The Investment thread

Borotommo

Borotommo

Well-known member
There are often posts about certain shares, trading, ISAs, pensions, savings etc.
I thought It might be good to have a place where we can discuss all things finance to share ideas and experiences, and help each other wherever possible.
With inflation sticky around 10% and general cost of living pressures hitting us all, I thought this might be of some use.
*Please feel free to share your thoughts and questions. Any info discussed is on an amateur basis, and so no official advice is given or taken.

I thought I’d share an article that popped up this morning on my AJ Bell feed, which is a long-trusted methodology for drawing down pension/investment funds without harming capital value. An interesting read, if it applies to you now, or in the near future.

www.ajbell.co.uk

What is ‘the 4% rule’ and is it still relevant to investors today?

For those in retirement who either don’t have a significant pension pot or aren’t set up to receive a steady stream of income from their investments, drawing on their capital may be the | Thursday 09 Mar 2023
www.ajbell.co.uk www.ajbell.co.uk
 
If I had my time again, I would pay a lot more attention to management charges for funds. Broadly speaking, investment trusts and ETFs have done much better than 'funds' (OEICs, Unit trusts).

The exception would be passive funds (though be wary of anything 'fashionable') and some pension funds.

Also, be aware of Inheritance Tax if your legacy matters to you. Even if you don't have a liability now, best be prepared.
 
Can anyone recommend an online trading platform?
Just for occasional small value purchase/sale of shares.
Easy to use/ low commission charges.
Thanks.
 
Anton_Berg said:
If I had my time again, I would pay a lot more attention to management charges for funds. Broadly speaking, investment trusts and ETFs have done much better than 'funds' (OEICs, Unit trusts).

The exception would be passive funds (though be wary of anything 'fashionable') and some pension funds.

Also, be aware of Inheritance Tax if your legacy matters to you. Even if you don't have a liability now, best be prepared.
Click to expand...
Definitely agree with management fees. I've got a mate who diligently analyses all the top (UK) funds and their holdings each year, and creates a spreadsheet which he shares with a group of us. It helps inform us what the institutional investors are doing, at a glance, and allows us to pick stocks for ourselves without the management fees. I'll ask him if he minds if I share his last version here.
 
NB - Interactive Investor, AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown are all solid platforms. Alot of others come and go.

You need to wrok out your own costs based on your needs, between the three of the them.

As a sector Private Equity seems cheap to me at present, because it is disliked. Imagine buying shares in Peter Jones off Dragons Den. It often makes money by getting into businesses at an early satge and selling out when say they are ready to go on the stock exchange. Its partly disliked because its hard at present for these private equity businesses to get out of current investments. The private equity trusts are usually seen as high risk too and risk is seen as bad at present.

A general rule of mine is sell when interest rates are rising and buy when they are dropping, but this has to be looked at in the context of what has happened to prices in general. They will not drop in 2023.

I am quite keen on commodities too - everywhere piled into crypto and big tech shares in 2020 and 2021 and forgot about real things, stuff that comes out of the ground and stuff that grows that we eat etc so inflation is coming from a lack of investment in real things. Demand for commodities will increase this year as China comes out of a severe lockdown. China is massive nowadays - several times bigger than the whole of Europe.
 
NorthumberlandBoro said:
Can anyone recommend an online trading platform?
Just for occasional small value purchase/sale of shares.
Easy to use/ low commission charges.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
www.iwebsharedealing.co.uk

Home

With IWeb Share Dealing you can buy and sell shares from UK and international stock markets for £5 dealing commission per trade.
www.iwebsharedealing.co.uk www.iwebsharedealing.co.uk

ran by Halifax

I can't remember how the sign up goes sorry as I've been on this for say 6 or 7 years. Not done any trades fro a while just have a continuing account with some small funds in right now . (they don't make you have to use it every year) The trading is very simple . If you want to buy you put in the details and you get offered a price which holds for 15 seconds and you have to decide by then . Last time I bought, trades were £5. Obv 0.5% Stamp Duty reserve tax on everything too. Selling , just the £5 transaction.
I do my research in other tools though.
 
