Category: Investment

We are now over halfway through 2024, so it’s a good time to look back at what’s been happening in the market over the past six months. Many concerns that worried investors at the start of the year, like inflation, interest rates, and the outcomes of key elections, are still not settled. There’s also ongoing

Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes an old saying in the world of finance: “Sell in May and don’t come back ’til St Leger’s Day.” This advice suggests that investors should sell their investments at the start of summer and reinvest in September. But is there any truth behind this adage,

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved a new investment fund focusing on Bitcoin, a popular digital currency. This move has sparked much discussion about investing in cryptocurrencies, known for their big price swings. What’s New? In January 2024, the SEC approved investment funds that directly follow the price of Bitcoin. These funds

Every year, Morningstar releases a report called “Mind the Gap,” which looks at how people invest their money and how well their investments perform. The report compares the difference in returns between investment funds and the returns earned by those investing in them. The latest report shows that investors received a 7.7% return over the

Building on the underlying concept of factor investing, we’ve already explored the Value Factor and now it’s time to look at the Size Factor. What is the Size Factor All About? Think of the investing universe as a zoo, where companies come in different shapes and sizes. Some are powerful lions, while others are nimble

Factor investing simplifies investment decisions by following golden rules such as Value, Size, Momentum, Quality, and Volatility. Let’s focus on the Value Factor and how it helps your money grow over the long term. What is the Value Factor? When shopping, you might see two identical items priced differently. If one is £10 and the

Back in the ’70s, an academic called Stephen A. Ross figured out a nifty way to give your returns a bit more oomph. He studied at famous schools like Caltech and Harvard and wrote a paper that changed how we invest. What did the paper say? He popularised “factor investing,” which simplifies investment decisions based

Investing your hard-earned money can feel overwhelming. Many choose to keep their money in the bank. With many tempting savings accounts and attractive interest rates available, some may wonder why investing matters. However, we want to explain why investing, especially in a diverse global portfolio of equities and fixed interest, is still a powerful strategy

Investors often lose sight of their long-term goals due to two main distractions: fear and hype. Fear, often brought on by global events or market downturns, can cause investors to focus too much on the short term. This can lead to hasty decisions that derail their long-term strategies. On the other hand, hype, which arises

Some believe they need to invest in more complex financial instruments to get higher returns. However, it’s important to evaluate whether these investments are necessary and will help you achieve your financial goals. What are complex investments? Complex investments are financial instruments that are more intricate in nature, come with higher risks, increased costs, and

When providing investment advice, we may discuss the idea of home bias and its potential impact. Home bias describes the tendency for investors to put a larger portion of their portfolio into assets within their own country, like stocks and bonds. For example, a UK investor with a home bias would have a higher percentage

We all wish we could outwit the financial markets. Instead of trusting them to produce life-changing returns, we fool ourselves into believing that we can predict when the market will fall and then rise again. No one is immune to this temptation, but we can cure ourselves of the desire to act on it. With a

Factor investing is a specific way to approach investing. This approach targets specific drivers of returns across asset classes and can help improve returns and enhance diversification. How does factor investing differ from traditional investing? When looking at investing styles, there are two ends of the spectrum. At one end, you have purely active managers.

We tell our clients that investing is risky. However, it is during bear markets that this becomes real. Like most fears, the best way to deal with them is to understand them, know your options, and be confident that they will pass. What is a bear market? A bear market occurs when the value of

You might not be interested or feel comfortable in choosing where your retirement savings are invested. If this is the case, then it is likely you have the money in your pension invested into the provider’s default pension fund. We are never going to criticise providers for making it easier for people to invest their

In the fourth quarter, shares in companies in developed markets (UK, US etc) continued to rally. This provided investors with the third calendar year in a row of strong positive returns. Fixed interest (Government Bonds, Corporate Bonds, etc) returns over the quarter were somewhat flat, as markets digested rising inflation and less accommodative policy from central

We have previously covered the effect that inflation might have on your financial plan. However, you might also worry about its effect on your portfolio. Most of us invest to fund future spending. If the stuff you intend to spend that money on gets more expensive and you still want to buy it, you must

Earlier this week we highlighted a report looking at another case of investors losing vast sums of money. They had put money into investments that had little hope of producing the returns being promised to them. You should always be on the lookout for scams. However, the types of investments we are talking about here

Our Investment Committee recently convened. Its responsibility is to oversee the investments we recommend. In other words, governance. An essential part of this is to review our investment philosophy which we covered in an earlier post. Our investment philosophy has developed somewhat since then, but the central pillars remain the same. What is your investment

Economic growth Signs of slower growth than some had originally expected, amid supply constraints and a Covid-19 resurgence, have led to lower growth forecasts for the United States. Expectations are that the US should reach its pre-pandemic growth trend in the first quarter of 2022, rather than late 2021. Across the euro area, hospitalisations appear to have

