Three more buys in the Trading 212 SIPP today: yet more Meta, yet more PayPal, yet more Alphabet. This is becoming crazy — in the best possible way. Three of my highest-conviction individual stock positions, all getting topped up in the same session. The portfolio is leaning harder into the names I believe in most, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that. Let me walk through why each one keeps earning my capital.
── Meta (META) — The Advertising Cash Machine ──
I've written about Meta so many times on this page that people probably think I work there. I don't. I just recognise one of the best business models on earth when I see it. Meta owns the world's largest social media platform, a portfolio of apps used by over 3 billion people every single day, and an advertising platform that is so precisely targeted, so deeply integrated, and so essential to businesses of every size that it prints money almost regardless of the economic cycle.
The numbers are staggering. Meta generates tens of billions in free cash flow. It's spending heavily on AI infrastructure — data centres, custom chips, next-generation models — and still producing margins that most companies would envy at their peak. The AI investment is being applied directly to the business: better ad targeting (driven by their LLaMA models and AI-powered Advantage+ campaigns), more engaging content feeds, AI-generated creative tools for advertisers, and the long-term bet on AI assistants and the metaverse that Mark Zuckerberg clearly believes in deeply.
I don't know if the metaverse bet pays off. I do know that the core advertising business — Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Reels — is so profitable that it can fund the metaverse ambitions, the AI ambitions, the share buybacks, and still have cash left over. That's the kind of business I want to own. And every time I add more, I'm buying a bigger share of one of the most dominant advertising platforms in history. Not complicated.
── PayPal (PYPL) — The Turnaround Nobody Believed In ──
PayPal has been one of the most controversial positions in the portfolio. I've been adding through the downturn, through the 'PayPal is dead' narrative, through the 'fintech is over' headlines. And I kept adding because the underlying business — the actual numbers, not the narrative — told a different story.
PayPal processes over a trillion dollars in payment volume annually. It has over 400 million active accounts. Venmo is a verb in the US — 'Venmo me' is part of the language, which is a moat that doesn't appear on a balance sheet. Braintree is the payments backbone for a huge chunk of e-commerce. And the new leadership team has been doing the unglamorous but essential work of improving margins, cutting costs, and focusing on profitable growth rather than growth at any price.
The branded checkout business — the PayPal button you see on websites — remains the core profit engine, and while it faces competition from Apple Pay and Shopify's Shop Pay, it's not going anywhere. PayPal is too deeply embedded in too many merchant relationships, and consumers in markets around the world trust the PayPal brand in a way they don't trust entering credit card details into a random website. The turnaround is working — slowly, not spectacularly, but genuinely. And I'm adding to a position I believe has years of recovery and growth ahead of it.
── Alphabet (GOOGL) — The AI-and-Advertising Juggernaut ──
Google. What else is there to say at this point? Search dominance. YouTube — the largest video platform on earth, growing its share of connected TV viewing, monetising through advertising and subscriptions and the YouTube Partner Programme. Google Cloud — profitable, growing, competing credibly with AWS and Azure. DeepMind — one of the world's leading AI research labs, building the Gemini models that are being woven into every Google product. Waymo — an autonomous driving business that is actually operating, actually carrying passengers, and could be worth more than the rest of Google combined if autonomy becomes what I think it will.
And all of this is funded by the advertising cash flow. Google Search handled trillions of queries last year and monetised them through one of the most efficient and effective advertising systems ever built. Every time someone asks Google a question, Google learns a little more about what people want — data that makes the advertising better, which makes the revenue higher, which funds the moonshots. It's a flywheel that has been spinning for 20 years and shows no signs of slowing down.
Is there regulatory risk? Of course. The DOJ, the EU, competition authorities around the world have Google in their sights. Antitrust cases, potential breakups, forced divestitures — the headlines are constant. And yet, every time I look at the actual business impact of regulatory pressure, it's been... not much. Google has been fighting regulators for over a decade and is bigger and more profitable than ever. I'm not dismissing the risk — I'm just noting that regulatory risk has been priced into Google's stock for years and the business keeps growing through it.
── This Is Becoming Crazy (In the Best Way) ──
Three buys, three highest-conviction names, one Trading 212 SIPP. Meta — the advertising cash machine funding AI and buybacks. PayPal — the turnaround story that's actually turning. Alphabet — the AI-and-advertising juggernaut with a portfolio of moonshots. I'm buying more of all three because I believe in all three, and because the habit of adding to what's working — consistently, regularly, through thick and thin — is the habit that builds real wealth over time.
Is this getting addictive? Maybe. But if I'm going to be addicted to something, I'd rather it be the quiet, boring, long-term accumulation of great businesses than the desperate chase for the next hot stock. This is becoming crazy — not because I'm taking wild risks, but because the conviction keeps building and the positions keep growing. And that, honestly, feels pretty good.
As always, nothing here is financial advice. I'm a 66-year-old UK investor sharing what I do with my own money in the Trading 212 SIPP. Meta, PayPal, and Alphabet shares can all go down as well as up. The portfolio is concentrated in names I have conviction in — that works for me but won't suit everyone. Do your own research, know your own risk tolerance, and never invest money you can't afford to lose.