NorthumberlandBoro said:
Can anyone recommend an online trading platform?
Just for occasional small value purchase/sale of shares.
Easy to use/ low commission charges.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
If only making many small trades be careful of trading fees, they can kill you more than commission.

I've not used Freetrade, but it's "free", so much in that there's no fees or commission I think, but you get a worse spread/ price I think. Thins Trading 212 is also the same, not used that either. Some of these had waiting lists, so I didn't end up going with them, and I've not moved over since being given accounts.

There's also eToro too, which is also free and no commission, and you can also follow other traders and copy them. I use this, it's easy. Again though, your trade gets bunched in with others I think, so you can also lose out on the spreads.

Used to use Halifax, but their platform was ****.

I've used HL, for investing in shares/ ETF's/ Funds etc, but their fees are high, but wasn't that fussed as was using higher values and wanted to use someone reputable etc. I now have one of my ISA's with them, but only because it was easier to move my shares out of a shares account, into an ISA with them. I'll end up moving this to Vanguard or someone else I expect.

It might not be a factor to most, but I split my investments up, so have no more than 85k in any one account, as the FCA cover up to 85k per account I think. It may have changed since I last looked at that though.

Vangourd is excellent if you want to invest in S&P 500, "all world", "emerging markets" etc, very low fees/commission and very reputable. I use this for the majority of my ISA's.
 
Day trading is hard work. You need to research the markets you are thinking of investing in, and on top of all the news that comes out about it. It's very disheartening when you research a market, find some promising stock, invest, see your stock growing and then one morning there's a crisis in Japan and the whole board turns red and all your growth - and more - disappears in 10 minutes.

Unless you can devote 30 or 40 hours a week to it, then just regard it as gambling, not a job with an income. Only invest what you don't need, don't be sentimental about any company or any individual and ruthlessly search out the best trading platforms (in terms of charges) you can find. The charges, and the charging structures change all the time, so the best deal in March might not be the best in April.

Finally, cryptocurrencies are just speculation. The chances of sustained gains are the same as rolling two dice and guessing the numbers correctly.
 
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but tomorrow is dividend day for one of my largest holdings, and a local plc to boot.

Ramsdens holdings (RFX) continue to go from strength to strength, since the pandemic hammered its foreign exchange business. Obviously, its pawnbroking business is now thriving due to the cost of living crisis, but they do provide a professional service, in that segment. A very well run company, with a growing uk footprint. I’ve been a shareholder for a number of years, now, and they are worthy of research. A short video following their latest results in Feb will give you a bigger picture of their business. I’m expecting further steady growth in share price and dividends, so will remain a long term hold, with dividends reinvested.

 
NorthumberlandBoro said:
Can anyone recommend an online trading platform?
Just for occasional small value purchase/sale of shares.
Easy to use/ low commission charges.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Ive used freetrade for a couple of years
0.5% stamp duty to pay when buying shares
0% commission
site is delayed by 15 minutes if you are watching shares to buy/sell
access to limit orders for £4.99 per month
 
Being hinted that tomorrow’s budget is likely to include an increase to the lifetime allowance to £1.8m from just over a million, currently. Great news for the less than 5% who this affects. I get the sense the Torys are worried about GPs, Doctors, surgeons and Consultants retiring early, which I understand, but the vast majority will see no benefit.
congratulations, if this benefits you
 
Remember reading this thread and wonder what the opinion is about s & s vs cash isas?
Just moved to from the former to the latter, makets being choppy for a while now, but intend to probably move back next year when things (hopefully) have settled a bit.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
Remember reading this thread and wonder what the opinion is about s & s vs cash isas?
Just moved to from the former to the latter, makets being choppy for a while now, but intend to probably move back next year when things (hopefully) have settled a bit.
Click to expand...
I've gone in heavy on tech this year and also for my S&S ISA, and it's all done really, really well, basically wiped out most of the bad news for my portfolio for 2022. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Intel, Nvidia, tech ETF's etc.

Basically, my thoughts for this calendar year and new tax year are the war isn't going to get worse (for markets), and will likely get better, inflation will peak and come down and also AI is just going to kick off in tech in so many ways. I think we're over the worst of it now (all the bad is priced in), so don't want to be missing out on the early gains etc. Main worry was USA not lifting the debt ceiling, but it was unlikely to happen, and that looks ok now.

