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Month: December 2021
Europe’s uneasy recovery
Portfolio commentary: boring blue chips, please
Why I’ve taken a position in dull but worthy City of London Investment Trust
As I’ve previously mentioned, I’m going to begin building my Sipp with a few well-selected investment trusts – an instant portfolio if you like, hopefully bought at a discount to the underlying value of the assets in them.
Trusts in this report
Source: SharePad
A few readers also offered a few suggestions of trusts I could look at, among them Scottish Mortgage which at the time I wrote was trading at about 1,461p a share, an 8% premium to its net asset value (NAV). I’ve long liked Scottish Mortgage and would like to join my kids and many others in owning it, but as I said, the premium was too punchy for me given I reckon markets are looking pretty frothy.
Watch out for US flashpoints in 2022
Political division, military threats and sticky inflation could give investors in the US sleepless nights next year. Christine Shields takes a look at Uncle Sam's biggest concerns.
For an economy as globally dominant as the US, the prospect of another government shutdown smacks of astonishing fiscal mismanagement. Yet such a threat recurs with alarming regularity, most recently this month. Agreement has just been reached to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5trn to $31.4trn to fund the government until February, when the issue will again be considered.
Quality Shares Weekly: 17/12/21
Where to go stock hunting as rates rise, pubs’ pain, boohoo’s latest booboo, and Domino’s welcome delivery
After the week began with an eyewatering November inflation reading which showed CPI hitting 5.1%, the big news has been that the Bank of England shocked everyone once again by actually raising the benchmark interest rate by 15 basis points to 0.25%. After totally wrong-footing everyone in the previous month by not raising rates when universally expected, perhaps observers were simply taking a more cautious approach to predicting what the MPC might do next. Either way, lots of pundits remain unamaused by the Old Lady's antics.
Invest-ability bulletin 15/12/21: Fear and Loathing
Why it’s time to start paying attention to weirdos
As Hunter S Thompson once put it, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” If only the great journalist were alive today, because HST levels of weirdness are what’s required … Read more
Navigating the UK’s monetary policy maze
Why Victorian Plumbing has sprung a leak
And what investors can learn from this IPO gone wrong
When I left the IC, my original plan was to throw all of my energies into converting a collection of old barns on a rather decrepit Suffolk farm into a number of holiday lets and events spaces (look out for details of an in-person Invest-ability members event next year).
Quality Shares Weekly 10/12/21
Markets can’t make up their mind about the latest Covid twist
The week began with a strong recovery from the recent market wobble as fears over the Omicrom variant looked like they could be overblown, only for indices to dip again as the week drew to a close as concern that the spread may be accelerating prompted the introduction of new restrictions.