Its Not Harry

Comment and opinion for retail investors in the UK

Funds

YAP – ESG is not woke!

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I read a news items recently that a collective of mainly Republican finance directors of large investing institutions in the USA was refusing to invest with and in fact withdrawing funds from any investment management business that adopted sustainability criteria.

Some people avoid looking at the evidence when it says the wrong thing

Now it has always seemed to me that a tendency to Republicanism in the US was inversely correlated with intelligence, but I had believed that Republicans still liked making money – in fact I assumed they had a version of the Bible that omitted that bit in the gospels about ‘storing up your treasures in heaven’!

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Deep Dive – April 2024

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To kick off this new series of articles, I am going to express some opinions that are not rooted in traditional book learning or any specific academic research or publications, but my own observations of what actually happens in equity markets, taken over the last 4 decades and mixed in with my personal rather eclectic reading about human behaviour in the context of decision making – not specifically related to financial decisions.

You might call this ‘behavioural insights in equity market valuations’ but I suspect that is rather too grandiose!

NotHarry says….

The main points

I will be exploring 4 less obvious ways in which market valuations are created and sustained (or not):

  • Possible ‘invisible’ supply side variations and/or sudden excess demand

  • The ‘the majority view is safest’ syndrome

  • The Government interference problem

  • The ice break risk

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YAP – how about Wellingtons?

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I hear it’s been a very wet Winter in the UK, so no doubt you have needed your rubber boots when out walking. Here the water tends to come down ready frozen from Decemeber to February!

I am actually posting this note to highlight a fund, something I rarely do because of the risk that readers will take my comments as a recommendation and I don’t ever offer personalised fund selection advice because I have no authority to do that.

However, one of my subscribers asked my what I knew about Wellington Asset Management not long ago, because he had spotted their Global Stewards Fund in the Interactive Investor Ace 40 pick list. This fund is I think likely to interest many of my subscribers who like to invest sustainably without sacrificing above average returns. So this post is a ‘heads up’ on that subject.

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Midweek Musings – Dull markets and a star manager goes out on his own

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As is common in early January, markets are drifting, more down than up, as participants get back into gear after the long seasonal break, wait for their analysts to publish 2023 4th quarter data and complete the usual crystal ball gazing. Those analysts are not usually so prompt as your scribe, probably because they need their teams to build deep decks of incomprehensible Powerpoint slides to make their hunches look more convincing!

On that topic, I will be reporting Morningstar’s recent webinar on prospects for European markets in 2024, probably next week. They had a good ration of pretty but not always relevant slides!

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