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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.


Scottish Investment Trust Review

One of my contacts has asked me to look at the Scottish Investment Trust (SCIN). This is a self-managed global investment trust which seems to have the same problems that Alliance Trust had before they had a revolution. Namely persistent under-performance. As a result, it is trading at a discount of 10.4% to the net asset value despite doing considerable share buy-backs in the last few months, presumably to try and control the discount. But as we saw at Alliance Trust, ...

Woodford says “I’m sorry” – I don’t accept apology. WoodfordPayBack time is here.

The Sunday Telegraph has run a puff piece of PR for Neil Woodford in which he says, “I am sorry”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/02/13/exclusive-neil-woodford-launch-comeback-fund-says-sorry-did/ Well, I am sorry too. I don’t accept Neil Woodford’s apology. WoodfordPayBack time is here. Woodford says that Link were wrong to close his fund, which led to a fire sale of many of his investments. I do at least agree with him on this. It is a scandal that events occurred so that shares in illiquid assets had to be sold at ...

Press Release 117: Woodford investors odds of recovering losses get boost as lawyers Leigh Day reach key milestones

Over half a million investors in the Woodford Equity Income Fund now have a much better chance of recovering significant losses, as the legal move from Leigh Day, backed by ShareSoc’s Woodford Campaign, becomes the first to reach funding and claimant costs insurance agreements. ShareSoc, the highly influential investors body, believes it’s in the best interests of all those who lost money in the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) to join both the Leigh Day claim and the linked ShareSoc Woodford ...

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 ...
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