What caught my eye this week.
Rummaging around to select an old post from the Monevator ‘archive-ator’ each week can be bittersweet.
On the one hand, it seems I used to be smarter, wittier, and more productive.
But a compensation for these memento mori moments is coming across those little nuggets that have aged rather better than me.
Take these comments on tech stocks from December 2010, in a post about what I called the investor sentiment cycle [1]:
For a contrasting unloved sector, consider technology companies.
It’s hard to remember a time when half the office owned shares in nonsense companies like Baltimore, Webvan, and NTX. Yet it was only a brief decade ago that the Dotcom stocks were doubling in a month on a good press release and a name change.
Today roughly nobody except institutional investors bothers with individual technology shares.
Yet the Nasdaq tech market in the US has been quietly beating the Dow and the S&P 500 for months.
Maybe the seeds are being planted for a new boom in technology share investing:
- The first shoots will be obscure magazine articles on the Nasdaq’s recovery.
- Then you’ll discover a friend or a bulletin board poster who has tripled his money betting on cloud computing micro-caps.
- Perhaps Facebook or Twitter will float for what will seem a crazy valuation, but will look positively modest a few years later.
…and so on.
It was very hard for most people to care much about tech stocks in 2010. That was why I used them as my illustration.
Yet by the end of 2019, the tech sector had proven the best place to have been invested for a decade [2].
And 2020 has only kept that up with knobs on [3]!
I don’t bring this up (entirely) to blow my own trumpet. Digging through the archives also reveals plenty of howlers. (London residential property is massively over-priced in 2007 [4], anyone? Oops.)
Rather, it’s fun to see that Monevator is now so old we’ve actually been around to see some of these cycles play out.
Tech’s unexpected recovery since 2009 proves the point I was making. Investing and the economy are cyclical, and investor sentiment can be downright faddish.
Never expect the status quo in the markets to hold forever.
It won’t.
Working from home poll
Exciting additional news: the results are in from last week’s poll [5]. Over 2,000 of you voted to say you would prefer to work from home:
So two-thirds of Monevator readers would like to work from home most or all of the time. Interesting!
I guess the remaining 4% are brain surgeons worried about the carpets.
Have a great weekend.
From Monevator
Cheapest stocks and shares ISA hack – Monevator [6]
From the archive-ator: Here’s a great way to boost your income in an hour – Monevator [7]
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 [8]
Self-employed grant to double with Income Support Scheme revamp – BBC [9]
Sunak’s latest bailout package pushes annual budget deficit towards £400bn – ThisIsMoney [10]
Bank of England is not poised for negative interest rates, says chief economist – ThisIsMoney [11]
Rents down as much as 34% in some London postcodes – Evening Standard [12]
Coronavirus crisis has intensified UK wealth divide, data reveals – Guardian [13]
The rise and fall – and future rise – of digital Nomad workers – Bloomberg via MSN [14]
Products and services
PayPal to allow Bitcoin and other crypto spending – BBC [15]
New ‘Thank You Saver’ bank account for NHS workers pays 1.65% – Principality [16]
Monzo launches £180-a-year premium account – Guardian [17]
Sign-up to Freetrade via my link and we can both get a free share worth between £3 and £200 – Freetrade [18]
Flava: the first ‘buy now, pay later’ supermarket – Which [19]
Do you have to register an appliance to claim on its guarantee? – ThisIsMoney [20]
Bitcoin’s role as an alternative investment [PDF] – Fidelity [21]
Nationwide to issue credit cards made from recycled plastic – ThisIsMoney [22]
Homes for sale on British islands – Guardian [23]
Comment and opinion
How Covid-19 may be unconsciously affecting your financial decisions [Search result] – WSJ [24]
A world awash with debt: What can governments do? – Prospect [25]
Live like you’re already retired – Incognito Money Scribe [26] (h/t Abnormal Returns [27])
The confusing investment path to saving the planet [Search result] – FT [28]
Why own bonds when rates are so low? – Of Dollars and Data [29]
Simon Lambert: Make the stamp duty cut permanent – ThisIsMoney [30]
An interview with Bill Bengen, creator of the 4% SWR rule [Podcast / transcript] – Kitces [31]
Target achieved: £1 million net worth – Gentleman’s Family Finances [32]
Recycle – Indeedably [33]
An investing strategy update – IT Investor [34]
Remembering massive market crashes – MarketWatch [35]
Naughty corner: Active antics
How much should you allocate to angel investing? – Fire V London [36]
Sweet talking CEOS are starting to outsmart the robot analysts – Bloomberg via MSN [37]
Memories of the crash of ’87 – Albert Bridge Capital [38]
Riskier alternatives to bonds as a portfolio hedge – Bloomberg via MSN [39]
Follow the Fed [US but relevant] – Humble Dollar [40]
Why you’ll need to be lucky to find the next Amazon – Klement on Investing [41]
Covid, Brexit, politics
Why is the novel coronavirus so deadly? – BBC [42]
PM admits failings as England’s Covid contact-tracing system hits new low – Guardian [43]
Plans for ‘tier 4’ restrictions if current rules don’t tackle the second wave – iNews [44]
Why can’t we talk about the Great Barrington Declaration? – Spectator [45]
Chip shops and cafes back Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign – BBC [46]
Irreversible: Covid’s impact on work habits – Banker on FIRE [47]
Why New Zealand rejected the populist ideas other nations have embraced – Guardian [48]
Marina Hyde: Worried about no-deal Brexit? If Gove says it’ll be better that’s good enough for me – Guardian [49]
Kindle book bargains
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill – £1.99 on Kindle [50]
How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen – £0.99 on Kindle [51]
Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life by Brian Tracy – £0.99 on Kindle [52]
Just Fuck*ng Do It: Stop Playing Small. Transform Your Life by Noor Hibbert – £0.99 on Kindle [53]
Off our beat
Make the connection – Humble Dollar [54]
The vicious cycle of never-ending laundry – Vox [55]
Lots of overnight tragedies, no overnight miracles – Morgan Housel [56]
The top female company founder in every country [Graphic] – Visual Capitalist [57]
Happier and more positive founders get VC funding, then under-perform – Yale [58]
And finally…
“The fact that a thesis is flawed does not mean that we should not invest in it as long as other people believe in it and there is a large group of people left to be convinced.”
– George Soros, The Alchemy of Finance [59]
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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”. [↩ [65]]