I have just published a new video which offers some help with portfolio reviews, in a style I intend to develop over this year. I have a few topics suggested by subscribers for short training sessions, but would welcome more, plus any feedback and suggestions.
Portfolios
Deep Dive – January 2025
Fixed Income – a refresher
This article is designed to satisfy a couple of subscriber requests to offer more core information about fixed income investing.
The asset class that comprises Gilts, Treasuries, Eurobonds, corporate bonds, elements of bank capital, assorted ‘notes’, private credit and the like has been an important investment opportunity for centuries but most beginner investors will, at best, have as their only acquired knowledge of the fixed income market some knowledge of National Savings Certificates.
I freely admit that it took me several years of day-to-day involvement in investment markets as an adviser to feel intuitively comfortable thinking about fixed income (henceforth interchangeably called ‘bonds’ as well, although bonds is a looser term). That was the case even though I had formal training in corporate finance as a Chartered Secretary and had experience of over a decade working for a mortgage bank. It’s not a subject that one can skim over and grasp.
I have procrastinated about writing this sort of article until now as even an introduction or refresher requires quite a lot of words. I hope what follows is digestible and useful.
Deep Dive – December 2024
An asset class with Trump 2 era attractions?
Having had no feedback in response to my two-part dissertation on the importance of keeping an eye on high level asset mixes and how that might be achieved, I conclude that either the topic was too complicated, or more likely, my readers ‘get it’ and will be keeping a weather eye on relevant news and its implications.
A key function of my blog posts is to help you sort the wheat from the chaff and this month I will address a topic that I am sure I will have to keep front and centre for some time: Trump 2. Although the implications of the Trump second term could well be very serious indeed, it has yet to start, so all investors can do is read the early signs and think about what they might do to mitigate the potential new risks, and those are plentiful, as I have already outlined.
YAP – reasons to be pessimistic (part 2)
I feel that over the last 2 or 3 years, it has been tempting to assess future investment market direction mono-thematically. First markets moved on the almost daily take on what the Fed was going to do next; then it was the latest announcements about money pouring into AI development and now of course it is the latest hints/evidence as to how a Trump administration will work and the impact on global trade, the US economy and for that matter security in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the South China Sea.
Y(our) A(attention) P(lease) – reasons to be pessimistic: 1-2-3
The likely economic implications of Trump’s second presidency are getting a thorough airing everywhere, so I thought readers might like my snapshot of the prospecs at this early stage. Bear in mind that power does not actually change hands until late January.
There are 3 worrying possibilities:
YAP – (video worth watching) – a true guru of markets
I came across the video referenced below this week. It tells an interesting story very concisely and it’s one that all investors would learn from.
You may think that I studied the career of Peter Lynch earlier in my life if you have become accustomed to my investment philosophy, which has valuation, being in the market for the long term and making personal decisions about how much you can commit to riskier assets at its core, but in truth all that is in the linked video was completely new to me!
I suspect that all experienced investors come to the same unavoidable conclusion that buying at the right price is the most important skill that an investor needs, and that there are long periods when the price can be right (both when it is moving up and moving down), but they rarely extend into the time when the mass media discovers the ‘opportunity’
Here is the link: