Phil has over 25 years experience of investing. He started out as an investment analyst for asset managers and City stockbrokers before becoming a writer. He has worked for MoneyWeek and Investors’ Chronicle and was the CFA UK Financial Journalist of the year in 2020. He worked for ShareScope between 2014 and 2018 and helped to develop many of the investment tools in SharePad. He has written a number of educational investment articles for ShareScope and is also the author of the book How to Pick Quality Shares.
I am passionate about investor education and try and make what might seem complicated subjects easier to understand. Investing is not just about picking winners but also avoiding losers and learning from your mistakes. My aim is to make investing as simple as possible by focusing on what matters and avoiding what doesn’t.
Mergers and takeovers are part and parcel of the investing world. However, I think it’s fair to say that last week’s (27th January 2017) announcement that supermarket giant Tesco (LSE:TSCO) was buying cash and carry operator Booker (LSE:BOK) was something of a surprise. Takeovers or acquisitions as they are commonly known are a very grey area for investors. Are
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
As a private investor managing your own share portfolio you have to achieve two things over the long haul to consider your efforts a success. First and foremost you have to make money. This means doing better than if you had put your money in a savings account. The second thing you need to try
Companies which make and sell branded drinks have long been popular with investors. One of the main reasons for this is that as businesses they are very easy to understand. They sell products which millions of people consume daily and are very familiar with. Let’s take a quick tour around the UK quoted beverages sector
Mining companies are very difficult to analyse. Their profits and cash flows are very closely related to trends in commodity prices and sentiment towards the economy in general which means that they tend to be very volatile. Unsurprisingly, share prices move and up and down a lot too. From an investor viewpoint, the inherent volatility
“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.” – Warren Buffett “The desirability of a business with outstanding economic characteristics can be ruined by the price you pay for it. The opposite is not true.” – Charlie Munger The quote from Warren Buffett above is often cited
A year ago I started a trial of three model portfolios based on Joel Greenblatt’s magic formula approach (click here to read more about this). I wanted to see how this strategy would work in the real world and with all investing costs taken into account as many studies of investment strategies ignore costs. The portfolios are
Why do people invest their money rather than just save? It’s not just about growing your savings so that you will have more money in the future. It’s about growing the buying power of your money. You want the £1 that you are investing today to buy more things in the future than it does
Tax-efficient savings accounts (ISAs) and self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) are the best option for most savers and investors. Here’s what you need to know. Savings Individual savings accounts (ISAs) are tax-free savings accounts. That is, you are not liable to pay capital gains tax (CGT) on the profits you make on this money. You can
For some people the thought of picking their own shares can be a little bit daunting. Rest assured, it doesn’t have to be. Whilst it is best to do at least a little bit of homework before you part with your hard earned cash, successful investing does not require a high IQ or lots of
Many investors like to build a portfolio of individual shares and even bonds but for some investors, investment funds can be a useful alternative. For example, some investors may want to have a degree of control over their investments but don’t wish to dedicate the time to choosing and managing a lot off individual investments.
From what I can see we are still firmly in a bull market in shares. Momentum remains a strategy that is paying off handsomely with a select group of companies continuing to see their share prices increase faster than their profits. But this will not go on forever. Shares with stretched valuations have little downside