The first loss
Felix made his first investment at 18, on a recommendation, into a biotechnology fund. He lost 45% of the money. He did not understand what the fund held, why it might rise, or what would make him sell. The loss taught him the lesson he has repeated since: investing on someone else's conviction is not investing. It is delegation without oversight.
The response was to study. He trained as an economist and went into investment banking, where he learned how professionals analyse companies, how capital moves between markets, and how institutions manage risk. The methods were not secret. They were simply never taught to individuals.
The banking years
Investment banking provided two things: an income that allowed a high savings rate, and daily exposure to how the professional side of the market thinks. Felix applied the second to the first. He built a diversified core portfolio, funded it every month regardless of market conditions, and kept costs low. Around that core he took positions in companies and themes he had analysed himself, sized so that being wrong would not be ruinous.
He also noticed what the professionals did not do. They did not trade on tips. They did not chase what had already risen. They wrote down their reasoning, and they reviewed it. When a thesis failed, they closed the position rather than defending it.
The decision to leave
By his 30s the portfolio had reached the point where its expected long term return covered his living costs. That is the practical definition of financial independence: not wealth for its own sake, but capital sufficient to make employment optional. Felix left banking. He did not stop working; he changed what the work was for.
He founded Goat Academy to teach the method to people who had never been shown it. The Wall Street Protocol is that method, organised as a curriculum. He later built Winston, a daily market intelligence tool, to give members the kind of morning briefing a professional desk would receive.
The principles he teaches
- 01Understand what you own. If you cannot explain why an asset should rise and what would make you sell, you should not hold it.
- 02Savings rate first. The amount invested consistently over time determines the outcome more than any single decision.
- 03Core before satellite. A diversified, low cost foundation comes before any skill based position.
- 04Size for survival. No single position should be able to end the plan.
- 05Write it down. Reasoning recorded in advance is the only defence against reasoning revised in hindsight.
- 06Respect the regime. Markets move between conditions, and the method must recognise which one it is in.
These are set out in more detail in the Goat Academy guide to the 4 key steps to build wealth and taught in full in the Wall Street Protocol.
Felix's path is one example, shaped by his profession and his circumstances. It is offered as an illustration of a method, not as a result anyone should expect. Investing carries risk, including the loss of capital.
Key points
What to take from this guide
- 01A 45% loss at 18 on a recommended fund became the founding lesson: understand what you own.
- 02Banking provided the income for a high savings rate and the exposure to professional method.
- 03Independence meant capital whose expected return covered living costs, making work optional.
- 04Goat Academy exists to teach that method; Winston delivers the daily intelligence that supports it.
Goat Academy is an online financial education institution founded by economist and former investment banker Felix Prehn. It is published by Skillset Solutions FZ-LLC.
Goat Academy provides education only. Nothing on this site is financial, investment, or tax advice, and no outcome, return, or income is promised or implied. Trading and investing carry risk, including the loss of capital.
Questions about this page can be sent to [email protected].