Investment Strategies

The Outlook for Stock Markets and Bank Runs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Market Outlook It’s that time of year when financial commentators like to pontificate on the future for the stock market in the coming year and tip sheets give their hot share tips for the New Year. As regards economic forecasts and how the stock market will perform I can do no better than quote John Littlewood in his book “The Stock Market”: “The sequence of bull and bear ...

Asset Allocation

This is the personal view of Cliff Weight and does not represent the views of ShareSoc. Cliff Weight is not authorised to give financial advice and nothing in this  article should be interpreted as advice. The 13 year Quantitative Easing* experiment has finished. Between March 2009 and June 2022, the Bank of England bought 57% of the £1.5trillion of gilts sold, according to the FT see https://on.ft.com/3xcx6mL I feel more comfortable. The laws of economics I was taught at university in the 1970’s ...

Big Miners and How Far Ahead Do You Look?

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The last couple of days have seen a jump in the share prices of big miners such as Rio Tinto (RIO) and BHP (BHP). They have risen as much as 5% over the last two days, after falling substantially from their peaks at the start of June. The price of BHP shares has been affected however by the free distribution of shares in Woodside Energy (WDS) on the ...

Portfolio Review 2021 – Mark Bentley

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Introduction Following on from my review in 2020, I have now conducted a similar exercise for 2021. See last year's article for an explanation of my investment objectives, strategy, "asset types" and investment accounts. 2021 was "a year of two halves" with my holdings roaring ahead in the first half and then a bit of a rollercoaster ride since September. These market gyrations are difficult psychologically but having lived through ...

A Bumper Edition of Investors Chronicle

The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Over the Christmas period we were treated to a bumper edition of the Investors’ Chronicle. And I have to say that this magazine has improved of late under the editorship of Rosie Carr. Whether she has a bigger budget or is just picking better writers I do not know but she certainly deserved the job after working for the magazine for many years. I’ll pick out ...

New Year Forecasts and Internet Retailers

The views expressed in this article are those of its author, not necessarily those of ShareSoc. It’s that time of year when share tipsters start to issue their bets for the New Year. But the collapse of on-line grocer Farmdrop and recent profit warning from Boohoo (BOO) prompts me to think that one thing I will be avoiding next year is on-line retailers apart possibly from the gorillas already in that space. Unlisted Farmdrop went out of business a few days ago so ...

Alliance Trust Resets Dividend

An announcement this morning from Alliance Trust (ATST) says that the board has concluded that an increased dividend “will benefit existing shareholders and enhance the attractiveness of the Company’s shares”. They expect the overall annual dividend to increase by 32.5% over the 2020 dividend. The proposed increase will be well covered by distributable reserves and income it is suggested although no doubt some of the extra dividend cost will come from capital. ATST had a reported yield of 1.43% last year according ...

What’s the best way to teach children about financial literacy?

The following article represents the personal views of Cliff Weight and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I saw this interesting article in the FT: We need people to know the ABC of finance: facing up to the financial literacy crisis. The article showed data on Responses to financial literacy questions around the world. An example: If you had $100 in a savings account and the annual interest rate was 2%, how much would be in the account after 5 years, more than $102, ...

Dividend Yield vs Market Capitalisation

This article expresses the opinions and analysis of its author and does not necessarily reflect those of ShareSoc. The author accepts no liability for any errors in his analysis - readers should verify the analysis for themselves. There has recently been some discussion within ShareSoc and SIGnet about the construction of the SIGnet Investors' Index (SII). A point of debate was whether the SII was biased relative to more conventional and total return indexes because its small- and micro-cap weighting did not ...

The FCA awakes?

This is a personal blog by ShareSoc director Cliff Weight and does not necessarily reflect the views of ShareSoc. There is an excellent article in the Mail on Sunday today by Jeff Prestridge who is our key note speaker at the ShareSoc Woodford Webinar on 30 September - What happens next. click here to register  In today's article Jeff highlights that "the City regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority – has finally woken up from its lockdown slumber and decided to go all ...

SPECIAL OFFER TO FULL MEMBERS – FREE COPY OF THE 3RD EDITION OF “THE DIY INVESTOR” BY ANDY BELL

Andy Bell - founder of AJBell Youinvest - has generously offered ShareSoc a large number of copies of the latest edition of his classic book "The DIY Investor" issued in May this year.  We are offering these e-books FREE (worth over £12) to all full members of ShareSoc on a first come first served basis until supplies are exhausted.  If you want to download a copy* then please login to the ShareSoc website and go to the "Member Offers" page here - https://www.sharesoc.org/members-area/member-special-offers/special-offer-details/- to click ...

IPCC Report – The Implications for Investors

This post represents the opinion of its author and not that of ShareSoc The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have published a report that predicts in stark terms both the historic and predicted changes to the earth’s climate from human activities. This is what they say in the accompanying press release: “Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released today. ...