Although I am much more of a trader myself as I rely on trading profits to pay my bills, I do think investors have much to be gained learning from the art of short selling stocks. There are several reasons that will be explained in this article, but first it is important to understand what […]
Month: August 2019
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Hammerson
Buying a share at a discount to its book (or net asset) value ought to be the safest way of investing. Indeed, what could go wrong if you can effectively buy assets worth £1 per share for, say, 50p? The reality — sadly — is not always that simple. Let me show you what I […]
Weekly Commentary: 27/08/19
The Great British Corporate Sale One of the things the City of London excels at is selling its own to overseas acquirors. Back in the day Messrs Wasserstein and Perella sold themselves to Dresdner Bank to create Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein which didn’t seem to end very well. Warburg sold themselves to Dillon Read until the […]
Hidden potential in new division
Richard analyses Bloomsbury Publishing’s segmental report to work out where the profit is coming from. The Harry Potter effect is still evident, but the company is conjuring up another source of profit without recourse to magic. My last article ended on something of a cliffhanger because I had found something out, but I did not […]
Weekly Commentary: 19/08/19
Agricultural Investing The nerves were tested last week. Back in Q4 last year the 17% fall in the FTSE 100 was one of those typical draw-downs that happen towards the top of a bull market. It is necessary to have sucked in all the “buy the dip” money before the market can reset finally when […]
Weekly Commentary: 12/08/19
The Narrative of Growth I suspect I am not alone in being trained as a value investor in the 1980’s. That was an era when straws were made of plastic, burgers were made of meat and bonds paid an income. No longer. Today in an era when bonds don’t pay income the trophies go to […]
Finding the best companies to analyse
A wise man once advised investors to stick to their circle of competence. Richard uses SharePad to keep his eye on the prize, and it leads him to Bloomsbury Publishing… My base filter in SharePad currently returns a total of 596 shares listed in London. It does not do anything clever. It just excludes the […]
Weekly Commentary: 05/08/19
In need of boredom Equity investors need to be an optimistic bunch – since equity markets outperform over the long run. Academics Dimson Marsh and Staunton titled their study of 20th century market returns “Triumph of the Optimists”. But sometimes it’s hard. Like last Wednesday when Intu reported a decline in NAV/share to 252p and […]