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I have about 15% of my £1m portfolio in SMT so committed but I was trying to make the point that people were committed to Woodford once. I was one of the lucky ones that jumped ship in 2016 as his performance started to tail off. Similarly, in the 80's Antony Bolton could do no wrong with his Fidelity Spec Sits until he retired and someone else took over. Similarly I have very large positions in Fundsmith and SSON but I am prepared to walk away. Remember that when fund managers talk a good story (they always do) about the future and the opportunities they are basically selling your something.

"don’t worry the team have us sorted."
Be careful, I can remember exactly those words in a forum in 2016 about a certain Mr Woodford. Don't forget that BGCG is 16% down in 2021 despite their attempts to talk up the market (same goes for FCSS)

"Yep definitely, if you look at share trades up to now though there are more people buying than selling that is always puzzling to me ."
Funny thing though that there must always be the same number of buyers as sellers otherwise you wouldn't have a transaction.

I have been reducing my exposure to China and now down to just over 1%. The CCP has been flexing its muscles recently and showing a harder edge to its activities. The hype that it's a big market and only just getting going is just hype (you only have to listen to the FCSS and BGCG webinars to see the same old story that has been pedaled for at least 20 years), after all India is potentially even larger especially given the demographics

I am now 73 and in good health (fingers crossed), no medication and I go cycling every day. My wife and I have a DB pensions and we only spend about half of our income, the rest has been invested over the years and we are sitting on ISAs worth nearly £1m. No mortgage etc and we lead a fairly quiet life. We currently pay our grown up kids a monthly allowance to go into their SIPPs. No grandchildren so will probably start offloading capital to kids in the next year or two. Investing has become a game to me now and I don't regard it as real money as I never withdraw any.

SMT is slightly down on the first half of 2021. I am thinking of trimming my £130k stake in SMT in case last year proves to have been a Tesla driven one trick pony. Big article in FT today about BG by the way, almost an advertorial. I always get worried when managers start talking about 5 to 10 year horizons as it sounds like expectation management. BG China is down 1% on the year. My only BG Holding showing growth this year is BG American up 7%. Starting to get concerned and I have been investing for 45 years.

Share buy backs in ITs are largely to control the discount/premium. Buybacks with ordinary companies are often done to temporarily inflate share prices which drive executive bonuses. A lot has been written about how buybacks destroy shareholder value in the long term and are an indication that the company management doesn't have a growth strategy that needs the cash they have generated. They might be more efficient for the shareholder in giving a capital rise rather than a special dividend which is taxable as income. The renown Terry Smith has a lot to say on this topic.

We had better hope that they find another Tesla then

Investors in SMT (and that includes me) should note that it has done very well on the back of Tesla over the past year or two but look back a bit further and it went nowhere for a couple of years. In 2021 it has gone nowhere too (2% down so far) . I hope it's not a one trick pony. I know that you need to take the long view but we can't all wait for ever.

I wonder how many posters/investors here actually know anything about agriculture and agronomy? Lots of media hype driving this story.

already got 15% of my portfolio in SMT and finding the ride a bit too bumpy to be adding more to it. Unfortunately it's a similar ride with the rest of my BG holdings eg MNKS, EWI, BGCG etc and I am beginning to wonder if they only have one strategy. At least Fundsmith EQ and SSON seem to keep delivering albeit slowly.

According to today's RNS BGCG plans to offer an extra 10% share capital at a small premium. Is this like a mini "Rights Issue" ? I can't understand why they don't just keep issuing shares like most ITs do. What's going on?

I can recall a long time ago when BT shares were around £12 and I was about to sell when an analyst told me that they would go to £17 so I held on an saw it run down and down to about £1.20 when I sold last year. I am now out having been in since privatisation. Fundamentally BT is now a utility with price caps determined by politicians and regulators and with massive capex required to keep up with technology and a huge pension liability. There are better places to make money and most of them are in the US.

£20K of BT in one go when it's already at a high point ? Brave fellow. Good luck.

Why is this stock so volatile?

Any views on why the Archegos sell off of Chinese stocks hasn't caused a bigger drop in this stock this morning?

I was reading through these comments and thinking, "I have been here before" then I realised it's a replay of Antony Bolton leaving Fidelity Special Situations in 2007. Bolton's fund had been incredibly successful and I had done very well out of it. They then split the fund between two managers who had worked with him. The fund was never so successful after that and I eventually pulled out. Then Bolton came back out of retirement saying that China was just like Europe was in his hey day and Fid China Spec sits was born that suffered big problems investing in some Chinese companies that only existed on PowerPoint. Given the volatility and gyrations in BG China Growth IT at the moment I am beginning to wonder if there is an element of history repeating itself here. I have been investing for 45 years so you can perhaps see my concerns. :)