Investing

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 [...]

Stock markets have been falling for months, led by a collapse in confidence in the financial system and plunging bank stocks. In the UK we’ve seen Northern Rock crumble, while in the US the investment bank Bear Stearns lived up to its name after jitters led to rumours which led to a run on its [...]

If you invest in the stock markets and recently you’ve had to check your portfolio with a stiff drink, at least you’re not alone. According to the FT: Stock markets finished their worst quarter in more than five years on Monday with further losses as investors continued to favour less risky assets. The losses have [...]

So you’ve done your four financial crisis checks: Your savings are safe They’re earning more interest You’ve got a plan to pay off any debt Your mortgage is sorted for the foreseeable future. Time to turn over and fall back to sleep? Possibly. I’m serious! It’s often too late to Do Something once a financial [...]

We can’t wish away the credit crisis. However sensible you or I have been with our investments, borrowing and spending, we can’t wind back the clock and stop bankers throwing money at poor people who’ll never be able to pay it back, and who are often now paying a far higher price – repossession, dislocation, [...]

Thanks to the recent stock market volatility, investors are increasingly turning to gold, which is traditionally a safe haven in troubled times. This article introduces Bullion Vault, a company that enables you to buy and securely store small amounts of the highest-grade gold, which the company claims offers unique advantages for small investors buying gold. [...]

There are no true short cuts in investing, but I believe there are some subtle benefits in targeting income when making your investment plans.

By buying commodities you can diversify your portfolio over the long-term so it’s less dependent on the returns from shares. You might also hope to trade commodities, if you think you can buy when they’re priced low and sell when they’re high. (Far easier said then done, and plenty of boys in braces will hire you if you manage it regularly).