Comment and opinion for retail investors in the UK
I have just completed an article expanding earlier comments on how to decide on selling investments to raise cash or “skim’ profits.
Doing this effectively is quite challenging, requiring objective analysis and a fight with your own psychological biases.
At this moment in time, reviewing past profits and changes in your portfolio mix are absolute housekeeping essentials. Don’t delay!
I hope the article is helpful.
One of my readers has suggested an article giving general advice on when to take profits and in what sort of proportion would be useful.
This is a subject with several aspects. How do you know when you are near the top of a market? Is that even possible? What about tax? If you sell out of a good fund, where would you re-invest? Should you re-invest at all? Is the old quotation “time in the markets is better than timing the markets” (Anthony Bolton, ex Fidelity) the simple answer?
I can seek to answer these questions or at least propose a logical way of taking decisions but the topic justifies an article as opposed to just a blog post. I will add one to the “How to” area as soon as I can. It will be unrestricted.
My filtered thoughts of the moment are now available to subscribers here
There have been no new posts on the site for a couple of weeks because I have been on holiday! I was in the UK, France and Italy and could claim I was doing important on location research on Brexit, the potential troubles with the Euro and so on. But mainly I was enjoying the food and drink (at least on the South of the Channel)!
I did in fact get some anecdotal evidence of what people in France and Italy worry about in terms of economics and politics and that is definitely not Brexit.
The October news and comment will be published very shortly when I will address the current investment climate and the prospects for investors.
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