I’ve been rethinking my investing strategy over the holidays & I’m guessing a few of you have too
Since I won’t be trying to time the market, I’ll carry on investing as much as I’d planned to before the recent market ‘volatility’ this year.
Obviously US stocks are launching which I’m very excited about. I’ve already invested in one of the S&P 500 trackers but I’ll also buy stocks in a couple of companies that I’m excited about the potential of, Square is still top of my list. Although I must admit that I’ve not done much financial analysis of their performance. And I’m also looking forward to the Slack IPO.
I’m also conscious that with Brexit just around the corner, diversification is just as important as it’s ever been. So I’m considering adding alternative asset classes like gold to my portfolio & perhaps US dollars - in ETF form
My strategy hasn’t changed much. I’m trying to avoid U.K. and US exposure too much for the first quarter to see what happens with Brexit and whatever Trump does next.
Already got ETFs in Japan small cap, China, World and S&P 500. Will slowly add to those as well as adding emerging markets, Pacific excluding Japan, and Robo Global. I’d like more region specific ETFs like Australia and Brazil to be available.
Physical Gold, Gilts and Government and corporate bond ETFs are also getting serious consideration.
When fractionals are available i’ll put some money into Tesla and Disney. They’re the only 2 companies i’m really planning this year.
Apart from that it’ll be any Freetrade crowdfunding and I’m going to have a play with crypto, very small amount because I’m still not convinced by it but it might be fun
I feel I need to diversify more. I feel the tools to facilitate this are there with ETF’s, low/no commission, large number of markets/products/instruments. I feel I have been regarding diversification as a substitute for conscious decision making/strategy and seeing a highly diversified portfolio representative of general/global economic growth as a worst case scenario % return or a low benchmark to beat. The truth is due to a number of factors I have been and likely still am over exposed to certain industries/geographies due to a number of biases and ignorance. In my head however, I have strategically allocated resources in such a way as to increase likelihood of high returns. This is not to say I have lost money or will lose money relative to highly diversified portfolio representative of world economic growth. But I feel it is necessary and useful to examine my approach to investment.
Going forward I think it is prudent to diversify further full stop but especially when I have less conviction in my portfolio.
I shall continue my trend of picking stuff that drops my portfolio value in the short term but that I believe will be strong in future and raise it up to make me filthy rich.
I am investing mainly in my cash position as of right now
I think we are in for interesting times in the next 1-2 years and would like to get into them in the best way possible.
I’m going to be building up cash to 20/30% of my position, I think there is still a decent fall out thereso I want to dampen the effect that has and have cash to deploy. Aware that this is late cycle.
US equities: Apple, Tesla, Disney, Kraft Heinz, Starbucks, Alphabet are headline ones for me.
ETFs: S&P500, Emerging markets + India/China/Japan etc. Some more thematic options if they become available.
I’ll continue with some of my UK ones too: Tesco, Taylor Wimpy, Ocado, Diageo, SMT (not really UK equity mind you!).
Basically looking to invest regularly and build up positions, but being sensible with a heavy cash weighting.
My main theme will be to invest in companies I use frequently and have day to day exposure to, but to also diversify this sensibly. Equity and cash only.
I’ll try to invest more in Tesla (it’s coming to :freetrade: soon) at a reasonable price, and I’m keen to identify similar businesses that I think are building a productive future. There are not many of those. Beyond Meat is a similar one on my radar.
I’ll continue building positions in ETFs, which is the vast majority of my investments. I’ve already sold my FTSE 100 tracker ISF on IG, and I’ll rebuy it very soon in my Freetrade ISA. As a sidenote, I dislike that I’m investing in British American Tobacco and similar businesses that are in that ETF. I’d like to explore ethical options.
Last but not least, I want to educate myself about Japan. I passed over related ETFs because I thought demographic trends were bad. As usual, I have a lot to learn:
I’ll be taking my first plunge into shares when US stocks become available. Months of research and practicing so fingers crossed!! In it for the long run and this is my selection…
Very much a learner but current plan revolves around:
Disney: Entering the market against Netflix, Amazon and Hulu with their buy up of FOX puts them in good sted. Too many IPs and consistent market presence to not do something.
Tesla: Reports of them outselling Mercedes in the US, Model 3 about to ship in EU and Model Y announced Q3/4 along with more showcases of the Tesla truck on the roads.
Slack: Going IPO soon enough with a stupidly low valuation of 10b.
But hey I’m still figuring out the lingo to all of this and learning so my knowledge and enjoyment of these companies is my only advantage right now
MSFT always a good one. They don’t set the world on fire but they are remarkably consistent and while they missed the smartphone train they are making headway in AR tech. That as well as their services is unmatchable.
With valuations, always useful to ask yourself what is the thing/info/insight which you know but which hardly anyone else knows that means that a stock’s valuation is lower than it should be.
which I’m very excited about. I’ve already invested in one of the S&P 500 trackers but I’ll also buy stocks in a couple of companies that I’m excited about the potential of, Square is still top of my list. Although I must admit that I’ve not done much financial analysis of their performance. And I’m also looking forward to the Slack IPO.
