Last update 14/02/24
This website attempts to provide information on my investments, thoughts and investing style. It is hoped that it may help other investors develop their approach to investing.
The starting points;
1 - Almost anyone with a little time and effort can build a better financial future for themselves and their family, and should be encouraged to do so.
2 - All financial decisions should recognise that we invest for the future and spend for the present. By this I mean you can both forgo current consumption to save and invest for a future reward or you can spend and borrow today and bring that future reward forward. This is the fundamental logic of any investment (deferred benefit) decision that we engage in. Are you prepared to wait?
3 - Before getting into Investing or Trading you need a good hard look at yourself. At the end of the day your intention should be to maximise enjoyment and only as part of that increase your wealth. If all you want to do is sit on the beach and fish and you already have enough to facilitate this relatively low cost exercise then don't become a day trader, look at indexing.
If you are not able to sleep at night or your "investing" is creating adverse affects in your life then you really need to consider whether what you are doing is right for you.
Aswath Damodoran, (a world expert on valuation), often suggests that he indexes much of his investing as he is not prepared, or does not have the time needed, to invest all of his portfolio. He after all works as a University Professor and people and companies spend very large amounts of money to have direct access to him. But he does keep a percentage to invest directly because he enjoys it.
Before you get too committed to investing you need to recognise what you do or do not know, the effort that you are prepared to make in learning new skills and the time you are prepared to put in to doing the work.
4 - There is IMHO no generally correct investor style. Read a book like "Richer, Wiser, Happier" by William Green and it will very quickly become clear that the most successful investors often have very different paths to their success. The best answer for each individual will be based on an honest appraisal of what they can or want to do.
I strongly suggest you read the book as soon as you can as I do not think there is a better book on investing.
5 - Different styles of investing deal with risk in different ways. If you do not know how your style of investing manages this risk that I would suggest that you do need to be doing further work. Risk management is key to survival.
6 - Time and compounding are massively powerful forces that many investors do not get to benefit from. In investing the best time to start is yesterday and the next best time is now. In many cases the only real advantage the private investor has over professionals is the ability to sit and wait and do nothing. Most professional investors have weekly if not more often reporting and reviews and most have to be doing something before the investors ask what they are paying for. There are very few professional investors who can tell their clients they are being paid to do nothing as that is the right thing to do.
7 - Nobody gets everything right. It just does not happen despite what you see on TiketyTok. All the great investors have made big mistakes. In reality depending on your style you do not even need to get 50% of the decisions correct. Just mathmatically say you put £10 into 10 different companies (£100). 4 of these companies half in value to £5 (£20). 2 of the companies do not change their value (£20). 4 of the companies double in value to £20 (£80). Your portfolio is now worth £120 a 20% gain.
8 - The main skill of the financial services industry is not in delivering financial returns but in selling products. In fact over time very few professional investors are rewarded for successful investing. They are largely paid for Assets Under Management (AUM) or transaction levels. It is an important reality that whenever dealing with the financial services industry you are buyer beware. Even at the most basic levels a little effort can reap big benefits.
As an example if you can invest £10,000 and leave it at 5% growth per annum after 20 years you have circa £26,533. But if you are charged 1% AUM that falls to £21,911 only 82% of the value or at 2% AUM fee to £18,061a loss of 32%. Searching around for the best value for money can really pay a dividend.
This is not simply a suggestion that fees should be avoided. Simply that you should know what you are paying for and if you are not getting it avoid the fee, or minimise it as much as possible.
9 - In finance similar names may be very different products. A common mistake people make is to buy an Index or ETF without looking under the bonnet. As an example a FTSE100 index may be market weighted (has the 100 constituents bought to reflect their size in the market) or equal weighted (all holdings are bought for an equal investment value). As the index gets more esoteric what's under the bonnet can get even stranger. There is a Bitcoin ETF that holds just Bitcoin. There is another that holds some Bitcoin but mainly companies that trade in Bitcoin and facilitates its usage. Even a fairly cursory reading of what is under the bonnet of anything you are thinking of buying should be a great help in buying the right product for you and understanding what you should be paying for.
10 - All information on this site is provided FOC and is not sponsored. This means that what is written is what I believe to be the truth. But I am fallible and just because I think it is so does not make it so. So always DYOR and treat what is on this site, as with every other site, with caution.
It is not intended that any individual or company should in any way replicate or follow the trades made. (Please see the full disclaimer on the Disclaimer page). You would be foolish to do so unless your risk profile and long term plan were the same as mine.
I am not regulated by any Financial Authority and do not take investments from retail investors.
Nothing on this website should be treated as Financial Advice. It is strongly recommended that before investing or placing a mandate any individual takes into account the variety of alternative sources and individuals to refer to. (See the Other Sources page for some ideas).
I am happy time permitting to answer general queries but will not give individual advice and may use questions as part of a blog submission.