Morningstar has published updated research as part of its annual Mind The Gap study on how much of market returns US investors get. The headline is those investors get 1.7% less than they should. What is the reason behind the difference? The explanation the report gives for this is that the investors mistime their buys

There are a few levels on which maintenance occurs. The start of anything we do is to review the latest research and evidence. We then decide whether we need to make changes to any of our processes. This ensures they prudently reflect the latest thinking. When we say the latest thinking, we do not mean

Your portfolio represents your future. It is only natural to want to check how your investments are doing. How often you need to do this depends on the type of investor you are. Speculators who constantly buy and sell individual stocks will monitor performance frequently, perhaps daily. Those investing for the long term with robust

Over the longer term, being on course to meet your financial goals is the true meaning of success. The first aim is to grow or at least preserve the value of your portfolio after inflation over the medium term. This may not happen each year, but over a longer period, you would hope that to

The quick answer is ‘no’ for two main reasons. The first is that few investors invest all their money into equities. You need to have a lot of intestinal fortitude and patience to do this. It is more likely your portfolio will be a mix of equities and higher-quality bonds. The second is that whatever

In today’s markets, bond yields are low and those of high-quality bonds are the lowest. In addition, they could quite feasibly crash too with interest rate rises. So why have bonds in a portfolio? It is quite straightforward. Imagine you only hold equities with a portfolio of £200,000. The economy takes a turn for the

The second quarter of 2021 has seen most major markets continue on an upward path. For once, the UK, as measured by the FTSE 100 was not the laggard, as that prize went to Japan. However, in Q2 the FTSE 100 was still behind the overall global equity performance of 6.8% in sterling terms. This

Building an investment portfolio requires a mixture of investment science and common sense. The evidence suggests timing when to be in and out of markets (or sectors, or companies) is extremely difficult. It also suggests identifying a manager who can persistently beat the market is very hard to do in advance. We, therefore, focus on

We sometimes refer to the way we invest as mostly being a ‘systematic’ approach. It is our duty to do what is right for our clients. When investing, we build on a foundation of facts. This is because we believe we would be doing our clients a disservice if we did it any other way.

There is no doubt buy-to-let residential property has been profitable for some. However, it is not without considerable risks. These risks include increasing taxes, rent arrears, voids, dilapidations and many more. Any landlord effectively needs to run a small business. There is also the misconception that residential property only ever goes up in value. When

What is an equity (or share)? An equity (or share) represents ownership of part of a company. This gives you a right to your share of any dividends paid and a claim on the company’s assets. Returns from equities come from changes in the price of the shares and dividends paid out. Are all equities

This may seem an obvious question with an obvious answer. In some ways it is. We believe investing to be the means of building wealth to fund lifestyle and personal choices. It is a slow, emotional, and sometimes painful process requiring a robust plan, patiently executed over many years. Anyone hoping to get rich quick

One key reason directors are looking at investing money in their businesses is low interest rates. Directors could be increasingly concerned at the poor returns available on deposit accounts. However, despite this, they will have the comfort of knowing the funds will be available when they may be required. In addition to the above There

Equity markets have had a much quieter first three months in 2021 than they did last year. The FTSE 100 appears to remain a laggard, but that ignores the recent strength of sterling. Similarly, the standout 10.3% rise of the Euro Stoxx 50 drops to 2.1% when we factor in the decline in the Euro.

The number of underperforming, or “dog”, funds has risen by a third this year, new data has shown. This is partly due to the gulf between the performance of different styles of investing. The pandemic has exacerbated this, but value and income investing have lagged behind growth investing for a while. How bad could having

The Covid-19 pandemic has produced the most pronounced economic shock in nearly a century. In 2020, recessions around the world were sharp and deep, with significant supply-chain disruptions at times. That said, perhaps more than in previous recessions, policymakers were aggressive in supporting financial markets and their economies. While the global economy continues to recover

We have written a post previously about focusing on income when investing. I wanted to go into some of the evidence behind focusing on income when investing not being the best strategy. When looking at this, there is probably no more famous theory in Finance than Modigliani/Miller. Known as the Dividend Irrelevance Hypothesis it says investors

Market conditions change all the time. Investors may wonder if they should change the composition of their portfolios to reflect this. How could I change the level of risk my portfolio takes? The portfolios we build for our clients align to ten risk profiles. These range from investing purely in cash to more speculative investments

It is always important to manage expectations when investing. We often get questions about whether there is an explicit time someone must invest for how accessible the money is. How long do I have to invest for? If you are investing in an investment account or an ISA, then technically you could invest the money

Many investors are worried about the US election’s effect on the stock market. One school of thought is a Biden victory could lead to measures that would hit businesses. Another asserts the stock market prefers Republican victories. What does the data say? The logic of efficient markets is that anticipated events do not impact prices.

