Jamie Ward returns with his last article for ShareScope to discuss risk and complacency in the market and suggests that the past few years might not be an adequate guide for the future. Markets always go up… Since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008, there has been a received wisdom to always ‘buy the […]
Category: Strategies
Roll-out, Roll-up and public market arbitrage | SBRY, PRZ, COST, DCC, MRL, BREE
Jamie Ward takes a detailed walk through two expansion strategies and outlines the types of company and sectors where investors are likely to find these strategies as well as highlighting how to spot companies using them well. Two common ways for profitable growth for many companies can be summarised as roll-out and roll-up. Roll-out is […]
A guide to selling Puts: Shares on sale
A couple of months ago I wrote an article extolling the virtues of selling Covered Calls on FTSE 100 stocks. The technique involves selling Call options on shares you already own to bring in additional income. When you combine the technique with a portfolio of dividend-yielding shares, you can create a veritable income machine. However, […]
Winners in an uncertain world | Vertical integration
In the chaotic business conditions we are experiencing, self-reliance has been a source of competitive advantage. Since we do not ever know what the future will hold, Richard goes in search of companies that have an element of vertical integration. I hope it is not smugness, but I have felt a sense of satisfaction when […]
The Trader: 3 principles for trading on the stock market
Breakouts are an excellent way to swing trade and profit from bull markets. I love breakouts because they’re a high probability pattern of continuation and also because it means that the price is rising. However, many people try strategies that that are inherently risky. Sadly, one private investor commented that they’d invested into a stock […]
Trading with Golden Crosses: Easy win or easy loss?
I should start by saying that I am no technical analysis whiz, and this article will likely bore those with an encyclopaedic knowledge of buy/sell signals and chart shapes (cup and handle, anyone?). I got into investing after I started working at ShareScope, and I desperately wanted it to be easy. Technical analysis seemed like […]
Financials, filters and FOMO | Using SharePad to find opportunities
Filters are one of the most powerful tools in SharePad, but Richard has been experimenting with another way to discover investment ideas and increase his “market intimacy”. Traders, of course, have price charts to guide them. Many investors focus on financials, and use filters to find new shares with attractive financial characteristics. Being a buy-and-hold […]
Step-by-step guide to Covered Calls | How to 3x increase dividend yield
Greg Robinson from Fire Revolution spells out how you can double or even treble increase dividend yield with covered calls.
Tech Stocks or Banks for Better Returns?
Will tech stocks still provide reasonable returns for the rest of the year? Or are bank stocks a better bet?
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Venture Life
I like companies that boast significant net cash. I therefore apply certain filter criteria to identify some reasonable cash-flush businesses.
Why Chasing Dividends in Stock Investments is a Bad Idea
What defines a worthy stock for investment or retirement income? Unfortunately, for many investors, the answer is a stock that pays dividends. While dividends are a factor (among many) that can be used to judge a stock, it isn’t necessarily the most important or profitable determination to make when investing.
Good strategy/Bad strategy
A company’s strategy should not just tell us what it wants to achieve, but why and how. Richard introduces a simple framework for analysing strategy and highlights a good strategy, and one that is more difficult to fathom.
Shares to help you sleep at night
I am probably jinxing it now, but owning shares in Howden Joinery has never lost me sleep. Despite the pandemic and a fall in profit, this year’s annual report has the same calming effect it does every year, and not just because of the pictures. Howdens explains the business very well, and quietly delivers on the promise.
Alpesh Patel on US Investing: Should We Buy Any Stock Market Dips?
As the Dow Jones Index took a tumble at the end of February, many analysts saw this as the beginning of a long-overdue market correction. Some have floated talk of a stock market bubble for a while, but despite the challenging conditions of the last year, the market rebounded and finished out the year strongly. However, the dip on the 24th of February — which saw the index shed 1000 points — has led some traders to talk of an opportunity to cash in on the slide.
