ARTICLES
& INSIGHT

All the latest articles & insight from our investment writers to inspire your own research and analysis.

Author Index

  • Alpesh Patel OBE
  • Ben Hobson
  • Bruce Packard
  • David Stevenson
  • Elric Langton

Author Index

  • Jason Needham
  • Maynard Paton
  • Michael Taylor
  • Phil Oakley
  • Richard Beddard

Weekly Commentary: 09/11/20 – Study silence to learn the music

The US Presidential election turned out to be closer than most people expected. Nasdaq up almost +10% over the week to 12078. Tech stocks reacted well to the uncertainty, but so did 10 year US Bond yields, which initially jumped to 0.9% before falling back to 0.78%. I’m not sure if you’d predicted the result,

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Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Jarvis Securities

Today I have returned to one of my favourite SharePad screens. This screen applies two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors — operating margin and return on equity (ROE). The main filter criteria are: 1) An operating margin (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more, and; 2) An ROE (latest and 10-year average) of 20%

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Weekly Commentary: 02/11/20 – Insiders selling at the top?

Last week markets sold off into the rising cases of Covid. The FTSE 100 fell 5% last week to 5561. Large UK banks HSBC and NatWest reported encouraging results, although the sector remained unloved. Directors selling Given the strength of the market’s rally over the last 6 months, and then last week’s sell off, I

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Floored

James Halstead makes vinyl flooring, the kind we see in hospital corridors, GP surgeries, clinics, schools, offices, laboratories, prisons, factories, shops, trains and boats around the world. James Halstead’s biggest brand is Polyflor. The company’s social media accounts are a good way to get a feel for the product and you can take the Commercial

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Weekly Commentary: 26/10/20 – Paying up for quality?

Markets recovered slightly towards the end of the week, with the FTSE 100 at 5888. Nasdaq was at 11662. Last week Netflix reported Q3 results, with “only” 2m net new subscribers in the quarter, v 16m in Q1 and 10m in Q2. The company had previously guided that subscribers would slow in Q3 to 2.5m

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Dynamic 35: Aurora Investment Trust

A new addition to the Dynamic 35 Aurora Investment trust I wanted to start this article with an immediate declaration. I am a non-executive director at my new addition to the Dynamic 35, the Aurora investment trust. As a general rule I tend not to discuss any fund where I have some form of professional

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The Trader: A look at the automobile sector

The automobile sector is not one I usually deal in. However, by using the RNS service each morning and sifting through company reports, it’s easy to keep on top of various sectors and how they’re performing. Customer spending has seen a large boom as people are restricted from going on holiday and eating out (aside

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Weekly Commentary: 19/10/20 – On network effects and fads

“Fad companies are companies with good business models or good products. So, why would we be interested in shorting a company that has a good product? Because of the threat it presents to others and their likely response to that threat. For example, Netflix had a terrific idea of renting DVDs through the mail, which

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Stock selection & staying in lane

In this article I’m going to cover some big picture charting and try my best to bring across to the reader three different time frames of managing money or lanes of investing that every investor can connect with in one form or another. In addition, I also want to offer some reasoning as to why

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Don’t waste a good crisis

Before I started fishing for a share to investigate for this week’s article, I culled my personal filter library. Many of the filters are derivations, refinements that effectively render older filters redundant. Some are failed experiments. Being a simple sole, I cut the library down to four: The old ones are the good ones –

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Weekly Commentary: 12/10/20 – On content, distribution and kurtosis

Last week the FTSE recovered to just over 6000. The (perhaps inappropriately named) Bond film No Time to Die, was postponed until next year by its Hollywood studio, MGM, which has left cinemas in trouble. Cineworld is on the brink, a victim of an overly leveraged balance sheet but no product to distribute. Up until

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