Last updated: 5 May 2026
By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance
Welcome to the inaugural edition of "Stocks We Bought This Month", a new monthly portfolio diary on CoolCuration. Each post records what I personally added to my own portfolio in the previous few weeks, the reasons each company caught my eye, and the things that could absolutely trip me up. In short, this is what we bought, why we bought it, and what we plan to revisit in future editions.
The stocks we bought this May were three: Brookfield Corporation (BN), Meta Platforms (META) and Tencent Holdings (TCEHY). All three went through self-managed UK broker accounts.
Affiliate disclosure. This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.
Important disclaimer. I personally hold positions in all three companies named in this post. This is a personal disclosure diary, not a recommendation, not a tip sheet, and not a personalised view of your circumstances. CoolCuration is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Capital at risk. When investing, the value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Please do your own research, or consult a qualified independent financial adviser, before making any investment decision. All content here is for informational and educational purposes only.
Why we're publishing the stocks we bought
This is a personal portfolio diary, full stop. The aim is transparency: if I am going to write about ISAs and investing on this site, you deserve to see what I actually do with my own money. It is also accountability, because a public diary is harder to revise after the fact, so future editions will revisit these positions to show what worked and what did not. Finally, it is education through honest example, since most beginner-friendly investing content tends to skip the part where the writer admits they could be completely wrong.
Crucially, this is not a stock tip column. We are not telling you what to buy. We are telling you what we bought, which is a very different thing, and we will keep saying so throughout this post.
Personal portfolio diaries are nothing new in UK personal finance writing. Sharing the stocks we bought, on a recurring schedule, is a format with a long British pedigree. For example, Monevator has run its Slow & Steady model portfolio update for well over a decade, and it remains one of the most-read regular columns in British indie finance media. Similarly, Meaningful Money walks readers through real-world money decisions, and the Investors Chronicle publishes named-shareholding columns from its journalists every week. We are simply joining that established tradition with our own monthly entry.
The stocks we bought this month
Here are the three purchases, in plain English. We have deliberately kept buy prices out of this column, because the point is the thinking, not the timing. If you want to know how broker fees and FX charges stack up across the UK, our cheapest investment app comparison walks through the numbers in detail.
- Brookfield Corporation (BN), a Canadian-American diversified holding company.
- Meta Platforms (META), the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads.
- Tencent Holdings (TCEHY), the US-listed ADR for China's dominant internet conglomerate.
All three are easily accessible through the larger UK self-managed brokers. Both Freetrade and Lightyear, for example, offer fractional US shares, which is helpful when you do not want to commit a full share's worth at one go. Different platforms suit different goals: some have wider tax-wrapper line-ups (ISAs, SIPPs), others lean on multi-currency wallets and lower FX fees for international buyers. Our UK broker comparison goes through the trade-offs.
Capital at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future.
Brookfield Corporation (BN)
What we bought
Brookfield Corporation is a Toronto and New York listed diversified holding company, sitting on top of one of the world's largest alternative asset managers. I added a small position in early May, in USD.
Why we have conviction
Brookfield is, in my mind, the closest thing public markets currently offer to a long-duration compounder run by adults. The group earns money in three streams. First, it owns roughly 73% of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM), the listed alt-manager that just crossed $600 billion in fee-bearing capital, with fee-related earnings up 22% year on year and record distributable earnings of $2.8bn. Second, Brookfield Wealth Solutions, the insurance arm, posted distributable earnings up 24% to $1.7bn, with the gross investment spread improving to 2.25%. Third, direct equity stakes in the operating partnerships (infrastructure, renewables, business services and property) round out the picture.
What really got my attention, though, is the AI infrastructure angle. Brookfield is signing long-term partnerships with NVIDIA, Microsoft, Alphabet and JPMorgan, and crucially, the underlying revenues sit on take-or-pay contracts with hyperscaler and sovereign counterparties. Therefore, the cash flows look more like utility leases than tech bets. As a bonus, software exposure inside the private equity arm is under 1% and there is none in core credit, which directly side-steps the private credit froth a lot of people are nervous about.
On governance, Bruce Flatt has been CEO since 2002, which is a Buffett-length tenure by any measure. Connor Teskey now runs BAM. Insiders, including Flatt, hold roughly a 20% economic stake. Meanwhile, the company repurchased over $1bn of shares in 2025, which the board described as roughly half of intrinsic value. Distributable earnings before realisations grew 11% per share in 2025, and management has guided to a 20%+ CAGR through 2030. The plan to merge BN with the paired insurance entity BNT, for index eligibility and capital efficiency, is another quiet tailwind I like.
