What are you buying today?

[Wizard]

Quite possibly, quite possibly not. But I still think I'd rather hold a basket like CTY yielding 6% rather than a single name like ULVR yielding 3.8%, hence filter #4, wouldn't you ?

Clearly, but the question in my mind is will CTY be yielding 6%. Goodness only knows in the current market, staying well clear for now. I suspect some who jumped in a few days back will be licking some rather deep wounds at the moment.

I note that those that bought a couple of weeks ago and those who 'love' falling markets are silent now. They have just paid rather expensive tuition fees but that always happens. And buying Centrica? Well Cheltenham was last week so I guess no harm in a flutter.

The only thing to do at the moment is to stand back.

Dod

Compared to many Flutter has held up relatively well
If you can't laugh you'll be crying at the moment.

[moorfield]

I note that those that bought a couple of weeks ago and those who 'love' falling markets are silent now. They have just paid rather expensive tuition fees but that always happens.

At least they can console themselves with the epithet that the time to buy was then.

I will stick to my one buy a month routine I think.

[OLTB]

I note that those that bought a couple of weeks ago and those who 'love' falling markets are silent now. They have just paid rather expensive tuition fees but that always happens.

At least they can console themselves with the epithet that the time to buy was then.

I will stick to my one buy a month routine I think.

Morning all - having only been investing for a few years, and made a lot of mistakes, I am with moorfield here. I have been very tempted to buy 'something' over the last week or so, but have held off and will be sticking to my normal regime of buying at the beginning of the month. What that will be, I don't know yet, but there seems to be plenty of options!

I'm just grateful that I (currently) have a flow of dividends that top up my SIPP cash account that enables me to do this as I am, and always have been, fully invested.

Cheers, OLTB.

[Arborbridge]

Buy on the way down, sell on the way up, is an old market adage. Easier said than done and I'm not sure how much I'd go along with it anyway!

Personally, I rather agree with Dod that one should stand back and see what happens - there will be time to buy in as confidence returns. My hidden chartist comes out at such moments - I would rather be buying into a market which has just come from a low, than one which just came from a high.

But also as a HYPer, I can see that the yields on offer are pretty tempting, and not all dividends are going to collapse. Who cares if the price fall further and the yield increases except on the rather usless basis that one might have done better.

Luckily, this I am in the fortunate position of not having too much cash (other than income reserve) to invest so I am not fretting.

I am fairly certain that the way back for the stock market will be slow-ish rather than rapid (as 1987, perhaps) so there will be time to come in gradually if that is your wish. Buying in regular amounts spread over the next year might be a thing, and I definitely wouldn't go all in one go ...but maybe that's just my personality.

Arb.

[88V8]

Already China and S Korea seem to have infections under control. Factories will re-open. Eventually it will be realised that this is mostly a fuss about not much, and the market will recover and we'll kick ourselves for missing the boat.
So even though last week's buys now look expensive, I'm still buying.
CTY at 289 today.
MRCH also down double-digits, maybe one for tomorrow.
I'll try to limit myself to one a day.

One of my tiddlers CLIG that has been doing very well, has fallen 29% today with no apparent cause. Presumably a big sell somewhere.
Best to stick with the biggies atm. I see IMB is pretty stable this morning.

As regards new options, be interesting to see what debt levels are being carried by Smith DS, a share that Mr Fahrenheit also flagged up recently.

There was a site - some may recall- called Dividend Champions, that ranked Cos by years of rising divis. It also showed the cover. But not the debt. It was through that site that I got into Interserve and Carillion. The past not a guide etc etc.

V8

[Wasron]

Having updated the prices on my spreadsheet this morning I see that Unilever, National Grid and Primary Healthcare Properties are all over 150% of median.

On every previous occasion in the last seven years I would have trimmed and recycled the funds, but this morning I’m wavering.

On a ranking basis the funds would go to:

Micro Focus
Marstons
Carnival
Legal and General
Petrofac
Centrica

(in that order)

Am I brave enough...?

Are Micro Focus, Marstons, Centrica and Carnival on the way to going bust...?

Interesting times

[moorfield]

Slightly O/T but I do have to get my trades pre-approved by my employer, usually a day or so before I intend to buy. That may be a blessing in disguise at the moment as it stops me going on sprees when the mood takes me ... (viz, Vodafone for a quid).

[Dod101]

Slightly O/T but I do have to get my trades pre-approved by my employer, usually a day or so before I intend to buy. That may be a blessing in disguise at the moment as it stops me going on sprees when the mood takes me ... (viz, Vodafone for a quid).

I do not hold Vodafone and am certainly not tempted but I would have thought for those who are tempted to buy anything at the moment the most important factor (apart from the perceived sustainability of the dividend) has surely got to be debt levels and debt covenants because as with all of us cash is king at the moment. I am certainly pulling in my horns on a personal level and my aim is to try to get personal spending down by about 25%. I bet most companies will be doing at least the same.

Dod

[miner1000]

Slightly O/T but I do have to get my trades pre-approved by my employer, usually a day or so before I intend to buy. That may be a blessing in disguise at the moment as it stops me going on sprees when the mood takes me ... (viz, Vodafone for a quid).

I do not hold Vodafone and am certainly not tempted but I would have thought for those who are tempted to buy anything at the moment the most important factor (apart from the perceived sustainability of the dividend) has surely got to be debt levels and debt covenants because as with all of us cash is king at the moment. I am certainly pulling in my horns on a personal level and my aim is to try to get personal spending down by about 25%. I bet most companies will be doing at least the same.

Dod

Being a recent transplant recipient and well over 65 I am in the very high risk group. So I am trying to get my personal spending up by about 200%. Otherwise the kids will have it and it will be at 300%

[BhotiPila]

Nothing! I'm waiting at least till Tuesday late morning for the markets to absorb the weekends news etc.

