Member Info for Alas_Smith

Well, I am delighted to inform you that I must be considered belligerent. Don't get me wrong, I like your argument and for that I applaud you, but, as you have rather chosen to ignore facts that INVESTORS rely on and which SPECULATORS cannot accept. The most important of which is revenue either which is already existing or once developed will result.

Revenue is, of course, different from profit.

Anyway, since the ONLY element in any of the joke "currencies" that are traded is blockchain, then that element has a value. From the 4,000 or so joke companies that have caught the imagination of speculators, the "value" of Bitcoin is the equivalent to betting - which fly will land on which turd, which bead of rain will slide down a pane of glass etc - completely meaningless and no intrinsic value whatsoever, except for academic argument.

Perhaps you might like to support the bloke that has narrowed down a rubbish dump in South Wales for a hard drive that holds a wallet containing fantasy value either with a spade or real money with challenges to legal decisions not to permit access to a rubbish tip?

whether the art that i enjoy to have hanging on my walls has any value at all, it something that an auctioneer will, when i eventually peg out, decide for my estate by my executors. in the meanwhile, i enjoy each piece for its beauty and pleasure it affords to me.

fwiw, my cellars are well stocked with vintage port. i have now just 3 bottles left from taylors 1977 and then will switch to the 2 cases i have remaining of grahams 1980. at some point, probably at the point when i am not quite dribbling and incoherent, and finished the bulk of my cellar, i will open one of the 4 bottles i bought of *****a do noval nacional 2011.

sure, fine wines, it could be argued have no place in an investment portfolio (and for me they don't) but i enjoy these friends and family.

In common with ironknut and eccles04, I share their opinion for Bitcoin.

In general, asset classes must provide a systemic return over time and a safe store of value. Bit coin does not meet such requirement, provides no income stream and through volatility has no prospect of long term capital appreciation. it is entirely a digital invention that can be easily replicated. The site that actually tracks such "joke currency", coinmarket.com list over 4,000 differnt types of digital currency.

Dealing in this joke nonsense is unregulated, uses a vast amount of electricity (roughly the same as Argentina) and as far as I am concerned are the foundation for thieves to prospec. If BDC wishes to put good money into an intangible and speculative transaction entirely his affair.

But, since the generation of electricity is still based on coal and fossil fuels, then I suppose it could be argued that even a worthless speculative gamble which I believe Bitcoin to be benefits shareholders in RIO.

News today seems to be well received.

I have taken capital off the table. Feel better investment opportunities elsewhere. Price will probably soar now.....

Best to filter BouncyDadCat - so far up his/her colon that all can see is own ankles - argument will be countered with rubbish that has the same foundation as the underlying claim that bitcoin has value. It does not, but it does not mean that it is not provided with commodity status. His or her contributions on the subject are highly articulate (which is why I have recommended his/her post). It does not mean that I endorse the claim of verisimilitude for what is essentially puffery.

BDC has all the eloquence and authoratative sanguine to induce the gullible to part with their money. AND, so the saying goes, so the gullible SHOULD be so deserving.

That BDC has chosen to suggest introduce a red herring into what I had hoped would provoke the exploration of whether salvaged elements will influence revenue for one of the major mining operators in the world is perhaps indicative of an obsession with the frivolous inconsequence of tokens.

Oh, and on the same subject, one of my passions is collecting art, in particular landscape, still life and portrait artists from the 17th through to the early 20th Century. These might not appeal to the majority. Art does grab headlines with works fetching high price at auction and perhaps has a similar "value" to mathematical tokens - the difference being tangible and once an artist is dead, finite is known (and might still be worthless).

TWIW, I have added another 800 shares to my holding today in ATT.

I have banked profits today.

More probably belt tightening through rising interest rates. Non essential purchases eliminated. Flavoured water sold at premium price is obvious candidate.

Batmen and Alessandro. Thank you. This is a particularly interesting thread as, on the one hand, private investors are likely to be a little more sheltered from consumers living from month to month, but the real determination for movement is from institutional investor and this is actually broadly up. There will always be casualties and some lag so what is being seen now in terms of a visual chart is only reflective of the past and the future is unknown.

My investment time frame is 30 years. I am approaching retirement but my focus is to draw income from my holdings either as a result of capital growth or dividend income until I peg out in my 90's. Although I have a pretty diverse portfolio that throws off a little income each year, it is not structured for income. So whatever MY approach is, it is unlikely to align with yours.

By way of a general contribution , promotional fulfilment companies (suppliers of gonks, pens, prizes etc) are a great bell-weathers for commercial sentiment. In good times the major brands want to prevent marginal erosion and in the bad times, remind their customers that they have great product and will entice them to upgrade with the gift of redundant or hard to shift stock. Cardboard boxes and parcel distribution play their role in this too.

