cycles and strategic pivots. Microsoft at today's price is not a bargain in the traditional sense — quality rarely is — but it's a company I expect to be materially larger and more profitable a decade from now. That's the kind of business I want compounding in the SIPP.
── BlackRock (BLK) — Building the Position Further ──
I opened the BlackRock position in the SIPP only recently, and I'm adding to it again today. The thesis hasn't changed in two days — it's the same thesis that works over years and decades. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager with over $11 trillion in assets under management. It earns fees on those assets regardless of market direction. The iShares ETF franchise is the largest in the world and still growing as the shift from active to passive continues. The Aladdin risk management platform is the operating system for institutional money management — deeply embedded, high switching costs, near-impossible to replicate. And the private markets push into infrastructure, private credit, and alternatives adds a higher-fee growth layer.
What I'm doing with BlackRock is building a position gradually. Start with an opening buy, add to it when the price feels reasonable, repeat. The position is still small relative to the long-term names like AAPL and MSFT in this portfolio, but that's how positions start. Small, then less small, then meaningful. The key is consistency — adding regularly rather than trying to time a perfect entry. BlackRock is a compounder. The longer you own it, the more the compounding works. Adding to it early, even in modest amounts, is the right approach for a company I expect to hold for years.
── Keep Building, Keep Believing ──
Three buys. Three compounders. Three businesses that don't need the economy to be perfect, don't need a bull market, don't need a catalyst or a narrative or a 'this is the moment' thesis. Apple — the ecosystem and buyback machine that keeps printing value for shareholders. Microsoft — the enterprise cloud and AI giant embedded in the fabric of global business. BlackRock — the picks-and-shovels of investing, earning fees on the world's money. Different industries. Different business models. Same underlying logic.
The secret to long-term investing isn't finding the next 10-bagger. It's owning great businesses, adding to them regularly, and letting time do the heavy lifting. Apple, Microsoft, and BlackRock are not going to double in six months. They're not going to be the subject of breathless YouTube thumbnails. They're going to keep compounding — revenue, earnings, free cash flow, dividends, buybacks — year after year after year. And the SIPP will keep growing, one regular top-up at a time. Keep building. Keep believing. The compounding doesn't care about the headlines.
As always, nothing on this site is financial advice. I'm a 66-year-old UK investor sharing what I do with my own money in the Trading 212 SIPP. Apple, Microsoft, and BlackRock shares can go down as well as up. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Do your own research, understand your own risk tolerance, and never invest money you can't afford to lose.