Buy and hold, hopefully forever…
Bear markets are not fun. Typically, one of these beasts is defined as a decline of 20% or more. While hard-wired positive thinkers and cold-blooded businessmen view them purely as buying opportunities, for most investors they are worrying and destabilising affairs where carefully constructed buying theses seem to count for nought and babies are thrown out with bath water from any […]
A third consecutive positive month brought a return of 1.7% for the portfolio. Sadly, it must be statistically likely that June will see the end of this little purple patch, but it has been nice while it lasted. AstraZeneca and Glaxo both fell as Pfizer’s gentle courting of the former was curtly rebuffed and the latter […]
Some interesting reads for the weekend: The Amateurs Edinburgh IT DIY Investor looks at Edinburgh IT’s annual report. Grabbing Profits DIY Income Investor builds up his ammunition. Clorox Dividend Mantra cleans up his portfolio. The Professionals Hugh Hendry Hendry’s Eclectica Fund is having a real shocker this year. Everyone has the occasional bad year but hopefully his luck will […]
In my last post I had a look at the basic P/E ratio, but there are a couple of variations and an anomaly that are also worth being aware of. Forward price/earnings ratio It is not unusual to hear market experts talking loosely about forward price/earnings ratios. I think that these should come with a handful of salt. What […]
Reading about JP Morgan and trying to think about its tangible book value was a murky old business, and it made me think that it might be worthwhile to go back to the beginning and revise what I know about the basics of investing, before returning to the JPM annual report better prepared. The P/E ratio (price/earnings) is […]
Church of England fears £9m loss from sale of Wonga stake Sadly it seems to be £9m for the Church of England, which sounds a lot, or, to put this another way, 0.15% of the part of its portfolio that is managed by the Church Commissioners, which doesn’t. This story makes me very uncomfortable on behalf […]
Something to read as you enjoy a light breakfast… The Amateurs Booker Group Booker is already paying dividends for DIY Investor. Balfour Beatty DIY Income Investor also goes on a dividend hunt. ConocoPhillips And, if you haven’t had enough yield yet, take a look at big oil. The Professionals HSBC Neil Woodford finally buys back […]
The Pfizer/AstraZeneca story might be just about to get even more interesting if this suggestion that Elliott Associates has been building a stake is accurate. Elliott Associates, for those who don’t know, is run by activist investor Paul Singer, and Mr. Singer is not a man to be pushed around. Elliott has made a substantial share of its profits […]
Overview JP Morgan Chase is a multinational banking and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in the US and has $2.4 trillion in assets. JPM operates in four main businesses: Consumer & Community Banking Deposits, credit card issuance. Target annual net income $1800m Corporate & Investment Bank Fixed income market revenue, equity, […]
There is no copyright on investment ideas and the news that Neil Woodford has been buying into HSBC will cause a few people to cast an eye over the much-loved financials sector. Woodford famously sold out of banks before the crisis and so is worth paying attention to on this subject. I do remember him making a […]