ShareSoc Blog
The ShareSoc blog provides news and informal commentary from directors, members and other contributors. Entries reflect the personal views of the authors, which do not necessarily reflect ShareSoc’s formal position. Contributors may hold shares in the companies mentioned. Nothing in this blog should be viewed as financial advice. You may submit comments on blog posts, but ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit inappropriate or defamatory submissions.
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.
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Findings from InvestorHub and ShareSoc research into UK private shareholders
Ask most people in the City how long an individual investor holds a stock and you will get an answer measured in weeks. This is a widely accepted assumption that is built into the way UK listed companies run their investor relations: one webinar a year, an annual report, a broker note, and everything else pointed at institutions.
We tested it. InvestorHub, in partnership with ShareSoc, surveyed UK individual shareholders about how long ...
Key lessons from Joel Greenblatt's investment philosophy.
A thought-provoking post recently circulated on social media, revisiting Joel Greenblatt's famous 2017 Talks at Google lecture. In it, the Gotham Capital founder and Columbia Business School professor laid bare a paradox that cuts to the very heart of the modern investment industry: the formula to beating the market can fit on a paper napkin and costs nothing to learn, yet billions of pounds continue to flow into high-fee funds that consistently underperform.
Greenblatt, whose original ...
A friend recently mentioned that she was investing using InvestEngine and asked whether I think it is a good platform. I had heard of it but was not aware of any detail so I said I would research it. I thought other investors would be interested in what I found.
What is InvestEngine?
Founded in late 2016 and launched to consumers in May 2019, InvestEngine (UK) Limited is an FCA-regulated online investment platform that focuses on exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Unlike legacy brokers (such as ...
A major feature in the Financial Times by Chris Newlands headlined 'I am still extremely angry': the Woodford collapse continues to confound investors laid bare the deep, enduring scars left by the 2019 collapse of the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF).
The article captured the profound sense of betrayal felt by over 300,000 ordinary savers. Yet, despite being the UK's leading individual investor organisation campaigning on this catastrophe from day one, ShareSoc was absent from the piece.
It is disappointing that the mainstream ...
DEMAT publishes its Step 1 implementation plan
ShareSoc comment — July 2026
The Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce (DEMAT) has published its first report: the UK implementation plan for the withdrawal of paper share certificates. It is a significant milestone in the modernisation of UK share ownership — and one in which individual shareholders have had a real voice, with ShareSoc's Heather Benjamin sitting as a full member of the Taskforce throughout.
Where this fits in the bigger picture
The report is the product of a ...
Can financial regulation control AI and protect consumers?
Artificial intelligence has become central to the Labour Government's plans for economic growth. The government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, published in July 2025, sets out a ten-year ambition for the UK to become the world’s most technologically advanced global financial centre. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has moved apace to supercharge the adoption of AI in financial services and deliver a competitive regulatory environment.
More than 75% of UK financial services firms already ...
SIGnet, the national network of individual investor groups, is excited to announce the launch of a new in person group in York.
The group will meet during the day, once a month. The group's convener will be Kieran Stokes, who has been a member of SIGnet Leeds Originals for a few years. He lives in York and is keen to have a group closer to home.
Kieran's investing style is predominantly long term, with a focus on undervalued, solid dividend paying companies. He ...
What they are, what they’re for, and why discounts matter The closed-ended structure explained — its uses, the risks worth knowing, and the feature that most defines it and...
A US arbitrage firm is offering to buy Aviva shares at a material discount to the market price. ShareSoc urges shareholders to check the market price before doing anything – and is calling on the FCA to act.
Many of Aviva's roughly 450,000 individual registered shareholders – largely a legacy of the Norwich Union demutualisation – are receiving an "Offer Circular" from Litani LLC, a Delaware-registered firm, offering to buy their Aviva shares for cash.
The offer is a so-called mini-tender: an approach ...
What inspired you to join ShareSoc's board and what motivates you to represent retail investors?
I have seen the investment industry from both sides of the table. I spent over twenty years as a professional investor in emerging markets within large institutional houses, working in London, Edinburgh and Singapore, with stints in risk management and financial regulation before moving into academia. Today, I am a university lecturer teaching finance and investing, and I invest my own money as a private investor like ...
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