Member Info for MrMath

"I can tell you from experience that I have made much more trading than holding."

Even if that's true, you need to be very careful you're not heading for a fall. Unless you're part of the industry and have access to timely and good quality information, most people who trade too often will lose in the long run.

I am now a confirmed 'buy when you see good value and hold' type of guy. This is making much more than regular trading ever was. My capital is up over 11% this financial year and my dividends are running at about 5.4%. A combined increase that is easily out-pacing inflation.

Hi Phyl,
Trading less these days as I like to be more cautious, but luckily all trades since June have been okay - so far: bought RIO at £48, ULVR twice at £36, LGEN at 209, 214 and 235p, and AAL three times from £27 down to £25. Bought into ULVR because it's another one that's been rather static over the last six years and could not see that situation continuing.
I believe the economic environment in which a company operates is as important as its financial fundamentals.

My only sale since June was GSK (sold for just shy of £18), but that was far more to do with what was happening with the company at the time rather than the economic environment. I'm just as cautious with my sales. Didn't really want the cash - it was earmarked for investment.

However, I'm still about 15 percent in cash at the moment. Not happy with the 1 percent instant access account but that downside is more than offset by the ability to dip into the market occasionally.

The AAL purchases were something I should have done sooner, but I had trouble burying the hatchet over the SXX debacle.

Some people believe that inflation can lower share prices and, occasionally, it does but only in the short term. Eventually, the SP must catch up as the company is not in real terms being devalued by inflation. Of course, the financials of the company must be solid for this logic to work. I have recently reduced my cash reserves due to our current levels of inflation.

The main driver will be inflation. Given that the SP has been rather static over the last eight years or so and that the business is reasonably solid I cannot see the current relatively low SP being maintained in an inflationary environment. I think this applies to quite a few other shares too. Now is a very good time to invest.

A share price of 390p is more than possible over the next year. Due to inflation, a lot of stocks will be playing catch-up in the medium to longer term. Now is the time to invest in something solid such as LGEN.

I'd rather live with the dividends and the increase in capital.

Own these too, and had no idea what was going on so sat on my hands with this one.

"With a 5-6 pence swing, buying back in, that's not a bad upside in a couple of days."
Doesn't really work for most of us (unless you have information in advance of the market). You need to time things correctly for well over half your trades, since there are buying costs and the 0.5 percent stamp duty to consider. Far better to trade over longer timescales or just stay invested, once you've bought a solid share such as LGEN, and collect the dividends.

"so why not pay up"
eccles, aside from the fact that I'm far from convinced using ISAs would make significant tax savings for us you've highlighted another reason why I am currently reluctant to use them even if I was convinced by the savings: we need to pay some tax and I am happy paying the amount I do. The most solid argument in favour of ISAs imo is the saving of hassle.

Hi cherryburn, we don't have much of our portfilio in ISAs for a few reasons: they cannot be in joint names; if you make a capital loss within an ISA then those losses cannot be used (had I been an ISA fan I definitely would have put Sirius Minerals in there, and that would have been a real nuisance!); have always managed to handle our tax situation sufficiently well outside the ISA wrapper that the savings, if any, would not have been that great (the recent tax increases could alter that situation) and I feel the ISA restrictions on capital (£20k per annum) would probably have had a negative effect on my trading strategy as well as increasing costs. However, the usefulness of ISAs is something I keep constantly in review.

"my average of 228p"
I'd be very happy with that! My average is still more than yours.

I bought LGEN four times recently from June onwards, at 242, 235, 214 and 209p as I was searching for a place for my GSK sale (dodged a bullet with that one) plus a few dividends that were homeless. As some have mentioned, going overweight on one share could be a bit of a problem. However, with the reduction in the CGT allowance (GSK has already used up mine and my wife's for this year) I will likely hold until the grave and be happy collecting the dividends. Feel confident that this is really a £3+ share.

"apart from on first payment it never gets it right!"
Hi johnpwh,
Agree, sometimes these systems need a little help. Occasionally I do some of the CGT calculations by hand, for similar reasons to those you've highlighted, but let CGTCalculator do most of the grunt work. Saves me a lot of time.

johnpwh
Let CGTCalculator do it for you: http://www.cgtcalculator.com/calculator.aspx
Maintain a table with your transactions where there are seven columns in each row: (1) Buy or Sell, (2) Date, (3) Ticker,
(4) Number of Shares, (5) Share Price, (6) Transaction Cost, (7) Tax.

For example:
B 11/06/2019 BP 5400 5.5578 12.95 150.06

Then when you need the calculation, just copy and paste into CGTCalculator. Been working fine for me for years.

As an aside, I think the reduction in the CGT allowance may make me less inclined to sell.

Still happy with my 209p buy. Also topped up on AAL (2588p) and RIO (4600p) recently. Really loving the cheap UK shares. Plenty of bargains to be had, including LGEN which (imo) will go well beyond 300p next year.

I invested in LGEN for both the dividends and the capital growth, especially at these levels. Thanks to the excellent dividends my overall investment is about 5% up.

Should have added that the report was published on Wednesday, so the market was slow to react but there were no doubt other drivers of Friday's rally.

China never said they would relax their covid zero policy. A state-run newspaper said that local officials are being warned against excessively harsh measures to control COVID-19. And some thought that it hinted at a relaxation of the policy, maybe within the next year. However, the same report also said China was still unswervingly adhering to the dynamic zero-COVID strategy by preventing the import of cases and internal rebounds.

"Time to cash out here "

Up more than 9% today, and still not time to cash out. Still a good time to invest. Much further to go over the next few months.

Just topped 11% up. Will it hold til close?

"is it really worth the hasle now with savings acc's touching 5%"

What hassle? Just stay invested and chill. Due to the good dividend RIO has given an annual return of over 8% in the time that I have been invested here. If it can do that during the tough times, it can certainly beat a measly 5% when good times return, and they will, as they always do. But if you're not invested it's easy to miss the uptick.