This website attempts to provide information on my investments, thoughts and investing style. It is hoped that it may help other investors develop their approach to investing.
The starting points;
1 - Almost anyone with a little time and effort can build a better financial future for themselves and their family, and should be encouraged to do so.
2 - All financial decisions should recognise that we invest for the future and spend for the present. By this I mean you can both forgo current consumption to save and invest for a future reward or you can spend and borrow today and bring that future reward forward. This is the fundamental logic of any investment (deferred benefit) decision that we engage in. Are you prepared to wait?
3 - Before getting into Investing or Trading you need a good hard look at yourself. At the end of the day your intention should be to maximise enjoyment and only as part of that increase your wealth. If all you want to do is sit on the beach and fish and you already have enough to facilitate this relatively low cost exercise then don't become a day trader, look at indexing.
If you are not able to sleep at night or your "investing" is creating adverse affects in your life then you really need to consider whether what you are doing is right for you.
Aswath Damodoran, (a world expert on valuation), often suggests that he indexes much of his investing as he is not prepared, or does not have the time needed, to invest all of his portfolio. He after all works as a University Professor and people and companies spend very large amounts of money to have direct access to him. But he does keep a percentage to invest directly because he enjoys it.
Before you get too committed to investing you need to recognise what you do or do not know, the effort that you are prepared to make in learning new skills and the time you are prepared to put in to doing the work.
4 - There is IMHO no generally correct investor style. Read a book like "Richer, Wiser, Happier" by William Green and it will very quickly become clear that the most successful investors often have very different paths to their success. The best answer for each individual will be based on an honest appraisal of what they can or want to do.
I strongly suggest you read the book as soon as you can as I do not think there is a better book on investing.
5 - Different styles of investing deal with risk in different ways. If you do not know how your style of investing manages this risk that I would suggest that you do need to be doing further work. Risk management is key to survival.
6 - Time and compounding are massively powerful forces that many investors do not get to benefit from. In investing the best time to start is yesterday and the next best time is now. In many cases the only real advantage the private investor has over professionals is the ability to sit and wait and do nothing. Most professional investors have weekly if not more often reporting and reviews and most have to be doing something before the investors ask what they are paying for. There are very few professional investors who can tell their clients they are being paid to do nothing as that is the right thing to do.
7 - Nobody gets everything right. It just does not happen despite what you see on TiketyTok. All the great investors have made big mistakes. In reality depending on your style you do not even need to get 50% of the decisions correct. Just mathmatically say you put £10 into 10 different companies (£100). 4 of these companies half in value to £5 (£20). 2 of the companies do not change their value (£20). 4 of the companies double in value to £20 (£80). Your portfolio is now worth £120 a 20% gain.
8 - The main skill of the financial services industry is not in delivering financial returns but in selling products. In fact over time very few professional investors are rewarded for successful investing. They are largely paid for Assets Under Management (AUM) or transaction levels. It is an important reality that whenever dealing with the financial services industry you are buyer beware. Even at the most basic levels a little effort can reap big benefits.
As an example if you can invest £10,000 and leave it at 5% growth per annum after 20 years you have circa £26,533. But if you are charged 1% AUM that falls to £21,911 only 82% of the value or at 2% AUM fee to £18,061a loss of 32%. Searching around for the best value for money can really pay a dividend.
This is not simply a suggestion that fees should be avoided. Simply that you should know what you are paying for and if you are not getting it avoid the fee, or minimise it as much as possible.
9 - In finance similar names may be very different products. A common mistake people make is to buy an Index or ETF without looking under the bonnet. As an example a FTSE100 index may be market weighted (has the 100 constituents bought to reflect their size in the market) or equal weighted (all holdings are bought for an equal investment value). As the index gets more esoteric what's under the bonnet can get even stranger. There is a Bitcoin ETF that holds just Bitcoin. There is another that holds some Bitcoin but mainly companies that trade in Bitcoin and facilitates its usage. Even a fairly cursory reading of what is under the bonnet of anything you are thinking of buying should be a great help in buying the right product for you and understanding what you should be paying for.
10 - All information on this site is provided FOC and is not sponsored. This means that what is written is what I believe to be the truth. But I am fallible and just because I think it is so does not make it so. So always DYOR and treat what is on this site, as with every other site, with caution.
It is not intended that any individual or company should in any way replicate or follow the trades made. (Please see the full disclaimer on the Disclaimer page). You would be foolish to do so unless your risk profile and long term plan were the same as mine.
I am not regulated by any Financial Authority and do not take investments from retail investors.
Nothing on this website should be treated as Financial Advice. It is strongly recommended that before investing or placing a mandate any individual takes into account the variety of alternative sources and individuals to refer to. (See the Other Sources page for some ideas).
I am happy time permitting to answer general queries but will not give individual advice and may use questions as part of a blog submission.