Investment Strategies

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 ...

Discussion Paper – what do we do now? Covid-19 implications

By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director This is a complex area. It would be good to hear your views and ideas. Please add them via the comments box below this...

Should I Buy Shares in Tesla?

Should I buy shares in Tesla, or perhaps short the stock?  This thought was prompted by the recent large jump in the share price which has made the company...

New Year Share Tips – Are They Worth Following?

It’s that time of year when financial magazines and newsletters analyse their past share tip performance and give their New Year tips. Are the tips worth picking up or...

Learning about investing – thanks to ShareSoc

It is always interesting to look backwards as well as forwards as an investor and no better time than at the turn of the year. First of all, I...

End of year musings – VCTs

Should I continue to invest in VCTs, I ask myself. Hold, Buy or Sell? I was steered into these investments by my financial adviser, when I was busy working...

Winning The Loser’s Game – It’s Like Tennis

It’s that time of year when we review our investment performance over the last year and some of us realise that it would have been lot better if it...

Mindless Investment Wins Out?

Last week on-line investment news site Citywire published a report headlined “Tracker fund sales smash records as UK investors pile into passives”. I was the first to add a...

Fevertree Fall, Trading Times and More on HBOS/Lloyds

Last week when I spoke at the Mello event I talked about my investment winners over the past few years. One of them was Fevertree (FEVR) but I was...