Investment Strategies

Portfolio Review 2020 – Mark Bentley

Background I have not published a portfolio review for quite a while, as it's so time consuming to do. However, 2020 was an extraordinary year, so felt I really ought to see what went wrong, what went right and whether there were any lessons to learn. Before diving into the details, I need to explain my circumstances and investment strategy. I have been a full-time investor since 2004, living off a fixed pool of capital. Therefore, capital preservation whilst generating sufficient return to ...

New podcast on trading and investing

Like all the directors of ShareSoc, I am an active investor, and over the past couple of years have learned a lot being part of a chatroom with other investors and traders. We all have different styles and it is fascinating seeing how others approach the business of making money in the markets. For a few months my chatroom friend Dave and I have toyed with launching a podcast, because we both like talking and are interested in stock market history and ...

Lessons From a Failed Investment

This is a premium article, available to ShareSoc full members and SIGnet members. Recent troubles at the AA (AA.) and Petropavlovsk (POG) brought to mind another problematic investment that I am more familiar with and which shares some characteristics of those companies. That investment is Gulf Marine Services (GMS). IPOs by Private Equity Vendors Like the AA, GMS was floated by its original private equity owners, with a premium listing on the LSE main market, in March 2014. GMS is a relatively straightforward business: ...

It Pays to Take Note of Shorters

An article by ShareSoc member Michael Taylor In light of the recent Burford Capital judgement that my friend Paul de Gruchy has written about in detail here, this has led to much debate about shorting, some of which I hope to add to here in this article. Is shorting bad? Yes and no. It can be. A broker who goes short on a stock then offers to conduct an equity placing for the same company in order to close their position is clearly blatant ...

Babcock Price Fall, Segro Placing, TR Property

I said in a previous blog post “that I tend to avoid FTSE-100 companies as their share prices are driven by professional analysts’ comments, by geo-political concerns, by general economic trends and by commodity prices. You can buy a FTSE-100 company and soon find it’s going downhill because one influential analyst has decided its prospects are not as they previously thought”. Indeed that is exactly what happened after I made a recent purchase of Babcock International (BAB). Soon after, Shore Capital Markets ...

Market Trends, Big Miners and Will the Music Stop?

Stock markets continue to rise. They seem to be ignoring the bad company results that are going to come out in the next few months. Although there are signs that the Covid-19 epidemic is weakening, some sectors such as hospitality are going to be in lock-down for some time. The economy is clearly going into recession with many employees being laid off. The lack of consumer spending, not just because some people have less money to spend, but because others are ...

Investing for Income – More Than Just Seeking a High Yield

Vanishing Dividends Every week brings news of a major company cutting or suspending its dividend: this week, it was BT. For investors who rely upon dividends for income, the search for a reliable, sustainable dividend becomes ever harder. There are no shortage of commentators who believe that most companies should be putting dividends on hold now. Certainly, the story of Easyjet paying out significant dividends on the same day as it requested a bail out from the government struck many as irresponsible. When ...

Justin King ex-Sainsburys CEO – Supermarket Supply Chains, Profits and Share Prices

In the present environment its useful to get some insights into what’s happening in the food retail sector and how it's impacting the major players. I came across this 10 minute interview with Justin King which was filmed at the end of March and thought it may be of interest to members. Justin King, Formerly CEO of Sainsbury's and now an advisor to Supermarket Income REIT (LON: SUPR), answers a series of questions for the investor community. Justin discusses the supermarket sector. ...

Dividends Slashed, Investing for Income, NMC Health and Finablr

Many companies are announcing cancelled, reduced or postponed dividends – two of the latest were Shell (RDSB) and Sainsburys (SBRY). This will hit investors hard who rely on dividends for retirement income. But should they be doing so? Terry Smith of Fundsmith had an article published in the Financial Times today under the headline “Investors: never let a crisis go to waste” in which he attacks income funds. In particular he questions whether the Investment Association should allow funds with “income” in ...

Bank Dividends and Fundsmith Performance

The bad news for many private investors is that most of the major listed UK banks are suspending dividend payments, even ones already announced. This is after they received a letter from the Bank of England requesting that they do so. The dividends are unlikely to be resumed before the end of the year. This is surely a prudent measure as the banks will undoubtedly have many requests for loans from companies to tide them over the virus crisis, while other ...