The PI (private investor) does exactly the same as the II (institutional investor) only PI's are reactionary and II's have the advantage of a few weeks or months. This is through their army behind the scene that forces the PI to play catch up and SELDOM move the market. For the PI at the start of their investment journey (sheesh, what a loathesome phrase), the trick is to identify a sector or company and initiate a regular drip feed of cash until such time as the measure in a private portfolio is met (maintained).

So.... what is the health of the travel industry? Well, it rather depends on the target market? I wager than numbers for the year that is in progress will show pretty decent results. What is worrysome ,is that the price of the shares now is the expected value of the company in December. And, this is not looking great so I am really worried (short term) for my investment. But..............

My investment time frame is 30 years. I am thus investing in the sector dogs of today that survive and flourish and running my holdings in the companies that are already facing the future (AI, medical research etc) but as advances in the these will inevitably lead to fewer in work, so it will open up opportunity for different industry. Leisure will play a part, if for no other reason than the rich will experience exotic travel directly and the poor through AI.

Short term grim and quite possibly the SP will decline further - I continue to add, but drip feedfing to reach my financial target exposure

The adage to run winners and cut losses works. Yes, it is difficult to admit to getting things wrong but there does come a point when it is time to accept the loss in the chin and use the proceeds to recover that loss from either a different holding or to add to those that are already powering ahead.

So, although such method may expose a weighting imbalance, unless there is news to arrest or change the broad direction for the share price, added weight augments growth. In a falling market the reverse is true.

Last year I added to my holding in Microsoft, Adobe, Nvidia and ASML after cutting losses in Saga and disposing of my holding in United Health. I also disposed of all holdings in real estate to invest in different enterprises. Of those, I have picked a lemon in the guise of Focusrite but a winner in Ramsdens. I have been disappointed that Begbies has done badly.

It is disheartening when the value of an investment falls. Investors tend to be optimistic for the future and history is on our side as, despite wars, disasters, changes of governments and the plethora of events over centuries, markets have risen. The underlying holdings are in market sector that should have explosive growth. The timing is outside investor or management of the trust and, of course, the market control.

Looking at price movements in isolation is seldom useful. My portfolio is up quite substantially this year (not enough to regain the loss last year) and corrections are inevitable. Have found it better to be fully invested than not invested, though there have been days when I had wished for the latter, of course.

In common with others, I too have added to my holding. I always prefer to average up rather than down. Time will determine the wisdom or folly of recent decision.

Off topic..... FWIW, dontshootme, I have added to my holdings in GROW and RFX today. RFX is a pawnbroker. The former is designed as a long term purchase (10 years) and latter a short term one (6-18 months)

With the sniff of a further rise in interest rates and certainly some mortgage holders feeling the pinch, have added a few more shares to my holding today to average up.

Looking back on history we have seen advance from various ages, stone, iron, industrial, technology and currently the age of communication. Something more advanced always comes along, but old technology remains. Even that from the Stone Age. We still use plumb lines for verticals and the axeheads are now steel. As mechanisation evolved, so the engine was developed. Electricity as a power source was first understood in 1752 by Benjamin Franklin but the greatest advance was probably the engine. Engines produce power. Coupled with the wheel, propulsion and with the lever, lifting power.

The natural evolution was locomotion by rail. BUT, without diesel the world starves.

Since 1900, there have actually been few major advances. We have seen things get smaller, faster and more varied. Those are progressions but not (IMO), advances. Transportation has dual roles common to people and goods whether by sea, air or land.

Command of the air has evolved through single seats to passenger craft and now space travel with lunar and martian landing for pioneer craft. We have communication through telephony, which coupled with photography, telephony and computer code allow us to connect in real time to anyone of anything anywhere in the world.

With the Pareto principle in focus (the 80:20 rule, the bulk of the progress in future is simply smaller, faster and cheaper. But where and what can be the advance? Well, medicine is a contender for a start - we already have rapid diagnosis and can put in place treatment for disease. We have seen in the last 2 years how the vaccines were patented to control and prevent Covid 19. A brilliant advance where AI, machine learning and the computational grunt from computers gave the world effective vaccine.

Is my vision the future? Well, I have no idea, it might concur with yours or no-ones. I'm hedging my bets, of course with investment primarily in healthcare and technology targetting the greatest financial gains. I have a lot of the successful and original pioneering stuff such as miners as people need to live somewhere, eat , (seed suppliers, fertilisers) and leisure (holiday and leisure transport) yet have the trappings of essential life today with discretionary spending such as a car, somewhere to store their money (banks) but conscious that "gaia" likes balance and alternatives to diesel might be the future energy provider such as battery makers or mechanical devices like an unwinding spring to control and store mechanical energy.

Sorry that I am wittering. Couple of long flights and an ambitious bottle of rather ordinary claret are getting the better or me.

Some very considered and intelligent contributions here. Thank you.

