I accept it’s normal to feel frustrated, angry, or even downright stupid when you lose money on your investments. But what about guilt? My portfolio’s fall from its peak value in summer 2007 to a low in October 2008 represents a big loss for a 30-something private investor like me: at least a couple of [...]
Investing
In this post I’ll explain the most important types of corporate bonds for private investors.
A month into 2009 and the bad news continues. Perhaps I’m becoming immune to the economic gloom or maybe it’s the first sign of spring, but I can’t help feeling we should look on the bright side. Yes, the world economy is undergoing a severe contraction. Millions of people are losing their jobs, and investors [...]
(Source: Yahoo) Books on investment often suggest investing overseas as a method of diversifying your portfolio. There are several reasons why investing abroad can be a good idea, including: If one country or region’s market is doing badly, another could be doing well. Mixing up the returns from several regions helps to smooth the return [...]
With the price of bank shares being driven by fear, should we avoid them completely? Or if we do want to get specific exposure to banks, which banks look the best? As a private investor, I can only tell you what I’m doing (and remind you an index tracking fund should underpin your portfolio, not [...]
Source: Digital Look I don’t know what annoys me more: That Barclays Bank shares rose 72% on Monday while I was still finishing off a post suggesting they might be worth a punt, or that I didn’t buy any myself. Oh ‘greedy’ side of the fear-greed investing equation, how we’ve missed you. I use the [...]
There are three main things that drive changes in a corporate bond’s yield and so its price.
For private investors, corporate bonds offer the opportunity to buy a fixed income in exchange for an investment of capital.
Important: What follows is not a recommendation to buy or sell RIT Capital Partners. I’m just a private investor, storing and sharing notes. Read my disclaimer. Name: RIT Capital Partners Ticker: RCP Listed in: London (FTSE 250) Business: Investment vehicles More info: Digital Look / Google Finance Official site: RIT Capital Partners Some say it’s [...]
Boring can be profitable, but only if the underlying risk/return case is good. In my personal view, that’s rarely true of corporate bonds.
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 [...]