In today’s article, I want to expand on what I mean when I say that I’m a long-term investor and give some tips and tricks I find helpful for both cultivating and sticking to, this mindset. In my experience, less “trading” activity and longer holding periods have generally led to superior results, with my largest […]
Thinking like a long-term investor – Part 1 of 2 Read More »
Most investors recognise that holding a diversified portfolio of high-quality assets is a key risk management technique. In today’s article, I want to explore the idea of portfolio diversification as a risk management technique in more detaill – in particular, looking at the pros and cons of diversified portfolio vs. a concentrated portfolio, and how
When I first started writing this blog back in 2015, I was only a few years into my investing journey, and was just starting to get to grips with the world of investing. Since then, I’ve met dozens of private investors in all sorts of circumstances – from social events in Windsor (ever been to
In my previous article about investing for income, I explored a brief checklist of ideas for selecting income stocks and building an income-focussed portfolio. In today’s article, I’ve assumed that you’ve gone ahead and selected a few shares that fit these criteria and are now wondering how to manage them. I’ve written multiple articles before
What is investing for income? A few weeks ago, I was talking to an investor about my approach and described myself as “primarily a value investor with a dash of income investor on the side”. Over the course of the following conversation, I went on to talk through my approach to investing for income, which
Having explored the idea of a quality company in my previous article, I wanted to follow up with an important caveat: price matters and my own approach is now more focussed on investing quality at a reasonable price than simply buying cheap companies. Without working to determine a fair valuation for an asset, an investor
“In the short-term the stock market is a voting machine but in the long-term it is a weighing machine.” Warren Buffett To some degree, I have always cared about ensuring that my approach is focused on investing in quality companies and have therefore used quality as a driver for what to buy and sell. Over
A few weeks ago, I was speaking to a newer investor who had listened to an episode of the podcast and had heard me talking about being “down 40, 50, 60%” on an investment. As someone that hadn’t been investing long, this had concerned them, and they wrote in to ask if I could clarify
Having started investing over ten years ago, I can now say with reasonable confidence that success takes hard work. Grande Sorpresa. After losing 11% in 2022, I have just managed to squeak out a fantastic 0% return. Yes, that’s right, after a whole year of hard work, I’ve managed to go precisely nowhere (compliments can
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
