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.


Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update Jan 2021

Below is a short summary of what has been done in January 2021. We have been very active on many issues on behalf of members and all individual investors. Policy and Campaigns - January update to members

Woodford Campaign Update 1: Jan 2021

Below is the first of what we plan to be regular updates to members advising them of what we have done in this very important campaign. Woodford January NEWSLETTER

The Courage to Act, or Not

Some of us have plenty of time to read good books while under lockdown rules. Here’s one I have been reading. It’s a memoir by Ben Bernanke, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve under the title “The Courage to Act”. It covers the major worldwide financial crisis of 2007/8 created by the defaults in sub-prime mortgages. The book includes a very good section on how that came about and how packaging up such mortgages eventually led to a complete lack of ...

ShareSoc Seeks “Head of Volunteering”

ShareSoc's board is dealing with many projects and tasks - more than we can handle. For our Society to be most effective, we need to make better use of the services of the many kind members who have offered to help. We are therefore looking to recruit a voluntary Head of Volunteering to coordinate this process. If you are interested in taking on this role, you can find further details and an application form here: https://firstflightnonexec.com/candidates/available-roles/437-role-1121-head-of-volunteering-required-for-sharesoc-an-influential-not-for-profit-society-for-investors Thanks for your attention. Mark Northway, Chairman, ShareSoc

Wellesley Investors Action Group

By Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc I encourage members to join the Wellesley Investors Action Group. You can do so here https://www.facebook.com/groups/wellesleyp2pcreditorsactiongroup Neil Taylor has brought this to my attention. ShareSoc is very willing to blog and tweet about this and encourage all those who have lost money in Wellesley to consider joining the Wellesley Investors Action Group. They have 300 members already which is a good start. But there were 11,700 investors affected, so ideally all should join the Action Group. The  336 ...

Information and Experience on Brokers and Platforms

One thing that all ShareSoc members depend upon is a good quality broker. With that in mind, we have started to create topics in our member forum. Our members can now use these to share any news or opinions and raise issues about individual brokerages. This will be helpful to other members. I have set up a separate “Topic” for each of the usual suspects in this area - https://www.sharesoc.org/forums/forum/choosing-a-stockbroker-or-platform/ Over time, I hope this will become a useful resource for members ...

Latest Woodford Press Coverage

Woodford continues to attract much press coverage and we have set up a Forum page for our members so that all those who are interested can quickly see all the latest news and can also access previous articles. The Forum link is https://www.sharesoc.org/forums/topic/latest-news/ If you visit this topic you can subscribe so that you can get an email when there is an update and/or a comment. This is done by clicking the "Subscribe" link at the top of the topic page. Also, if ...

A Review of my Portfolio in 2020

By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director Please note I am not qualified to give investment advice, and nothing in this blog constitutes advice. Overview Chris Spencer Phillips reported in a recent blog https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/investment-strategies/a-review-of-my-2020-share-portfolio-chris-spencer-phillips/ that his portfolio was up +80% in 2020, after being + 25% in 2019. Congrats and hats off to Chris. I cannot rival that, but I thought readers might find my review of 2020 of interest. My portfolio numbers for 2020 were: Everything – all equities, ISAs, SIPPs, OEICS, etc       ...

Press Release 116: Requirements of public companies’ directors regarding takeover approaches

Press release 116 - Requirements of public companies’ directors regarding takeover approaches Joint Press Release from ShareSoc & UKSA on behalf of individual investors ShareSoc and UKSA recommend The Takeover Panel: Review their current rules, which disadvantage individual shareholders and all those who are not privy to a potential bid. Sets out a clear and orderly framework for takeovers, including measures to ensure fairness to shareholders and other stakeholders. Consider issuing Panel guidance for assessing when talks ...

A Review of my 2020 Share Portfolio – Chris Spencer-Phillips

Review of 2020 I wrote a review of my share portfolio (only an ISA) at the end of 2019 which ended the year 25% up which I was pleased about being a relative newcomer to investing. Surprisingly 2020 was an even better year albeit a bit of a roller coaster – my ISA was up 80%, if I include profits I made in my spread betting account, which I transferred into my ISA. I have been inspired by ISA Millionaires Leon Boris and ...
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