Blog

ShareSoc Blog

This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

There is more news given in the News page of our web site and more analysis of news is provided in our monthly newsletter for members – see the Newsletters page.

If you would like to be notified about new posts to our blog you can opt-in to our Weekly Wrap-Up Email service. If you are a member of ShareSoc select the “Weekly Wrap-Up Email” option here. If you are not a member select the “Information and Education Services” option here.


Recovering the £½ Billion in unclaimed Child Trust Funds

One of the goals of ShareSoc Investing Basics is to raise awareness of the Child Trust Funds. You may recall Gordon Brown introduced Child Trust Funds in 2005 as explained in this article in This is Money, who are partnering with ShareSoc to help the Investing Basics videos reach as wide an audience as possible. Every child born in the UK between 1/9/2002 and 2/1/2011 was given £250, placed into a trust fund, for access at 18. With no other additional investment, the funds for ...

FCA Update

FCA Enforcement Actions Cliff Weight and Peter Parry met with Executives from the FCA Primary Markets and Secondary Markets teams on 28 October. We discussed a number of regulatory issues and shared various concerns. The nature of these meetings is that much is confidential and the FCA cannot comment on specific cases if that might be prejudicial to those being investigated, nor can they comment on cases that are not known to be in the public eye. I am pleased to report the ...

ShareSoc Investing Basics launch at London Stock Exchange

ShareSoc is delighted to announce the launch of the ShareSoc Investing Basics educational video series. The series is designed to engage and educate people of all ages about investing. Ten bite-sized episodes offer an irreverent, entertaining and surprisingly informative romp through the basics of investing. Unbiased knowledge, anytime, anywhere, for everyone. Presented by former BBC business correspondent turned full-time investor, Glen Goodman, with a phalanx of animated graphics to assist him, the series dismantles financial jargon into words anyone can understand, spelling out ...

Pension Fund Hedging and the Bond Market

The Bank of England had to step into purchase gilts yesterday (28th September) after the bond market looked like collapsing totally. Some £65 billion was spent to do it. This has created panic and uncertainty in the financial community and even affected equity markets. I will give my comments on these events although I certainly do not claim to have any knowledge of pension scheme management and bond markets. So please correct me if I get it wrong. Defined benefit pension schemes buy ...

Interest Rate Sanity and Chancellor’s Announcements

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The Bank of England’s announcement of an increase in base rate to 2.25% was just one step in a return to sanity. With inflation nearing 10% why would any idiot lend money at 5% or less as many mortgage providers have been doing. In reality the last few years have seen lower interest rates than have been available for the last 5,000 years. This has been ...

Mini Budget – Good but misses a chance

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The Chancellor has taken steps  to drive forward the Government’s desire to simplify the personal tax system for individuals. This has included the removal of a new tax charge (the Health and Social Care Levy), the removal of an income tax bracket (the additional 45% tax rate) and the reversal of the 1.25% increase to dividend tax rates from April 2023. However, in his Statement on Thursday the Chancellor ...

Property Trusts and Supermarket Income REIT Results

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Commercial property investment trusts should be a good defence in a market downturn – at least that is what the investment pundits have been saying. As the market heads south I have been selling overvalued tech stocks and retail stocks vulnerable to a recession and reduced consumer spending. Property trusts should be less volatile as although the property market has been changing in some regards, ...

Dunelm Results and Pay at Safestore

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Dunelm (DNLM) published their preliminary results this morning (14/9/2022) – I no longer hold them. They were surprisingly good bearing in mind they are a homeware retailer – sales up 16% and EPS up 30%. Clearly the anticipated vulnerability to rising inflation and consumers being hit by a recession has not yet come to pass although forecasts for next year are lower. They say trading in ...

Earnings Per Share and Is It Well Defined?

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Most investors rely on Earnings Per Share (EPS) as a measure of the performance of a company. In theory it’s a simple calculation based on post-tax earnings divided by the number of ordinary shares in issue as defined by the IAS 33 accounting standard (see link below). But the number of shares can be affected by the future exercise of options, convertibles and warrants so in ...

Comments on Possible Offer for GB Group

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Announcements late yesterday and this morning (7th September 2022) indicate that GB Group (GBG) may receive a cash offer for the business from private equity firm GTCR. I have held these shares since 2011 – first purchased at 42p, closed last night at 522p. It’s one of my larger holdings and needless to say I have been very happy with my investment as it has ...
join ShareSoc