Share investments

martin-s · Apr 13, 2018

The long-running Bitcoin thread has been a really interesting read and I wonder if many of us are active share investors too?

I'd find it really interesting to hear people's thoughts about their investments - particularly small-cap stuff. Over the past couple of years I've moved 15-20% of my holdings into higher risk stuff. Partly because it's more engaging and partly with a view to reducing holdings of funds with higher management fees.

Some of my current long term investments include:

Evgen Pharma
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals
Hurricane Energy (my biggest investment by a long way. High hopes for this one)
Powerhouse Energy Group
redT Energy
Sirius Minerals (really exciting Yorkshire firm)

Is anyone else into this stuff?

Disclaimer: I'm a private investor. There's no reason to believe I know any better than you do. Do your own homework!

mat · Apr 13, 2018

Hold a mixture of funds and play around with AIM shares

ian · Apr 13, 2018

I attempted to make money from the oil industry, gas and oil exploration....needless to say, never again!

JMI · Apr 13, 2018

Only invest in things that go up in value over time or provide an income. I wouldn't touch any form of crypto with a barge pole. I believe in having at least 15 % of your portfolio in bullion. Recently I took a punt on investing in rare maturing Scotch whisky which is showing 15%+ historical returns pa. I did for a while invest in rare vintage space Lego, pre 1980 at least, mint in box sort of thing. I decided the market was going to be to small in 20 years and there's tooo much Lego anyway!

Edwin · Apr 13, 2018

This chap’s advice sounded pretty good, though if I followed it I would probably spread investments across Vanguard’s 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% funds to diversify a bit...
https://sampriestley.com/investing-made-easy/

The most important thing is to get started young, because then compounding is your best friend regardless of the annual movement of the stock market (since long-long term it has always gone up).

Edwin · Apr 13, 2018

JMI said:
Only invest in things that go up in value over time or provide an income. I wouldn't touch any form of crypto with a barge pole. I believe in having at least 15 % of your portfolio in bullion. Recently I took a punt on investing in rare maturing Scotch whisky which is showing 15%+ historical returns pa. I did for a while invest in rare vintage space Lego, pre 1980 at least, mint in box sort of thing. I decided the market was going to be to small in 20 years and there's tooo much Lego anyway!

Some fun investments there! I have a ton of Space Lego in a bin bag in the garage. I guess that’s not quite “new in box”

mat · Apr 13, 2018

..........

ian · Apr 14, 2018

Historic data doesn't lie, index funds win out. Crypto might derail that long term though.

Edwin · Apr 14, 2018

BTW, if you're aged 40 or under and can live with the restrictions (ether withdraw to pay for a first home purchase, or at/after age 60, to avoid paying a hefty penalty) then the Lifetime ISA looks intriguing...

Basically, you get a bonus of 25% paid by the government on everything you put into it up to £4,000 a year (so the maximum bonus is £1,000/year). The bonus continues until age 50. It's always paid on NEW money going in i.e. if you save £4,000 one year and then stop, you'll just get the one bonus of £1,000. (You can open a separate ISA of a different type if you have more than £4,000/year to save, upto the overall £20,000/year ISA limit.)

So if for instance you're 35 now and saved £4,000/year into a LISA until the age of 50 (the cutoff point) then you'd have saved £60,000 and the government would have kicked in another £15,000. And that's before the capital accumulation of course, so either the interest if it's a cash LISA or the share appreciation if it's a stocks and shares LISA. Since the bonus is in the account, it also attracts interest or helps to boost your stock market returns. And all tax free.

All the details here
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-ISAs

Edwin · Apr 14, 2018

BTW, if you were 18 and you started saving right now, saving £500 up front, plus £100 a month until you're 65, how much do you think you'd have at the end of it, assuming you get the historic long-term average* stock market return?

Have a quick guess. There are some clues below to make it easier.

Clue #1: you would have deposited £56,900 in savings during that period.

Got your number locked in yet? If not, here's another clue...

Clue #2: average return is 7% in the long-long-term.

Ok, it's time to guess if you've not done so already. Scroll down for the answer. It just might surprise you!

£454,495.42 (of which £397,595.42 is interest)

Even after inflation, that's a lot of money!

