Andrei Popescu
Founder · StrategyEx-equity analyst (2008–2016). Writes the diversification frameworks and runs reader portfolio reviews.
Eight years of patient writing about money — and the people who make it happen.
Milkos started as a Sunday newsletter for four friends. In 2025, it is read every other week by 12,400+ long-term investors across 27 countries. Here is who we are and why we still write.
Our story
From a four-person Telegram group to a reader-funded journal.
In late 2017, four investors based in București and Cluj-Napoca started swapping spreadsheets to compare dividend strategies. By 2019 we were publishing those threads publicly. By 2022 we were writing the only crypto allocation guide we trusted ourselves to follow.
Milkos has no parent media group, no hidden affiliate deals, and no aspiration to become a brokerage. We sell exactly one product: long-form essays you can read once and act on for years.
That model keeps us small, opinionated, and accountable. Every piece is signed. Every position we mention is one a team member already owns — or has explicitly chosen not to own.
Editorial values
Six principles that shape every essay we publish.
These are not aspirations. They are the rules we read each other's drafts against.
01
Skin in the game
If an editor recommends an allocation, they hold it themselves — or document publicly why they have decided not to.
02
Plain language
Every essay is read out loud before publication. If it does not survive that test, it is rewritten.
03
Sourced numbers
Every figure links to its source within 90 days of publication. Stale links trigger a footnote and a rewrite.
04
Reader-funded
No affiliate links, no sponsored posts, no broker partnerships. The subscription is the entire business model.
05
Bear-market tested
Every framework is stress-tested across the 1973, 2008 and 2022 drawdown windows before we publish it.
06
Quiet writing
No price predictions, no breaking-news takes. We publish bi-weekly so the writing has time to be right.
The desk
Four editors, each running one corner of the journal.
Names, faces, real CFA / ACCA / engineering credentials. No anonymous bylines.
Elena Ionescu
Senior AnalystCFA charterholder. Leads the passive income desk and built our dividend ladder template.
Mihai Stoica
Crypto ResearchSoftware engineer turned researcher. Covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, and tokenised real-world assets.
Ioana Marinescu
Yield & Risk EditorACCA-qualified accountant. Owns the tax-aware yield desk and our drawdown lab series.
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Of subscribers renew year-over-year
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Countries in our reader base
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Bi-weekly issues published
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Advertising revenue, ever
Frequently asked
What new readers usually want to know first.
Is Milkos giving financial advice?
No. Milkos is an educational publication. We share frameworks, case studies, and our own portfolios. We are not regulated investment advisors and we do not manage money for readers. Every essay carries the same disclaimer.
How do you make money if there are no ads?
Through paid annual subscriptions. The free archive funds itself by converting roughly 4% of regular readers into paying members. That keeps us honest — there is no incentive to hype anything.
Do you cover only Romanian markets?
No. Most of our readers invest in EU-wide and US-listed instruments. We do publish Romania-specific notes on taxation, but the portfolios we model are international.
Can I get a portfolio review?
Yes. Each quarter we anonymise and review four reader portfolios for free. Send us the overview through the contact form. We answer every submission, even when we cannot publish the review.
How often do you publish?
A long-form essay every second Sunday, plus a quarterly portfolio review letter in March, June, September and December. We never publish breaking news.
If our values resonate, we would love to hear from you.
Send a hello, request a portfolio review, or pitch an essay. The desk reads every message that lands in the inbox.