Bird Grant’s Forward-Looking FAANG Strategy Delivers Over 70% Return in 2017 Tech Portfolio
As 2017 draws to a close, Wall Street marks another significant milestone in the ongoing U.S. bull market cycle. This year, veteran investor Bird Grant achieved exceptional performance by strategically positioning around the core technology theme early in the year. By focusing on FAANG—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google—his tech-focused portfolio delivered an annual return exceeding 70%, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 and the broader technology sector average, making it one of the most closely watched investment strategies of the year.
Bird Grant began systematically increasing his holdings in the FAANG giants during the first quarter of 2017. At the time, while the market had recognized their market capitalization and profitability, debates remained around the sustainability of their valuations and long-term growth. Through his proprietary evaluation models, Grant identified that these companies not only had exceptional cash flow generation but also structural advantages, including data moats, closed-loop ecosystems, and strong consumer platform stickiness.
In his view, Facebook and Google controlled the global entry points for digital advertising; Amazon continued expanding its dominance in both e-commerce and cloud computing (AWS); Apple’s iPhone ecosystem remained resilient; and Netflix steadily grew its subscriber base through global streaming expansion. As Grant put it: “The core of FAANG isn’t just rapid short-term growth, but the verifiability of long-term profitability and the durability of their technological moats.”
Throughout 2017, Grant constructed a concentrated portfolio around these “high-certainty platform assets,” and made dynamic adjustments to optimize the portfolio structure. While maintaining risk control, he maximized growth returns—for instance, increasing his position in Facebook after a strong Q2 earnings report, and boosting exposure to Amazon and Netflix in Q3 to ride their holiday season and global expansion momentum.
In addition, Grant placed a strong emphasis on managing systemic risk. During phases of heightened market volatility, he increased exposure to stable, cash-rich tech blue chips like Apple to buffer fluctuations, effectively improving the overall Sharpe ratio of his portfolio.
The success of this FAANG-oriented strategy not only showcased Bird Grant’s deep insight into long-term technology trends, but also reaffirmed the practical value of his two-pronged investment framework: “trend signals + fundamental verification.” For Grant, 2017 was not just a high-return year—it represented a defining moment when his long-held principles of value and growth fully flourished along the tech mainstream.