First up, it was a rough week in the markets if you were in technology stocks, especially AI related names.  Whilst we missed the worst of the action (i.e. Coreweave), we caught some of the slipstream.  There were rumours last week of two highly leveraged AI funds imploding (sound familiar??, See Freedom Calls: 3/8/26, "Schadenfreude meets Aschenbrenner…").  Of course the wrong words here are "highly leveraged".  Nobody seems to learn anything any more.

So, if you have been thinking of entering, or topping up the US Technology VIP fund - this coming week is probably a great time.  If you only read one sentence of today's note, that is probably the one to read!

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Pictured: Florence, Italy from the Rose Garden at sunset, Oct 2026

We had a lovely few days in Tuscany last week, firstly in and around the simple, understated, tranquil villages of the region, and then on to the beautiful, bustling, living museum that is Florence.  If you haven't made it to Florence yet, put it on the list - just bring some comfortable shoes and put yourself on a diet for the preceding 2 weeks!

The sage of Panzano

Back in 2015, I was introduced to James Morton by one of my former bosses, the late Lord (Howard) Flight.  James was running a $100m value strategy with a strong private client book - and probably the best track record that nobody had heard of; he was looking to build a European institutional business.  That was the start of a wonderful relationship between Freedom and CIM (now SLAM where he was joined by Florian Weidinger several years ago).  That strategy (now soft-closed because of its success) stands at over $1.1bn, with the vast majority of those assets raised by Freedom's institutional team.  Within our personal portfolios it is the best performer over the last 10 years, by a long way - and the Balanced fund has benefited well over the years from its inclusion.    I therefore have a lot of time for James, who now spends much of his time based in Tuscany.

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