Earlier this week, a reader contacted me on social media with a question about the repayment of debt compared to paying or maintaining a dividend. Although I initially answered privately, I wanted to take the opportunity to write a longer response which is better suited to an article. “Companies like Vodafone and Halfords which have […]
In 2007, one of the world’s biggest investment banks, Lehman Brothers, collapsed into bankruptcy after suffering months of share price declines amid rumours of its subprime mortgage exposure. For those readers of a more tender age, the investment banking system had basically loaned funds to property investors that were fundamentally incapable of keeping up with
The Chinese property market – is it Lehman Brothers part II? Read More »
During the final week of September, I had two positions, Anglo Asian Mining and Digital 9 Infrastructure Trust drop by 20%+ in a single session. Both rebounded strongly the next day – the proverbial “dead cat bounce” but remain heavily underwater for recent investors. Despite this, I am still holding both companies and in this
Every investor knows the saying that investments can go down as well as up in value. Knowing and seeing this in action are two different things however, and my perception over the last 24 months has been of a huge number of investors disappearing from social media. After a decade of low interest rates and
Being a patient investor in a persistent market downturn Read More »
Anyone that runs their own portfolio will have heard the saying “bear markets turn traders into long term investors”. Outside of the obviously facetious element of the quote, it raises an interesting point about loss aversion – mainly that many retail investors seek to avoid crystallising losses in the hope of a share price rebound
Let’s start with the nasty bit – year to date, my portfolio is down 7%. Yes, that’s right, after losing 11% in 2022, my portfolio is already down another 7% in the first six months of 2023. So, take a deep breath, top up the coffee, and let’s see how I’ve managed to lose another
During the course of publishing this blog, I have previously written two articles about my portfolio review process, the first providing a general insight into my review process and the second providing a more detailed description of my half-year reviews. In today’s article, I’m going to provide more detailed about my quarterly portfolio review process,
Ask most private investors about their opinion of investing in small companies and they will happily tell you that ‘investing in small caps exposes investors to an information mismatch which enables outperformance’. The idea is a simple one. Big funds with professional analysts have too much capital to deploy to worry about investing in companies
Anyone with half an eye on financial markets will have seen the headlines about Silicon Valley Bank becoming insolvent over the last few days. The situation is rapidly escalating and with it the entire financial press and half of my financial contacts have become consumed by producing coverage. I am joining them. In this article,
As we leave 2022 behind, it’s traditional for many of us to review our performance over the last twelve months. I thoroughly enjoy reading these reviews and as usual there has been a wide spread of results across the board. A small number of investors I follow managed to turn a profit, my 11% loss
Another year draws to a close and 2023 begins. After an incredibly successful 2021, I ended this year with my portfolio down 11% – my first ever loss in a year of rampant inflation, an energy crisis, the start of the Ukrainian war, routing stock markets and the collapse of tech, crypto and growth shares.
It feels like a constant mantra when I sit to write a new article but I hardly know where to start this week. So much has happened that I feel as though I could almost write an article a day and still struggle to keep up with events. Rather than try to dissect all the
Well, we’re having quite a year aren’t we? UK inflation is now comfortably over 10%, the Bank of England base rate is at 2.25%, the FTSE250 is at 17,250, we’ve had three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors, COVID is still floating around, the war in Ukraine is still grinding on, the pound has fallen further against
The death of my Grandmother has been a moment of deep personal sadness for both myself and my family. I have been deeply touched by the many kind messages of support from friends around the world that have contacted us to share their condolences. The past few weeks have been a period of mourning for
After publishing my 2022 Half Year Review, I was contacted by a reader asking whether I could provide further insight into my trade decisions. Although I responded positively, I decided that I needed to include a more detailed caveat around releasing the information. Firstly, the information in this article is in no way guaranteed for