I am guilty (but consistent for many decades) of not paying enough heed to downside but I am struggling with the logic in the depressed SP for a business that invests in juvenile companies at the cutting edge of technology. Yes, I know that 80% of the companies are likely to fail and 20% will not. Of those that don't fail, 80% will probably require additional funding. But what is more, the investment managers have a pretty good idea of which companies are sparkling, which ones need a helping hand and which ones need to be sold on.

Currently, the write down is such that there is no company in the portfolio that will survive - and i have no problem with that per se - but where I do have a problem is that, whether we like it or not, technology (healthcare and energy) is the future in guise that is different from yesterday. it is the very high risk businesses that mould our future and machine learning that eliminates the mountain of crap that deluges our lives picking snippets here and there which will help guide businesses that are pioneers to the future which I hope is manifestly different from the past.

I'll try an articulate this better in a different thread.

Steph, while I attribute little value from technical analysis, the share price fell below the 50 day simple moving average (SMA) in January last year and has stubbornly stayed under it since then. Back in October '22 the SP closed at 247p, which I think marked and all time low.

The SP has recovered partially since then, with slightly higher lows, but, in common with you the best spin I can put on this is that the SP is consolidating at a base level. However, I think that such consolidation takes a year to 18 months as we bump along the bottom rather than your 6 months recovery suggestion.

We do, both though agree, that the consolidation is in place and, as a nod to John Murphy in his excellent book on technical analysis the pattern seems to be that for a cup shape, which, the longer that the base is kept, the better the recovery tends to be. My target is to have the SP test 400p by end of year and thence to 800p in the following 18 months.

Dontshootme, if it helps, try and get a "feel" for what is happenning in the world as that will give you the broad direction in which to invest. We know that the cretin, Trump began a trade war with China 5 years ago and USA under Biden is keen to keep protectionism in place. China is no longer the manufacturer for the world as its crown is being targetted by India.

FWIW, I reduced my exposure to China in 2021 and have sector exposure to India last year with IGC and this year with the addition of JII. Both are very well run investment trusts. However, another Investment trust you might wish to consider is UEM. This, of course, is not investment advice, but a few ideas that you might wish to explore for yourself. Investing is not a race and you will pick a few lemons along the way. it is quite normal so to do. Run your profits but you will not get rich unless you bank profits from time to time.

May good fortune be yours. If it is of any help, I started in 1979 with my first investment, Microvitec and set aside £25 each month into a unit trust of some sort. Birthday, Christmas and any bonusses from work went into a deposit account and I was able to buy shares in Shell. In those days, orders were placed by my bank and I would receive in time a dealing note and certificate. My holding in Shell was finally sold in 2020. The dividends alone covered my initial purchase many time over but oil does not have the growth that it had from those days.

Hello Dontshootme. It seems that no-one is really wishing to stick their necks out to answer your question. so here goes?

But perhaps, you might be able to better answer the question for yourself as I know you undertook some research. You have a discount to NAV so was this from the RNS that the trust supplies or from another source? Why did you choose this IT rather than say, GROW or PEY or any of the others involved in this area?

And, by the same token it is not unreasonable for you to throw similar questions back to me. But, FWIW, investors have different timescales and outcomes. I have been building my portfolio for almost 45 years and am now preparing it for 30 years retirement so mine is for maximum CAPITAL growth at HIGH risk. When I retire 3% should be inconsequential as I have a track record that exceeds this many times over as an average.

I'll start the ball rolling - the discount to NAV is down to sentiment - it is what the trust invests in that matters not the share price.

2023 is a year that is marked with a war in Ukraine, recovery from the bear market of 2022, World wide inflation from the aftermath of lockdown from Covid and dealing with the slump that was "prevented" in the wake of the banking crisis in 2008. In short the12 years running up to Covid 19 outbreak has been utterly false but an investors dream. The last 2 have been the penalty and the focus surely has to be where we ALL see the direction that our political masters are taking the world and that is different from where the world leading businesses are directing us.

The hot topics (and a considerable % of my money is investing in ) are healthcare (oncology, screening and hygiene), IT (machine learning, cloud, artificial intelligence) and infrastructure.

infrastructure..... well we all have to live or work somewhere and buildings need maintenance, cars are converting to different forms of propulsion so copper, iron, aluminium is needed and for the high energy solutions to reduce carbon content in the long term, rare earths are needed. This is the domain of miners, seismologists etc.

My largest holding is in Nvidia, then ASML followed by RIO, MSFT, UNH and around 80 other equities and investment trusts. These are quoted on exchanges around the world and in different currencies. The average bargain I execute is £20,000 and it is rare that I execute more than 8 bargains each year - a tweak here, another there etc.

Hope this helps but what is right for me might be useless for you. Very easy to buy (get into trouble) so always have an exit strategy in place before hitting that button. I like to be able to get out of trouble faster than I land in the 5h1t