Member Info for lordloadsoflolly

Despite their geographical overlap, I think Fundsmith provides a decent portfolio counter-balance to SMT.

Fundsmith’s fees are high enough, but I guess this is justified to some extent by their long term outperformance. When I bought in via Halifax in 2016, I was able to select a share class with the lowest OCF of 0.94%. Well worth trying to do the same if you ever decide to purchase, as fees have a major impact over time.

Thefrogster - I’d go along with that generally.

Except that Fundsmith’s taken far less of a hit than SMT over the last 3 years. Its approach is quite different as you say, with no unlisted element & a lot more emphasis on consumer staples & discretionaries.

Whilst I find him a bit arrogant, Terry Smith has a formidable reputation - though this isn’t always a great long term success indicator (think Neil Woodford). But in this case, the two are totally different in their investment approach, so comparisons are invalid.

Martinu - glad it made you laugh. I'll try anything, particularly as my investments are failing to raise much of a smile right now!

I imagine SOH will be suffering the effects of far too many sherbets to release H1 figures any time soon. Maybe try sending him an ice pack. Then come back in a month.

SOH comes across as a fairly sensible, straight up kinda guy to me.

Then he goes & presents at some drunken schmuckfest like this & undoes all the good work. Again.

Which in itself hardly engenders any great confidence in SOH.

What has TW got on him?

Doesn't SOH realise just how damaging hanging out with this lot looks?

The 10 "investment gurus" all look like they recently escaped from Wandsworth along with Khalife.

Thanks for highlighting mol, but I imagine most of us would rather gouge our eyes out than give this lot any custom.

Walp - you're welcome! Though I'd have to disagree that China is an unavoidable investment sector - even if it does have its fingers in a lot of pies! There are plenty of funds & trusts which manage to avoid it altogether.

Just to give one example, I hold Fundsmith Equity which has done OK over the years (though less well recently). That has zero direct exposure to China & performs quite nicely nonetheless (maybe because of!).

SMT's managers openly admitted their level of exposure to China had been a mistake. Thankfully they adjusted accordingly.

Enjoy the last few days of British summer everyone - let's hope SMT puts on a decent performance in the final quarter.

Chewlse & walp - FT states 7.88% holdings in China as of 30 06 23.

walp - I take your point about diplomacy. That said, in my view the West has -for many decades - sleep-walked into economic over-dependence on China. Which probably isn't the greatest idea when we're talking an unpredictable communist dictatorship with nuclear capabilities.

Still, at least we can console ourselves that wildtiger paid over the odds. Again.

wildtiger - "31/08/2023 Bought 2.01 250,895 5,047.94"

It's ALREADY gone below 2p. Bid's currently 1.95p. Why would anyone in their right mind want to buy something at 2p, only to be offered 1.95p days laterif they sold it.

Sure, they may be buying for the longer term. But it was pretty obvious the price would drop below the open offer. It usually does in cases like this. And normally not long after either.

"Lupus is a common critical illness with a huge market so any treatment passed by the FDA will be of value". Think we already knew that! The crucial bit is "passed by the FDA".

Lupuzor is still years off that at best. And the odds are it won't meet its endpoints again. If it does, then sure, IMM's share price will rocket. But it's a huge gamble still with multiple hurdles. Which is why the share price is where it is.

Formerlyeasyp - that’s as maybe - and good luck if you buy more.

IMHO, the important question is how much positive news can we expect in the short term? Tim anticipates there’ll be lots, which makes me assume there won’t be much.

So personally I can’t see any reason to buy in at current levels (however bombed out these may first appear).

But that assumes things will stay where they are. Whilst IQE has been fairly rangebound this past month, its trajectory has been firmly downwards over the last 90 days..

Results & outlook on 12th could well shake things up again (for better or worse), making recent short term trends an even less reliable guide to the future.

Walp - depends on the time she's likely to remain invested. Assuming we're talking a decade or more, even though she'd face steeper set up costs of £100, I'd still suggest iweb. There are NO annual fees with them and it only costs £5 per trade.

HL shouldn't "sting her on the way out" providing she initiates the transfer with her new provider and makes it clear she DOESN'T want the funds sold then re-bought.

You/she would need to check whether any transfer out fees were levied though. Also worth checking that iweb deals in the funds she holds.

Thanks for that lambo222. Like your previous running commentaries, we await the next episode with bated breath.

Buying at a lower price than you sell is generally the way to make money.

Only problem is, there's no guarantee once you've bought that the price will subsequently rise.

As I've said before, second guessing TEK's price direction by looking at trends in just one of its holdings is likely to end in tears.

Akin to putting a Ferrari engine in a Fiat Multipla, then wondering why people aren't falling over themselves to pay decent money for it.

Tambo210 - the ONLY investments where HL represents decent value are "UK and overseas shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, VCTs, gilts and bonds". There's no charge - other than dealing costs - to hold these.

Anything else, including unit trust & OEICS will incur an annual 0.45% fee which is extortionate: hTTps://www.hl.co.uk/help/charges-and-fees/fund-charges/funds/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hold-funds-in-an-hl-account

As you hold OEICS, I'd avoid HL like the plague. Take a look at iweb or Halifax instead.

Thefrogster - don't think so. Full detaills here: hTTps://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/fund-and-share-account/charges-and-interest-rates

Yes, I definitely WOULDN'T choose Hargreaves Lansdown for that very reason. Even if you've no fund investments currently, you might choose to in the future. And subsequently porting to another provider will be time-consuming at best and most likely costly too, with transfer fees involved.

Tambo210 - I've found Halifax pretty good, though mine are nearly all in an ISA rather than a trading account. Unlike another provider I used previously, Halifax seems to handle buy & sell limit orders well. And I've normally been able to trade online even during periods of high volatility.

The main thing to avoid is any provider charging a %, as this becomes hugely costly with anything other than a very modest holding.