What could go wrong
Plenty. Brookfield is famously complicated, with thousands of entities, partnerships and trusts under one roof. As a result, you are forced to take a fair amount on management trust. Key-person risk on Bruce Flatt is real; he is not getting younger. Competition from Blackstone, KKR, Apollo and BlackRock is fierce, and carry interest could underperform if private market exits stay slow. Infrastructure assets carry political and natural-disaster exposure too. In other words, this is not a "set it and forget it" position, even if the brand encourages that vibe.
Meta Platforms (META)
What we bought
Meta is the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads. I added shares just after the late-April earnings selloff, which knocked the stock back roughly 6 to 8% on capex anxiety. Some of the position sits in a Stocks & Shares ISA; the rest is in a general account.
Why we have conviction
The family-of-apps numbers are still genuinely staggering. Roughly 3.56 billion daily active people use at least one Meta product, and Q1 2026 produced revenue growth of 33% year on year, the fastest quarterly print in five years. Notably, Iran's internet disruptions and Russia's WhatsApp restrictions actually masked underlying user growth elsewhere. Algorithm tweaks lifted Instagram time-spent by around 10% and Facebook video engagement by 8%, the biggest sequential jump in four years. Even better, Meta has not yet rolled out its newer "Muse Spark" frontier model for content ranking, so there is more juice in the engagement engine ahead.
The advertising machine is firing on both pistons: ad impressions up 19% and pricing up 12% year on year. On top of that, Ray-Ban smart glasses tripled daily users, which gives the company a credible toehold in the next computing form factor. Capex is the elephant in the room. Management raised the 2026 capex guide to a $125 to $145 billion range (midpoint roughly $135bn), mostly because of memory chip inflation, and this is what spooked the market. However, Meta is also rolling out custom silicon with Broadcom plus AMD chips to ease NVIDIA cost pressure, and Mark Zuckerberg announced a roughly 10% workforce reduction to free dollars for AI. As a result, EVA margin actually expanded from 26.1% to 28.3% in Q1, even if I expect it to drift below 25% over five years as compute and depreciation catch up.
Versus the broader market, Meta still trades materially cheaper, with around a 5.2% NOPAT yield. Zuckerberg owns about 14% of the economic stake (effectively his net worth) but holds around 61% of the votes through dual-class shares. I could be completely wrong about that being a feature rather than a bug, but historically founder control has been net positive for shareholders here.
What could go wrong
The list is long and serious. The single biggest worry is whether the AI capex actually monetises in time. Regulation around privacy and competition could intensify, especially in the EU and UK. Short-form video and AI-native social tools are a real competitive threat, and engagement among younger demographics has plateaued. Meanwhile, the dual-class governance structure means minority holders cannot meaningfully push back if Zuckerberg decides to spend another year of free cash flow on a new metaverse-shaped object. Advertising is also macro-sensitive; a real recession would bite earnings quickly.
Tencent Holdings (TCEHY)
What we bought
Tencent is China's dominant internet conglomerate. The TCEHY ticker is a US OTC ADR, primary listing Hong Kong (700.HK). I added a position in early May. This is the one company this month I would call my top conviction by valuation, even though it is also the one with the most regulatory hair.
Why we have conviction
Weixin and WeChat together had 1.42 billion monthly active users at the end of 2025, against a Chinese population of roughly 1.4 billion. Put another way, WeChat is closer to civic infrastructure than to a typical app. The platform captures roughly a third of all time spent inside Chinese apps, which is a moat very few global businesses can credibly claim. The business breaks into three segments: Value-Added Services around gaming and digital content (about 49% of sales), FinTech and Business Services (around 31%), and Marketing Services (around 19%).
For 2025, group revenue grew 14% year on year. Domestic games revenue grew 18%, international games crossed $10 billion in revenue for the first time, and full-year marketing services rose 19% on the back of AI-powered ad targeting upgrades. Importantly, ad ARPU is still well under a third of Meta's, so the runway here looks long. Video Accounts, the short-video feed inside WeChat, now exceeds 800 million daily users with ad load far below peers. Mini Programs and WeChat Pay round out an ecosystem that is genuinely difficult to replicate.
