Earlier today, I had a call with a friend where we discussed the dangers of blindly following other investors. We’ve spoken before about the hidden costs of people following investing charlatans – in some cases, these costs can be absolutely tragic as inexperienced, naive investors are hung out to dry by unscrupulous characters only interested […]
To be a successful investor requires confidence in portfolio management – in particular, the strategy and companies which you have selected. This sounds like an obvious statement. After all, if you don’t believe in the performance of the companies then why would you invest in them? Having confidence in your portfolio management strategy often requires
Towards the end of Q3 in 2019, I was feeling increasingly nervous about the markets which seemed to be going on a never-end bull run and decided to ex-examine my portfolio construction with a view to de-risking and strengthening it. This process was fairly illuminating as despite holding a well-diversified portfolio of up to 40
Last month a friend kicked off a bit of a storm on Twitter one morning by calling out traders failing to make more than 50% returns a year from spread betting. The thread went on for a good hour or so but it made me start to think about what I consider to be a
Reader Question: What is a good return for an investor? Read More »
I recently had a conversation with an investor about what they managed their portfolio and what changes they’d been making in 2020. This investor was closer to the HNWI bracket than most individuals, but whilst their portfolio size and focus differ from most, I was still able to identify three key ideas for their wealth
During a recent investor event I attended I met a reader of this blog who asked me about protecting against inflation and what options I’m considering. For those of you old enough to remember such things, there was, once upon a time, a thing called inflation; a rate by which prices would increase every year.
A long-standing reader of my blog called me last week asking whether I was going to be writing an annual update on General Electric. For those of you not in the know, I’d recommend reading my original post detailing the history of the company (you can find a link here) and then reading this article
I was recently speaking to someone at a dinner who wanted to get started with investing but wasn’t sure where to start with their portfolio design. They’d found a broker online and created an account, but didn’t feel confident enough to start acquiring assets. I spent the evening talking to them about my own investment
I have to confess to being a bit of a strategy nerd. For as long as I can remember, the idea of having a plan and working towards a goal has really excited me. I love the process of building the strategy and I love looking back and reviewing my progress towards the goals I’ve
I was reading through my investor diary and decided to look at all the companies I’d sold in the last five years and consider whether I was glad I did or not. I’ve sold (or been forced out of) 32 companies in the last five years; 26 were for a profit of between 5% and 54%.
A few years ago, I got my fingers burned investing in Carillion. Fortunately, it wasn’t a life changing catastrophe and taught me a very important lesson early on in my investing career. Sometimes companies are cheap for no good reason but other times, they’re value traps. In short, a value trap is a business which
I was on a call with a reader talking about what direction global equity markets might go next. Obviously, not possessing a crystal ball, my thoughts were purely speculative but this reader had been a little spooked by the market decline in early 2020 and although they hadn’t sold everything wanted my opinion on what
A few years ago, I had the good fortune of bumping into someone (let’s call him James) that had a significantly more advanced financial life than my own. He’d made money in construction a few decades ago and now lived a relatively comfortable life on the proceeds. Some of their family still worked but mostly
Every year since 1977, Warren Buffett has released a shareholder letter. In recent years, it’s been a highlight of the financial calendar with investors eagerly poring over his words to glean his thoughts on everything from bond valuations to the dangers of debt. I’m a big fan of Warren Buffett – I like his sensible,
Most people equate risk with either extreme volatility or with low quality assets. Retail investors are often told to avoid ‘risky’ investments to protect their money; to never even consider them (I can already feel the eyes of my readers narrowing in suspicion here, but bear with me!). By contrast, ‘high quality’ investments are often