Lessons from the Trend (Part 2): Moving Averages
In this article I will continue focusing on primary and secondary trends but this time I will use moving averages to define market phases. You can also view Part 1 of this article Lessons from the Trend (Part 1): Breakouts for more primary trend details that relate to what we are talking about here. For […]
Why shorting is good for investors
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 […]
Fishing like Fundsmith
Richard builds a Fundsmith filter, taking it from concept to conclusion. The aim: To reduce the “junk” in our watchlists so we are fishing in a better-stocked pool of shares. My editor wonders whether my obsession with Fundsmith Equity Fund is a ‘fatal attraction’ but he has permitted one more article. It would be remiss […]
Putting performance into perspective
Richard reads Fundsmith Equity Fund’s annual letter to fundholders and suggests a modest improvement that could change your perception of financial history. He also responds to reader’s queries about On The Beach, the company he profiled two weeks ago. If you are a fundholder in Fundsmith Equity Fund, then congratulations. You’ve just received fund manager […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Games Workshop
Could now be the time to return to dynamic growth shares? Wonder-stocks such as Fever-Tree, Boohoo.com and Keywords Studios are all well below their highs of 2018… …and I wonder whether the widespread selling has created a super-growth bargain somewhere in the market! Let’s employ SharePad to find out. I bought the shares at £8 […]
Starting with the big picture
Richard starts his analysis of fast growing online beach holiday retailer On The Beach with new SharePad views designed to give him the big picture at a glance. Before I start dreaming about holidays, some humble pie. A few weeks ago I ridiculed the idea of using more than three SharePad windows by suggesting they […]
Magic Formula stocks for 2019 & 2018 performance
Back in 2016 we began testing and tracking three model portfolios based on Joel Greenblatt’s magic formula approach (click here to read more about this) and last year we added a forth model (click here to read this article). Regular readers will know how these portfolios are put together. Here’s a quick recap for the […]
Assessing whether profit is real
On the face of it Ricardo is a great company, but in recent years its earnings have deviated a long way from the cold hard cash that has flowed into the company. That may be changing. Though I don’t normally pay much attention to share prices, a 40% slump in the price of Ricardo values […]
How I build and manage my share portfolio
The key thing to stress at the beginning and, as many of you will already be well aware, there are many ways to become a good investor. There are many different techniques, many different styles and strategies from fundamental analysis, technical analysis to even astrology and Biorhythms. It sounds like a cliché but the best […]
A Special SharePad Investigation: Patisserie Valerie
Before I go any further, let me just state that I am not here to say “I told you so”. But whenever I have lost money on a share, I have always found going back to see where I went wrong to be very instructive. In fact, trying to spot the warning signs from any […]
Searching SharePad for something special
Richard Beddard investigates DotDigital in SharePad. The data indicates it has been very prosperous since it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2011. A surge in investment suggests it intends to keep things that way. The starting point for many of the ideas I discover in SharePad is a basic four stage process that […]
Key questions to ask company management
If you are attending any events which enable you to meet company management face-to-face, take along Phil’s handy crib sheet – a list of key questions to ask.
Magic Formula stocks for 2018
For those of you who like the idea of a buy and forget investing strategy then Joel Greenblatt’s Magic Formula of buying good companies at fair prices takes a lot of beating in my view. It is a simple and powerful way to put together a portfolio and one that has a pretty good long-term […]
Simple is best – Magic Formula Investing in 2017
If you were to ask me to recommend just one book on investing then I would struggle to think of anything better than Joel Greenblatt’s book ‘The Little Book that beats the Market’. It is very easy to read and is not very long. The book does a great job in convincing the reader that […]
A blueprint for better long term investing
Holidays are great for switching off from the stresses and strains of the daily grind and concentrating on what’s really important in life. I’ve just had three weeks away from work – I can’t remember the last time I did that – spending time relaxing with my family and doing jobs around the house that […]
Shares to hold to the grave, and beyond…
For my debut SharePad article, I’ve been invited to introduce my stockpicking strategy. It’s a daunting prospect because strategy is everything. Without a strategy, luck or instinct will determine our returns and in the stock market neither can be relied on. There are many reinforcing activities that make a good strategy, so please forgive the […]
UK Dividend aristocrats
Phil’s Investors Chronicle article on how to be a successful dividend investor. Read the article
Value investing today
One of the great things about investing is that there are lots of different ways for people to try and make money. This means that there is a style out there that will suit most temperaments. Probably the most well known investing strategy is value investing. Yet I find that this term is frequently overused […]
