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Vanguard Platform/Funds and Customers’ Performance

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. ShareSoc’s role is not to recommend one platform over another, but we do try to bring to members’ attention relevant information about platforms. Robin Powell in the Telegraph has written about the performance of investors in Vanguard funds and highlights that in general they have been patient investors and not bought at the top, nor sold at the bottom, nor over-traded. Data on Vanguard A Vanguard ISA has ...

The Outlook for Stock Markets and Bank Runs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Market Outlook It’s that time of year when financial commentators like to pontificate on the future for the stock market in the coming year and tip sheets give their hot share tips for the New Year. As regards economic forecasts and how the stock market will perform I can do no better than quote John Littlewood in his book “The Stock Market”: “The sequence of bull and bear ...

Review of the Year – But It Could Have Been Worse

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Not many stock market investors will have come out ahead this year. At the time of writing, the FTSE-250 is down 17.5% over the past year, the FTSE-AIM index is down 30% and the FTSE-100 scraped in a small rise of 1.8%. The last one was driven by rises in commodity prices which benefited oil/gas companies and big miners which dominate the index. With war in ...

The Death of KIDs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. HM Treasury have announced plans to revoke the PRIIPs regulations which will likely mean the death of KIDs (Key Information Documents). KIDs are imposed and regulated under the PRIIPs regulation as devised by the EU for packaged investment products, such as funds and trusts. KIDs give basic financial information, risk indicators and likely future performance based on past performance. Those who purchase investment trusts, for example, ...

VCT Investor Workshop Report

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Today (1st December) I attended a VCT Investor Workshop on-line run by the British Smaller Companies VCTs (BSV and BSC). These are two of the better performing generalist VCTs managed by YFM. It was a disappointing event. There were presentations from investee companies Unbiased and SharpCloud which gave a general overview of the businesses but no financial information – such as sales, profits and what the ...