The pace of the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic appears uneven. Recent US economic data has been at the optimistic end of expectations. However, activity in the UK, where Brexit looms large again, has lagged forecasts. The risks of a second Covid-19 wave (and, potentially, more severe lockdowns) are growing. But so too

As discussed in a previous post, National Savings & Investments have cut the rates they offer to savers. For most of our clients, we only see cash as a way to cover short term obligations which we looked at here. However, we have a very small number of clients who have pensions and have not

National Savings & Investments has significantly cut the rates it offers to savers. Savings analysts have long kept one eye on NS&I’s next move. The bank helps to fund the Government’s spending, so it has to balance the rates paid to savers with the cost to the Treasury. NS&I had planned cuts earlier this year.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is floating the idea of new rules designed to improve investor experiences in open-ended UK Commercial Property Funds. Most are currently suspended due to uncertainties on the value of the properties because of the COVID pandemic. In the past, they have placed restrictions on withdrawals due to a lack of

Investing for the financial future of children and grandchildren are key areas of concern for parents and grandparents. This can be for various reasons including funding education or helping them to buy a house in the future. There are special rules to consider when investments are made for the benefit of, or on behalf of,

This month has some welcome positive news. There was an increased likelihood of economic growth picking up in China as early as the second quarter. While economies are recovering in many parts of the world, they are a long way from where they would have been in the absence of Covid-19. Predictions are that global

Markets have continued to make progress in May, encouraged by further evidence in the developed world of an easing of both Covid-19 related deaths and new cases. There is strong evidence the lockdown measures put in place in Europe have delivered the desired results. Countries such as Denmark and Germany, where restrictions have eased more

Although many spend a lot of time trying to, no one can accurately predict the future. If I could, I doubt the Governments of the world let me spend my time dealing with investment portfolios. Because we do not know which investments will outperform, we invest money into a wide variety of them. We know

Something happened yesterday which has never happened before. The Debt Management Office (DMO), the Treasury arm charged with the task of selling government debt, sold £3.8bn worth of gilts at a negative yield. The stock concerned was 0¾% Treasury 2023 and the average yield was -0.003%. There was no shortage of market interest as they could have

There is a debate about whether gold makes for a good way to protect portfolios against stock market declines or rising inflation. When I was at school the currency of the playground was premier league stickers. If you had a “shiny” you could command a higher price than the standard card. Deep down, there is

After the events of the first quarter of 2020, world stock markets bounced back in April. The US market was the standout performer, enjoying the best month since 1987. Over March the S&P 500 rose by more than 14%. Indeed, the index is up by 30% from its 23 March low, meaning that the US

Watching your portfolio’s returns go up and down can be an emotionally trying experience. Rebalancing to a predetermined, diversified asset mix makes it so you do not have to worry about market instability as much. Having a suitable mix of assets in your portfolio can serve as a buffer against extreme swings in the market.

Whether you want to spread your risk Let us look at four scenarios where you have your money in shares in: a single company, Many companies in the same industry in the same country, Many companies in many industries in the same country or, Many companies in many industries in many countries around the world.

As the world grapples with a global pandemic, we face a tough time. There are lots of opinions on Covid-19, some more informed than others. Our role is not to add to these but to advise them on how they have impacted on their financial planning. Stock markets across the world have fallen, recovered briefly,

It is natural to see headlines about world markets falling and to worry about your portfolio. While it is never fun to see your portfolio take a hit, losses are a normal part of investing. Over the last near eight years, our portfolios have fallen in value a significant portion of the time. A key

The returns you can get from your money can mean different things to different people. To some, getting better returns is something to boast about. We believe returns are meaningless unless they go towards making your life better in some way. This can be being able to retire earlier or being able to help loved

Investing comes with risks. We have covered before why it is not a good idea to take more risk with your portfolio than you are willing to. Something else you need to get right is to not take more risk than what you can afford to take. We call this your risk “capacity”. Imagine being

Over time, those who have invested money into the world equity markets have generally done best. However, investing our hard-earned money, and the risks involved, can make any of us feel nervous. Any decision you make involves risks. The decision to invest is no different. Whatever you invest will go down in value as well

Our portfolios incorporate how to maximise the chances of long-term investment success. This means nothing if we do not invest for the long term. We built our investment process on the belief that over the long term, the global economy will reward those who invest in it with suitable returns. We also believe the investment

We have spent considerable time and effort in building a portfolio construction process sitting at the forefront of the profession. Its genesis lies in answering a simple question: ‘What should we do to ensure clients have the best chance of investment success?’ This has ultimately led to a series of underlying questions which we will