If you want to model your own scenarios, this compound interest calculator makes it a breeze.
https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

BTW, I wish I had understood (as in REALLY understood i.e. internalised the lesson, and allowed it to fully sink in) the power of compounding when I was younger. It's one of the few things that rewards youth.

martin-s · Apr 14, 2018

Is anyone else signed up to the reports from Align Research. I find them pretty informative.

martin-s · May 17, 2018

One of the reasons I posted this was to measure how I did. A month on, things look pretty good:

Evgen Pharma (up from 13p to 21.6p or 66.2% -, though fluctuates a lot)
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals (up from 2.95p to 4.3p or 45.8%)
Hurricane Energy (my biggest investment by a long way - up from 37.02p to 48.38p or 30.7%)
Powerhouse Energy Group (down from 0.57p to 0.49p or 14%)
redT Energy (up from 6.25p to 7p or 12%)
Sirius Minerals (second biggest investment, up from 28.1p to 33.28p or 18.4%)

A good month, so I'm happy (several of these I've held a lot longer).

(Not advice and I'm no professional. DYOR. Just sharing because I found it enlightening to be more involved with my SIPP's performance.)

No one else into this?

Edwin · May 17, 2018

inteldigital said:
Edwin, thanks for this really useful information. I just turned 30 and have 0 savings or investments of any kind. I think I'll open a LISA, the concept seems really interesting.

According to the LISA calculator on The Telegraph's site, if you were to invest the maximum £4K a year (i.e. £333.33 a month) starting right now for as long as you're permitted to do so i.e. until age 50 (and get an average 5% return) then at age 60 you'd have a total savings pot of £277,159 (there are penalties to pay if you want to touch the money before age 60). However, you'd only have saved either £80,000 or £84,000 of that. All the rest is interest and government bonuses!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/isas/calculator-much-can-make-lifetime-isa-lisa/

That figure looks broadly right when I checked it on https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

The above assumes you've put the money into a stocks and shares LISA. The annual rate of return isn't guaranteed, of course. If you want a guaranteed rate of return, then you'll need to invest in a cash LISA instead. But then the interest rate will be much much less than the LIKELY return from the stock market.

Edwin · May 17, 2018

More about the pros and cons of the LISA
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...ng-property-retirement-tax-free-wrapper-bonus

bonusmedia · May 17, 2018

martin-s said:
One of the reasons I posted this was to measure how I did. A month on, things look pretty good:

Evgen Pharma (up from 13p to 21.6p or 66.2% -, though fluctuates a lot)

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals (up from 2.95p to 4.3p or 45.8%)

Hurricane Energy (my biggest investment by a long way - up from 37.02p to 48.38p or 30.7%)

Powerhouse Energy Group (down from 0.57p to 0.49p or 14%)

redT Energy (up from 6.25p to 7p or 12%)

Sirius Minerals (second biggest investment, up from 28.1p to 33.28p or 18.4%)

A good month, so I'm happy (several of these I've held a lot longer).

(Not advice and I'm no professional. DYOR. Just sharing because I found it enlightening to be more involved with my SIPP's performance.)

No one else into this?

You did bloody well there, congrats.
I like Sirius, I've got more than is sensible, but give it 5 years and the current share price could be the dividend

bonusmedia · May 17, 2018

inteldigital said:
How do these Stocks and Shares ISA's work then? You put money into it and the bank invests your cash in viable companies?

:-( If you can't be arsed to read up on it and monitor your holdings, buy a low cost tracker fund, maybe https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/p/amf1/lg-world-ex-uk-equity-index-pmc-pn-g25

bonusmedia · May 17, 2018

Edwin - 7% was nice while it lasted but the civil service now assumes 5% and the reality may be lower, we're still adjusting to our newfound position as a geriatric (demented) world power

bonusmedia · May 17, 2018

Also the received wisdom of starting early really only works for those with a fairly standard career. The best investment anyone can make at a young age is in whatever increases their earning capacity - that used to be education, but these days you might be better off printing the union jack on tea towels

disruptive · May 20, 2018

martin-s said:
The long-running Bitcoin thread has been a really interesting read and I wonder if many of us are active share investors too?

I'd find it really interesting to hear people's thoughts about their investments - particularly small-cap stuff. Over the past couple of years I've moved 15-20% of my holdings into higher risk stuff. Partly because it's more engaging and partly with a view to reducing holdings of funds with higher management fees.

Some of my current long term investments include:

Evgen Pharma

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals

Hurricane Energy (my biggest investment by a long way. High hopes for this one)

Powerhouse Energy Group

redT Energy

Sirius Minerals (really exciting Yorkshire firm)

Is anyone else into this stuff?

Disclaimer: I'm a private investor. There's no reason to believe I know any better than you do. Do your own homework!