Buy and hold, hopefully forever…
A small article in this Sunday Times’ Money section summed up a lot of what I think is wrong with the asset management industry. Having begun by stating that “it is early days yet for an investment trust marketed on the basis that it should be bought only on a 10-year view”, the column goes on immediately […]
There was an an interesting post by Total Return Investor a few months ago in which he had a go at cloning Neil Woodford’s portfolio with US-based companies. That started me thinking about whether British investors could do something similar to create their own mini-Berkshire Hathaway. Obviously valuation is always key when buying shares and I am not suggesting that […]
Tom Russo uses the phrase ‘capacity to suffer’ a lot. I had heard him talking of this before, but was reminded when I saw him being interviewed here (via MarketFolly). He doesn’t expect this unduly from investors in his funds (fortunately for them), but from his investee companies–the phrase refers to the preparedness of a company to […]
This weekend it is the turn of John Authers–a key member of the FT’s resident brains trust–to nail his colours to the mast regarding market valuation. He believes that it is overvalued but that the timing of when this will be rectified is as unknowable as ever, i.e. this is not necessarily a market top. I […]
A value trap is defined by Investopedia as follows: A stock that appears to be cheap because the stock has been trading at low multiples of earnings, cash flow or book value for an extended time period. Stock traps attract investors who are looking for a bargain because these stocks are inexpensive. The trap springs […]
There is not much in the City that does not involve generous remuneration for all involved, but the Battle Against Cancer Investment Trust (BACIT) is one rare example. This is a fund of funds that, rather than collecting different types and layers of fees for its managers, waives one layer of fees completely and donates the other to the Institute […]
Waitress: Would you like a drink with that? FI: Yes please, can I have a Coke? Waitress: I’m sorry Sir, but I’m afraid we only have Pepsi. FI: Oh OK then, I’ll take a Pepsi. When I think of Pepsi I think of No. 2, Michael Jackson, and the Pepsi Challenge. One of those is […]
As always, there has been adoring media coverage of the Berkshire Hathaway AGM but, putting to one side the footage of WB chugging away merrily on Cherry Cokes and arm-wrestling footballers, there were two nuggets that provided me with food for thought. Bill Gates and IBM Perhaps I have been naïve, but I had always assumed that, given both […]
It is a long weekend here in London but the weather–as usual–is refusing to make any concessions to barbecue cooks or day trippers. Chilly conditions and gusty winds do however make ideal conditions for reading from the comfort of one’s armchair and so that is largely what I have been doing. Safes (and Howard Ruff) Merryn Someset Webb’s column […]
Treating myself to a well-earned day off work yesterday, I decided to take the opportunity to attend my first corporate Annual General Meeting. Nominee Accounts Up to this point I had never been entirely confident that I could do this, because I hold my shares electronically through a nominee account. The benefits of this are that it both makes “trading” cheaper […]