Investing

Small cap stocks can increase your portfolio returns, but they’re also more risky investments than large caps. In this post I’ll outline the six key advantages of investing in small caps versus bigger companies, and I’ll also point out some of the extra risks. Advantage #1: Smaller companies are less well researched An army of [...]

There are more than 6,500 actively traded US stocks. Some 2,000 companies are listed on the London Stock Exchange. 2,271 Japanese companies call the Tokyo Stock exchange home. Then there’s China, India, Canada, Germany, Australia… Happily, you can forget about companies, earnings, forecasts and ratios and still make more money than most investors. By passively [...]

Important: What follows is not advice to buy or sell ANY shares. I’m a private investor, storing and sharing my notes. Read my disclaimer. Just a quick update to my share write-up in November on London-listed The Clapham House Group. (Google Finance: LON: CPH). The shares have moved from 53.5p to 93.5p, so my caution [...]

Important: What follows is not a recommendation to buy or sell Prodesse Investment Limited. I’m just a private investor, storing and sharing notes. Read my disclaimer. Name: Prodesse Investment Limited Ticker: PRD Listed in: London (FTSE Small Cap) Business: Investment Entities More information: Digital Look / Google Finance Official Site: Prodesse Investment Key numbers for [...]

Bloomberg is reporting that more than 2,000 companies around the world have cash balances exceeding their market capitalization. That’s more than eight times as many cash rich companies as when the last bear market bottomed in 2002. With these companies, a $1 share is worth more than $1, just in terms of the cash held [...]

I have just finished the The Snowball, the first biography Warren Buffett has cooperated with. It’s full of surprises, such as how Buffett had three leading ladies for two decades, and how his 1960s home was an accidental outpost of the counterculture. But I’m more interested in how Buffett made his money. And while there’s [...]

Important: What follows is not a recommendation to buy or sell Blinkx. I’m a private investor, storing and sharing notes. Read my disclaimer. Name: Blinkx   Ticker: BLNX Listed in: London (AIM)   Business: Technology More information: Digital Look / Google Finance Official Site: Blinkx Key numbers for Blinkx (10/11/08) Share price: 19.25p Market cap: £53.4 million [...]

Important: What follows is not a recommendation to buy or sell The Clapham House Group. I’m a private investor, storing and sharing notes. Read my disclaimer. Name: The Clapham House Group Ticker: CPH Listed in: London (AIM) Business: Restaurants More information: Digital Look / Google Finance Official Site for Investors: The Clapham House Group Key [...]

What do you really want from your online stockbroker? Security? Cheap dealing charges? Low or no annual fees? Special offers? All well and good. After five years of dealing online, however – and especially during the recent bear market – I’ve discovered something else matters. Something you may think sounds silly, but which will make [...]

(Image: rednuht) During a bear market in shares (like the bear market we’re in as I type), investors flee the scene like lemmings leaping off the Titanic. One effect of such pessimism is widening discounts on investment trusts. When nobody wants to buy them, big, venerable investment trusts can easily trade at 10% discounts to [...]

Back in September 2007, I concluded a series on how to roll your own income generating high-yield portfolio (HYP) of leading UK shares with an article that put together an example portfolio. I’ve not tracked that portfolio’s performance, but I’m sure its value has fallen; we’ve been in a bear market, and high-yield dividend payers [...]

Andy Brough, manager of the Schroder UK Mid 250 Fund, sounds pretty upbeat in this interesting commentary on the state of the market: Not quite sure why they had to interview him in an oil sheik’s bathroom…Still, there is something reassuringly blokey about Brough, given that the man in charge of billions (and undoubtedly worth [...]

The Dividend Growth Investor blog has an interesting post about long-term dividend investing. His rule of thumb is that a dollar saved in your twenties will provide a dollar a year in your sixties: I found that the average time it took a $1,000 investment to produce $1,000 in dividend income for a full year [...]

This post is one of a series on the changes to the UK personal tax regime introduced in the 2008/09 financial year. All Capital Gains Tax charged at 18% We all have a personal allowance, currently £9,600 (and distinct from your personal income tax allowance) before Capital Gains Tax is due. You are also allowed [...]

This is the first in my special five-part series entitled Five big boring tax changes that will make you richer or poorer in 2008/09. For the others, please see the introduction to the series. From April 6th 2008, ISA rules for UK residents change as follows: Your annual total ISA allowance rises to £7,200, and [...]