NIRP – Negative Interest Rate Policy. ZIRP – Zero Interest Rate Policy. For around fourty years, bonds have been in a huge bull market with rates falling further and further. For as long as I can remember, the basic formula of lending money has been a simple one; “I lend you money and after an […]
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,
A few weeks ago, I published some new cornerstone content on the site – part of which was around my investment principles and how they have helped me to build an adaptable investment strategy. I’ve also published a number of articles about my investment strategy. The recent plunge in markets has made me examine these and
The benefits of an adaptable investment strategy Read More »
My more astute readers may have noticed global stock markets rallying over the last three weeks from their recent coronavirus-related collapse. Those of you of a more cautious nature may be wondering what is causing this. My best guess is two-fold; first, the central bankers have announced hundreds of billions of dollars, euros and pounds
Many years ago, I was travelling with a friend and his family to a holiday in Skegness as his Father gave him ’interview prep’ for an upcoming interview for a job at McDonald’s. My friend’s Father asked my friend whether or not his would ever act in a biased way against people and my friend
On my watchlist I highlighted how many financial sector companies represent what appears to be ’good value’ right now. Financial companies are a slightly odd bunch in that you can measure them on ’net assets’ (which in effect area usually loans and claims on assets such as buildings or companies) or on free cashflow (repayments
In part 1 of this series, I covered the ’spectrum’ of how to run an economy; from a full ’free market’ economy to a ’socialist’ utopian central planning model. When government spending gets to a high percentage of GDP (think 45-50% and above) there can be obvious benefits including a highly educated workforce, efficient healthcare,
If you’ve managed to move out from behind your sofa recently and take a peek at the news, you might have noticed an uptick in the number of central banks announcing ’interventions’ to support the UK economy. Further rounds of quantitative easing, rate cuts, loans and grants to small businesses, mortgage and bill ’holidays’ and
Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently then you’ll be aware of the problems facing INTU; a giant retail landlord which is facing a catastrophic collapse in the face of declining revenues and a mountain of debt. As a landlord, INTU has been in the business of buying and developing giant shopping centres. These
There’s a regular topic of conversation in investing circles around managing a diversified portfolio and how many stocks an investor should own to be sufficiently ’diversified’. The general consensus seems to be that portfolio diversification runs on a spectrum of portfolios with 10 or less stocks being super concentrated ’high risk, high return’ and 40
A few years ago, I wrote a blog about the importance of developing your range of knowledge. Since then, my consumption of news and social media content has shot through the roof. Anyone who knows me well will know that my appetite for new, high-quality information is vast I can usually be found poring over
The last few weeks have been a great experiment to determine those that implement ’buy and hold’ as a strategy and those that have never actually had to do it during a market rout. Global indexes have collapsed on the coronavirus scare and panicky investors have been dumping shares left right and centre. For those
In part three of this series on when to sell, I’m going to explore more concepts that help me to decide when to liquidate a position. You can find parts one and two linked here. The grass is greener on the other side The first of these is undoubtedly when I identify a better opportunity
Half way through writing part one of this series, I realised that this is actually a much more complex issue than I can do justice to in a single article. As such, I’ve decided to split the topic into a series. In the first article, I covered my thoughts on selling; as a first rule,
If asked, I generally describe myself as a ‘buy and hold’ investor. The buying bit is mostly easy – I enjoy looking for good quality or undervalued assets and acquiring them. The ‘holding’ bit is where it all starts to get a bit tricky. I’m fairly averse to selling assets. The amount of work that
