Good evening investors!

Every month we publish our “Portfolio Update” — Edge+ members get a full access look into our portfolios, including holdings, performance, activity and our watchlists for the upcoming month.

Let’s dive in.

🚨 MEETING REMINDER 🚨

The Monthly Meeting exclusively for Edge+ members will be held LATE NEXT WEEK as I will be traveling the early part of next week. I will send out a link for you to join once we get it scheduled.

Here's what we will be covering

For those new here, IE+ subscribers get full access to my monthly dividend portfolio updates, which includes:

*Note - this is the ONLY place where people can find our entire portfolios.

As of the end of July 2025, my portfolio contained 48 total positions, the same amount as last year although we exited some positions and initiated a few new positions as well.

You can see all the portfolio activity down below, but first, here is a snapshot of my entire portfolio:

In this section, I will highlight the performance of the portfolio both on a MONTHLY and Year-To-Date basis.

For comparison, here is how the benchmark S&P 500 did during those same time frames:

And here is how the equal weighted S&P 500 performed:

We just locked in our 3rd consecutive winning month of the year as we yet again out paced the greater S&P 500 during the month of July. The portfolio has now crossed 10% gains on the year and we have plenty of time to push that higher and move the portfolio across the $400,000 value go, which we could surpass within the next few months.

However, we are entering a seasonally weak period for the markets and we are going to do our best to help you navigate those times. August is historically an “OK” month for the index, but September is historically the worst month of the year for stocks far and away. At the same time, we are not going to overreact and sell out of a bunch of stuff, but you will see us start and take some profits and cut some losses for tax purposes.

We raised some cash this past month, but also initiated a few new adds to the portfolio, nothing major.

The next Fed meeting will take place in September, and which I believe we will get our first rate cut of the year. Inflation is creeping higher, but more importantly is the fact that we are seeing some cracks in both economic growth but also the labor market. This restrictive policy is starting to weigh on the economy, which is why I continue to believe September will start the cutting cycle.

Stay tuned within our discord where Edge+ members get TRADE ALERTS, being notified of any changes I make to my portfolio in real time.

In this section, I detail out any transactions that were made within the portfolio during the month.

Every month, Investor’s Edge+ members get updates to my individual brokerage portfolio, which includes:

*Note - this update ONLY includes my brokerage portfolio. Retirement accounts, cryptocurrency, real estate and cash/cash equivalents outside of the brokerage are excluded from this update.

As of the end of July 2025, my brokerage portfolio contained 60 total positions — 58 stock holdings and 2 options contract.

Here is a snapshot of my portfolio:

In this section, I will highlight the performance of my portfolio in July as well as for the full year.

For comparison, here is how the benchmark S&P 500 did during those same time frames:

And here is how the equal weighted S&P 500 performed:

July delivered a +2.46% gain for the portfolio, adding $12,259 in value and lifting year-to-date performance to +8.73%. That topped the S&P 500’s +2.17% and the Equal Weight S&P 500’s +0.88%, as core index ETFs and high-weight growth positions worked together to offset weakness in a few large holdings. The advance was fueled by large-cap technology leadership and steady contributions from broad-market exposure.

The biggest drivers came from VOO (+2.60%), QQQ (+2.53%), and VGT (+4.21%), which collectively delivered the bulk of July’s dollar gains. Large-cap growth standouts included Alphabet (+9.10%), Shopify (+5.95%), and Meta (+4.79%), all benefiting from earnings strength and favorable sector sentiment. On the dividend side, SCHD (+0.98%) provided modest support, while VXUS (–0.20%) was flat amid continued international underperformance.

Not all high-weight names participated. Palo Alto Networks (–15.17%) fell after the acquisition news and sector rotation while Netflix (–13.42%) gave back a chunk of prior gains following softer guidance. Uber (–5.95%) also slipped after a strong first half. Defensive holdings were mixed as McDonald’s (+2.70%) posted a steady gain, but Procter & Gamble (–5.55%) and Realty Income (–2.12%) pulled back, reflecting pressure on staples and rate-sensitive assets.

Year-to-date, the portfolio remains ahead of both major benchmarks, driven by disciplined weighting toward broad indexes and targeted exposure to select large-cap growth names.

Heading into August, the plan is to maintain this positioning, stay patient with recent laggards that retain strong fundamentals, and watch for signs of the rally spreading beyond just big tech.

In this section, I will go through the transactions that were made within the portfolio during the month.

Then you need to join the Discord! See our trades and portfolio moves as we make them and stay ahead of the market!

And did you know we started an Edge+ Portfolio where we invest $250 per month to show you exactly how we would build a portfolio from scratch. You can follow along and build your portfolio with us!

If you are only reading the newsletter, you are only getting a fraction of the benefits of being an Edge subscriber. Join us on Discord and level up your investing game.

Both our portfolios continue to have solid momentum and outpacing the S&P 500, which is the goal we set out to do year in and year out. With these past few months, I hope Edge+ subscribers have found value and been able to follow along on our journey of building wealth and navigating these markets.

We are now firmly in August with September right around the corner, and as I discussed above, September is historically the WORST month for stocks. As such, you could see us looking to trim some positions in the month of August to raise some cash in the event we get some better buying opportunities over the course of the next 6 weeks.

There are still plenty of headwinds for the market to navigate with trade deals, core CPI creeping higher and cracks in the labor force starting to show. I fully expect the Fed to begin cutting rates in September, which can be a reason to cheer and be worried at the same time. We are already beginning to see some interest rate sensitive sectors start to move higher in anticipation of the cuts. If we do make some buys in August, these will likely be the sectors we are adding to.

Being part of our discord community is vital right now because that is where we post all the up to the minute updates and trades as they are made, so you can choose to follow or not.

Here at The Stock Investor’s Edge, we are laser focused on helping educate investors of all levels, while also giving them full transparency into our personal portfolios.

We will continue to look for new ideas in the market and bring you as much information as we can to give you an EDGE in the markets.

If you enjoyed this Monthly Portfolio Update, then do us a HUGE FAVOR and SHARE THE INVESTOR’S EDGE WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY. It’s the best way to help us out as it lets us grow and be able to keep bringing you great investment content.

And don’t forget to LEAVE A COMMENT. Let us know your thoughts on our portfolios, share your watchlist for the month or even just let us know that you appreciate the content.

Thank you, and until next time investors!

Mark & Chris

The Investor’s Edge

Disclaimer

This article is intended to be for educational and informational purposes only. The views described in the article are those of the author’s and should not be construed as financial advice. Perform your own due diligence or contact your Financial Advisor before making any financial investment. I have positions in all of the stocks & ETFs mentioned below as of the publish date. This is a disclosure - not a recommendation to buy or sell stocks.