I'm early 40's though, so can take a fair amount of risk, as I've got plenty of time for it all to play out, so I'm not bothered if it goes down, ultimately time in the market is going to beat timing the market most of the time etc.
 
Andy_W said:
I've gone in heavy on tech this year and also for my S&S ISA, and it's all done really, really well, basically wiped out most of the bad news for my portfolio for 2022. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Intel, Nvidia, tech ETF's etc.

Basically, my thoughts for this calendar year and new tax year are the war isn't going to get worse (for markets), and will likely get better, inflation will peak and come down and also AI is just going to kick off in tech in so many ways. I think we're over the worst of it now (all the bad is priced in), so don't want to be missing out on the early gains etc. Main worry was USA not lifting the debt ceiling, but it was unlikely to happen, and that looks ok now.

I'm early 40's though, so can take a fair amount of risk, as I've got plenty of time for it all to play out, so I'm not bothered if it goes down, ultimately time in the market is going to beat timing the market most of the time etc.
Click to expand...
Interesting and i don't disagree with any of that.

It sounds like your portfolio isn't managed though, which is what I want. I haven't got the time or the inclination to do so, never mind the insight.

I've just switched from a Nutmeg S & S isa to a cash isa, the former being a robo isa.

My intention is to switched to a proper managed fund in 12 months, but one that's run by a fund manager.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
Interesting and i don't disagree with any of that.

It sounds like your portfolio isn't managed though, which is what I want. I haven't got the time or the inclination to do so, never mind the insight.

I've just switched from a Nutmeg S & S isa to a cash isa, the former being a robo isa.

My intention is to switched to a proper managed fund in 12 months, but one that's run by a fund manager.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's not managed other than investing in some tech funds etc, but those are quite high-risk and not for everyone etc. I've got maybe half invested in all world/ S&P 500, then maybe 30% tech funds and 20% in 10 or so big-name tech stocks. There's a lot of overlap in that so if tech goes down the pan then so do I, but it will come back with a vengence and the time it does will probably dictate when I move over to less risk.

I'm not against managed funds and was going to use on of Old Mutual/ Quilter's Managed Active Portfolio's a few years back, but backed out because of the charges from my FA and from OM, and don't think I could put that in an ISA wrapper at the time. They've not beat the comparitor in that time either mind, so I've not really lost anything, but still managed to not really pay any fees and everything is now in separate ISA's which is what I wanted.

Selling up my other house soon too, as want completely out of the housing market and should get a big lump back from that, so will probably put that with a safer managed fund of some sort.

I was debating starting to sacrifice some wage into a private high-risk pension too, but haven't got round to it yet and might not do that as I might want the cash before I could get it out. There's a pretty good chance I should be able to retire or semi-retire a fair while before then, and already got another pension at 55 or 60 I think, and maybe even a state pension after that if I live that long etc.
 
BaronSmoggie said:
Wish I was smart enough financially to be able to do stuff like Andy and Jonny, but I'd end up losing my shirt !
Click to expand...
Haha, I don't know that much, and didn't when I started, I was a good example of buying high and selling low, now I just add in regularly and just don't sell :LOL:

But it's amazing how fast you learn when you put some skin in the game. It ends up an expensive lesson mind, but it should pay back over time, time, and time in the market is the key thing really. I've got lots of time, so it's not so bad for me. Would be hard if I was 10 or 20 years older or risking all I had, as I would have been trying to find something "safe" for the last few years, not easy.

You need thick skin, 2022 was horrible, I went from being up like 20% for 2021 to like 15% down in 22, but I held on and I'm back about even now. The thing is I'm happy I haven't paid out any major fees (to FA's or fund managers), have learned a fair bit, and have managed to get everything into ISA's so not going to get taxed going forward, and they're split up and all protected by the FCA etc. I think I've done ok to get money in the game over time, and not really be down, and the markets have been all over the place. Someone managing it would have done better probably, but with the charges I'd probably be no better off, and I'd have learned nothing.

I wouldn't advise anyone to do what I'm doing mind, and Jonny is definitely the safer option, but everyone's circumstances are very different.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top