The cloud business reached profitability inflection in 2025, and Tencent has been raising prices on AI compute products alongside Alibaba and Baidu, which I personally read as a sign that the long Chinese cloud commoditisation trend is ending. Capital returns have been generous: Tencent reduced its share count meaningfully in 2025 and is hiking the 2026 dividend by roughly 18%. The company also plans to more than double 2026 AI investment.
What could go wrong
This is where I need to be very honest with you. Chinese political and regulatory risk is a category of its own. Foreign investors do not own Tencent shares directly; instead, they buy into a Caymans-based VIE (variable interest entity) structure, which is an extra layer of legal and regulatory risk. The SEC has no meaningful oversight of an OTC-listed ADR like TCEHY, so disclosure quality and investor protections sit lower than for a US primary listing. Beyond structure, competition from Alibaba, ByteDance/Douyin and NetEase is intense. US-China tensions could turn ADRs into an awkward asset. Major computing platform shifts, away from mobile apps and into AI agents, could also blunt WeChat's advantage faster than I expect. Ask me again in twelve months.
Why this isn't a stock tip
I want to be very clear about the lane this column sits in. CoolCuration is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and we do not provide regulated financial advice. Nothing here is a personal recommendation. Nothing here is an inducement to buy or sell anything. This is a personal disclosure diary, written for general interest and educational context only.
So here is the disclosure again, in plain text. I, Stiv, personally hold shares in Brookfield Corporation, Meta Platforms and Tencent Holdings as described in this post. I am not authorised to give you advice. Your circumstances, tax position, time horizon and risk tolerance are not mine, and they should drive your own decisions. If you want guidance tailored to you, please speak to an FCA-authorised independent financial adviser. The FCA's InvestSmart pages are also a useful starting point if you are new to investing.
What we will be tracking
The whole point of publishing the stocks we bought in public is the come-back. So, in future editions, we will revisit each of these three positions and report honestly. Specifically, we will track price changes versus our cost base, dividend payments and any reinvestments, material news that changes the original conviction, and any trims or top-ups I make. Some of these will work, some will not, and the diary will say so either way.
If you want to explore investing for yourself
This column is not a "go and do this" instruction. If you want to learn about the practical mechanics of investing in the UK, our broader finance content is a much better starting point than copying a stranger's purchases. The UK investment app comparison walks through fees, FX charges and account types side by side, and our guide to using your Stocks & Shares ISA allowance covers tax-efficient investing for the current tax year. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is "Stocks We Bought This Month" investment advice?
No. It is a personal disclosure diary, full stop. We share the stocks we bought and why, but we are not telling you what to do with your own money. Nothing here is regulated financial advice, and CoolCuration is not authorised by the FCA.
Should I buy the same stocks?
That is genuinely not for us to say. Your circumstances, tax position, risk tolerance and time horizon are different from ours, and any of them could mean these companies are a poor fit for you. Always do your own research, or speak to an FCA-authorised adviser if you want a personal recommendation.
What platform did you use for these purchases?
The May purchases sit across two FCA-regulated UK self-managed brokers. Both offer fractional US shares and ISA wrappers, with different strengths around fees, multi-currency wallets and tax-wrapper line-ups. Our cheapest investment app comparison walks through the differences in detail.
How much did you invest?
Small position sizes, in money I can comfortably leave alone for years. We are intentionally vague about exact amounts, partly for privacy and partly because position sizing is one of the most personal decisions in investing.
Are these UK-listed stocks?
No. Brookfield is dual-listed on the NYSE and Toronto Stock Exchange, Meta trades on Nasdaq, and Tencent's ADR (TCEHY) is on US OTC markets while the primary listing is in Hong Kong. UK platforms typically offer all three, often as fractional US shares.
Is my money protected if a platform goes bust?
Eligible investments are protected up to £85,000 per person per FCA-authorised firm by the FSCS. Importantly, this protects you against the firm failing, not against your investments losing value. If a stock you own falls, the FSCS does not refund the loss.
What happens if these stocks go down?
They might, and we accept that risk before we buy. Either way, we will report back honestly in future editions, including the painful ones. Burying losing positions would defeat the entire purpose of running the diary in public.
Are you authorised to give investment advice?
No. CoolCuration is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and does not provide investment advice. This column is published as personal disclosure and general informational content only.
Final disclaimer. I personally hold positions in Brookfield Corporation, Meta Platforms and Tencent Holdings as described above. This article is a personal disclosure diary and is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a personal recommendation. CoolCuration is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Capital at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Rates, prices and terms can change. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. Please do your own research, or consult a qualified independent financial adviser, before making any investment decisions. This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.
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