The rate of growth in CV deaths in UK is possibly falling. Famous last words.

We went 11 -> 21 on saturday (+90%), 21 -> 35 on sunday (+66%). So *perhaps* it's ramping down. But it's impossible to predict!!

No, sorry, its perfectly possible to predict. We are couple of weeks behind Italy, we don't have the social controls in place that they had/do. The number of cases and deaths will continue to rise exponentially in UK for at least the next month. Possibly much longer as by the end of next week the NHS will be completely overloaded and the death rate will really start to rise; pre-COVID-19 NHS bed occupancy was already 98%. We do not have enough protective masks, oxygen masks,ventilators, nurses or Drs (our Drs/nurses are not trained or equipped for the pressures they will shortly face). Italy has more beds per capita and a better resourced/equipped health service, especially in the North. And yet, in some hospitals they have not been intubating patients >60yrs because they do not have enough equipment and prioritise the young (science). If you need intubation and you do not get it, you die, horribly. IM-not-very-HO the situation in UK will be significantly worse than in Italy (relative lack of resources) but not as bad as in the US (management, coordination, access, systemic inequities).

As to buying. I believe the falls will continue over the coming month or so as the reality of our situation hits home. I don't have the knowledge or expertise to identify shares that will do well in/after this situation although I think Unilever and L&G will both hold-up well in terms of sales and profits - but I'm already overweight in both. So I'm thinking more of collective investments which would, hopefully, be more stable such as CTY and also VWRL and VUSA; when the collapse is more advanced and more stabilised maybe 4-6 weeks?? What are the prospects for the Finsbury Growth and Income Trust and FundSmith in these circumstances?
BP

[idpickering]

Having updated the prices on my spreadsheet this morning I see that Unilever, National Grid and Primary Healthcare Properties are all over 150% of median.

On every previous occasion in the last seven years I would have trimmed and recycled the funds, but this morning I’m wavering.

On a ranking basis the funds would go to:

Micro Focus
Marstons
Carnival
Legal and General
Petrofac
Centrica

(in that order)

Am I brave enough...?

Are Micro Focus, Marstons, Centrica and Carnival on the way to going bust...?

Interesting times

Of your picks there my only yes would be LGEN.

Ian.

[kempiejon]

On a ranking basis the funds would go to:

Micro Focus
Marstons
Carnival
Legal and General
Petrofac
Centrica

(in that order)

Am I brave enough...?

Are Micro Focus, Marstons, Centrica and Carnival on the way to going bust...?

Interesting times

Centrica and Petrofac are cutters, Marstons has always been too small even without current falls for my HYP. I like MIcro and L&G and both have had money from me in the past 12 months. Carnival cut in 2008 but have recovered OK but things look tough for the next few months or perhaps even years in my opinion.

[Arborbridge]

No, sorry, its perfectly possible to predict.

It's perfectly possible to predict, but not possible to predict perfectly


Arv.

[monabri]

Bog roll and paracetamol (where available).

[Wasron]

On a ranking basis the funds would go to:

Micro Focus
Marstons
Carnival
Legal and General
Petrofac
Centrica

(in that order)

Am I brave enough...?

Are Micro Focus, Marstons, Centrica and Carnival on the way to going bust...?

Interesting times

Centrica and Petrofac are cutters, Marstons has always been too small even without current falls for my HYP. I like MIcro and L&G and both have had money from me in the past 12 months. Carnival cut in 2008 but have recovered OK but things look tough for the next few months or perhaps even years in my opinion.

In the end I sat on my hands. The shares whose prices aren’t falling so much are doing so for a reason. I’ll reassess in a week, which is a long time given the development of current events

[Arborbridge]

Sitting on hands is my preferred option. There's more to go yet, in fact I see a full blown crisis as the economy winds down like a clockspring. Amazing how quickly things can unravel, and I'm not convinced the ramping up will be as quite as Johnson and Trump optimistically think.

Wait and see. Buy in small dollops over six months or a year and test the water slowly if you want to.


Arb.

[Dod101]

Sitting on hands is my preferred option. There's more to go yet, in fact I see a full blown crisis as the economy winds down like a clockspring. Amazing how quickly things can unravel, and I'm not convinced the ramping up will be as quite as Johnson and Trump optimistically think.

Wait and see. Buy in small dollops over six months or a year and test the water slowly if you want to.

I agree Arb. I think that we should have much more Draconian measures in place although that would net help the market. Who would have thought we would see Shell at around £10 or Smithson now below its issue price? How complacent we all were (in retrospect of course) I am doing nothing and am going to cut my expenditure by 25%. Not so difficult seeing as there will be no eating out or entertainment for a while.

Dod

[colin]

Bog roll and paracetamol (where available).

Why no cough mixture?

[moorfield]

I agree Arb. I think that we should have much more Draconian measures in place although that would net help the market.

Let's go further. Perhaps LF HYP Practical should be shut down for 12 weeks?

I think I will be sitting on my hands for the rest of the year now, and take stock (*) in January. In the meantime I can accumulate a decent cash reserve, ready for all the rights issues next year


(*) if I have any left, that is ...

[Dod101]

I agree Arb. I think that we should have much more Draconian measures in place although that would net help the market.

Let's go further. Perhaps LF HYP Practical should be shut down for 12 weeks?

I think I will be sitting on my hands for the rest of the year now, and take stock (*) in January. In the meantime I can accumulate a decent cash reserve, ready for all the rights issues next year


(*) if I have any left, that is ...

Frankly I wish we could ban any coronavirus threads. I try not to read them but they crop up everywhere on this site.

Dod