What caught my eye this week.
Hey you! Yes – you! Are you someone who would like to grab a free share [1] in a publicly traded company?
Perhaps you’re a passive investor who wants to dabble with a little ‘fun money’ portfolio on the side, to stop you straying with the big stash?
Or maybe you’re an active investor – like me for my sins – and you’re sick of spending thousands in fees?
Maybe you’re jealous of all this no-fee trading in the US that you keep reading about?
Or maybe you’ve enjoyed Monevator for years and would just like the chance to throw us a bone – at no cost to yourself!
(Did I mention it was free already? Yes, a free share.)
Well in all these cases you’re in luck.
Because you can now get yourself a free share by signing up via my referral link [1] to Freetrade, the UK’s commission-free trading pioneer.
And in getting your free share, Freetrade will give me one, for introducing [1] you!
Our free shares will be randomly allocated, but there’s the chance of getting one worth up to £200. Yes really. So far I’ve only had shares worth less than £5, but hey, a blogger can dream.
[2]To get your free share you need to set up your Freetrade app via my link [1], which involves funding your new account with as little as £1 and ideally filling in the W-8BEN form via the app.
Filling in this form means your free share can be UK or US-listed.
Incidentally it’s worth signing up to Freetrade just to see how slick it is. Over the years I’ve completed a W-8BEN form for half-a-dozen brokers, and none took mere seconds like here.
The design of the app (pictured) is pretty, too.
Don’t miss your free share
So what are you waiting for? Sign up and we’ll both get an early Christmas present.
I would conclude by saying it’s a win-win, except you should know I’m doing slightly better from the deal than you. That’s because I’m also a (tiny) shareholder in Freetrade.
Hence – full disclosure – I am just a smidge biased when I say I hope you love the app. 😉
Again, click here [1] to begin the sign-up process towards getting your free share.
Thanks to anyone who does the deed – and have a great weekend!
From Monevator
Vanguard finally reveals details on its long-awaited SIPP – Monevator [3]
Lump sum investing versus drip-feeding – Monevator [4]
From the archive-ator: Help, the market has gone up! – Monevator [5]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!1 [6]
UK household wealth surges to £15 trillion [Reminder: my law of crazy big numbers [7]] – ThisIsMoney [8]
Saudi Aramco raises $25.6bn in world’s biggest share sale – BBC [9]
House prices in surprise bounceback as buyers take advantage of cheap mortgage deals – ThisIsMoney [10]
Tory chancellor pledges to review IR35 rollout in UK private sector, just like all the other parties – The Register [11]
Mini-bond ad ban ‘too little, too late’ – Yahoo [12]
The death of Chile’s pension promise [Search result] – FT [13]
Every new mobile phone purchaser in China must now have their face scanned – MIT Tech Review [14]
[15]
Martin Wolf: How to reform today’s rigged capitalism [Search result] – FT [16]
Products and services
Tandem Bank scraps best-buy 0.5% cashback deal for new membership model – ThisIsMoney [17]
Ratesetter will pay you £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter [18]
Hiring a nanny: What I wish I’d known [Search result] – FT [19]
ETF gatekeepers and keymasters [Nerdy, podcast] – Trillions [20]
Gated commercial property funds mini-special
M&G UK commercial property firm suspended… – BBC [21]
…investors flee Standard Life Aberdeen property fund following M&G gating – Investment Week [22]
…and investors have withdrawn £1.5bn from UK property funds since the start of 2019 – ThisIsMoney [23]
Comment and opinion
Be ready to see your portfolio go down in value – Klement on Investing [24]
How to spend money – Of Dollars and Data [25]
Bull markets can last much longer than you think – A Wealth of Common Sense [26]
Five mindsets that can get in the way of creating wealth – Psychology Today [27]
Morgan Housel: The big thing that investors have trouble accepting [Video] – The Reformed Broker [28]
Beware these investment traps – Carolyn Gowen [29]
Are we nearly there yet? – The Escape Artist [30]
Why pension funds and millennials should avoid ESG investing [Data] – Factor Research [31]
Trouble brewing on the tax front for investors – IT Investor [32]
Is asking for a prenup a good idea or a buzzkill? – Pete the Planner [33]
Your harshest critic lives in your house – Abnormal Returns [34]
Naughty corner: Active antics
Harvard and MIT find conclusive evidence that public companies distort their earnings – Institutional Investor [35]
Marks & Spencer: The destroyer of shareholder value [PDF] – UK Value Investor [36]
Shareholder yield isn’t new: the Dutch East India company was doing buybacks in the 17th Century – OSAM [37]
Dennis Gartman calls it quits as era ends where humans dominated investing advice – Globe and Mail [38]
Elimination alpha: A portfolio strategy that aims to eliminate losers rather than pick winners [Podcast] – Animal Spirits [39]
A most depressing chart for active fund managers – Bloomberg [40]
Ray Dalio is more famous than ever and delivering sub-par returns – Yahoo [41]
Ten things fund managers say, and what they really mean – Behavioural Investing [42]
Brexit
General election 2019: Andrew Neil issues interview challenge to Johnson [Video] – BBC [43]
Jonathan Pie: A decade of the Tories [Sweary video] – YouTube [44]
Why Leave will win the Brexit battle [Search result] – FT [45]
Factcheck: Would Labour really save families more than £6,700 a year? [Monevator gut-check: nope] – Guardian [46]
Marina Hyde: PM’s Operation Avoid Trump goes off almost without a hitch – Guardian [47]
Tim Harford on ‘naive realism’ [aka why so many numpties on all sides now hate the BBC] – via Twitter [48]
Kindle book bargains
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou [The Theranos story] – £0.99 on Kindle [49]
Mastering The Market Cycle: Getting the odds on your side by Howard Marks – £0.99 on Kindle [50]
How To Have A Good Day: The Essential Toolkit for a Productive Day at Work by Caroline Webb – £0.99 on Kindle [51]
Off our beat
Deep fake/end of civilization latest: A Nixon broadcast on the death of moon landing astronauts – wbur [52]
How the information economy has chained us to our virtual desks – The Atlantic [53]
Instagrammers love this iconic beauty spot, but here’s the photo they don’t want you to see – CNBC [54]
52 surprising things learned in 2019 – Tom Whitwell [55]
You do not need goals – Rory Argyll via Medium [56]
The most common last name in every country [Map, click to enlarge] – NetCredit [57]
And finally…
“Remember one thing, Warren: Money isn’t making that much difference in how you and I live. We’re both going down to the cafeteria for lunch and working every day and having a good time. So don’t worry too much about money, because it won’t make much difference in how you live.”
– Ben Graham to a young Warren Buffett (whose mind was presumably elsewhere), The Snowball [58]
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- Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”. [↩ [64]]