Joseph Carlson has built his investing channel around something viewers can return to: the accounts themselves. His public portfolio has included the Passive Income Portfolio and the smaller Story Fund, with holdings ranging from Mastercard and S&P Global to Amazon and Netflix. Following those accounts over time reveals how he sizes positions, adds to investments and handles a company that disappoints.
In his August 20, 2026 episode, Carlson described a portfolio worth roughly $1.47 million, including more than $500,000 in gains. Those were his reported figures on that date. They describe the investments discussed in the episode; a calculation of his net worth would also require his other assets and liabilities.
For anyone looking up Joseph Carlson’s portfolio, the useful questions are straightforward. Which account holds a stock? How large is the position? And when did he last show it?
Start with the two accounts
The names can make the accounts sound more different than their holdings suggest.
In Carlson’s August 20, 2025 portfolio review, the Passive Income Portfolio included Mastercard, S&P Global, Microsoft, Costco, Intuit, Booking Holdings and ASML, among other positions. The Story Fund held Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet, Microsoft, S&P Global and Duolingo. Alphabet, Microsoft and S&P Global appeared in both accounts.
That overlap matters. A stock held in two places still exposes its owner to the same company. To understand its importance, a reader needs the position in each account and the size of both accounts on the same date.
Carlson describes his approach as owning high-quality businesses for the long term. The appeal of watching him is being able to connect that stated approach with specific decisions: which businesses he keeps, where he commits more money, and how much of the portfolio he is willing to put behind an idea.
A closer look at the Story Fund
A dated snapshot makes that last point tangible. In his December 22, 2025 video, Carlson displayed the following Story Fund weights:
| Company | Weight shown in the Story Fund |
|---|---|
| Amazon | 36.2% |
| Netflix | 29.1% |
| Alphabet | 18.1% |
| Microsoft | 6.1% |
| S&P Global | 5.6% |
| Duolingo | 4.5% |
Historical snapshot shown on December 22, 2025, not a current allocation. Original video, 12:24.
Amazon and Netflix together accounted for 65.3% of that account. Adding Alphabet brought the three largest positions to 83.4%. Their results would therefore have much more influence on the account than the smaller holdings.
As a simple illustration, a 10% decline in a position with a 36.2% weight would reduce the account’s value by about 3.6%, assuming everything else stayed unchanged. That calculation says more about the experience of owning the portfolio than a list of six familiar company names.
The dated Joseph Carlson portfolio archive keeps disclosures from the two accounts separate and links them to the original video timestamps. It is useful for tracing older positions without treating each historical figure as today’s balance.
Meta: watching a position take shape
Meta provides a more recent example of how a holding develops.
In his March 16, 2026 update, Carlson said his first Meta purchase had been $45,000 on January 29. He then described further purchases through February and March. At the time of the update, he said he was down around $16,000 on the investment and was continuing to buy.
This is where a sequence of videos becomes more useful than a single holdings table. A table can show a position’s size. The sequence shows that Carlson built the investment over several decisions, including while it was losing money.
It also leaves a worthwhile question for the viewer: what evidence justified putting more capital into the business? A lower share price changes the purchase price; the investor still has to assess the company and the assumptions behind its future earnings.
By August 20, Carlson was highlighting Meta, Uber and S&P Global as three picks for the remainder of 2026. Those selections show how his focus had developed. They do not, by themselves, establish the weight of each company in his accounts.
Duolingo: the uncomfortable part of the record
The same public record includes substantial losses.
On April 22, 2026, Carlson said his Duolingo position was down about 55%, or $22,000, and that he had not sold any shares. Those figures describe what he reported in that episode, rather than the investment’s outcome today.
For a reader studying his portfolio, this is a useful companion to the million-dollar headline. Concentrated stock investing includes decisions that become uncomfortable to hold. Seeing someone acknowledge a loss lets viewers examine how that investor responds when the market moves against a position.
Holding through a decline can reflect patience, or it can prolong a mistake. The distinction depends on what happens to the business and whether the original investment case still holds. A screenshot of the loss cannot settle that question.
How to follow the portfolio over time
A useful portfolio record needs a date beside every number. It also needs to distinguish a purchase from the value of an entire holding, and a company weight inside one account from its share of an investor’s combined assets.
The same care applies to performance. A growing account balance can reflect deposits as well as investment gains. Comparing results with an index requires matching periods and accounting for cash flows; subtracting one video’s balance from another will not do it.
For readers following several investing creators, They Said Buy organises public stock calls and portfolio disclosures around dates and original sources. That makes it easier to return to a statement and examine what followed.
Carlson’s public accounts give viewers plenty to study: overlapping holdings, a concentrated growth account, purchases made through a drawdown, and positions that test his conviction. The rewarding way to follow them is to trace a decision from its original explanation through later updates. That is where a portfolio starts to reveal the investor behind it.
