The Lemon Fool

Even the Guardian, in an article casting aspersions on Rishi at length, then had to admit:

"The Treasury said all the proper procedures for declaring interests had been followed, and that decisions about what to declare were not taken by ministers themselves but by civil servants and independent advisers.

A Treasury spokesperson said the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests “confirmed he is completely satisfied with the chancellor’s propriety of arrangements and that he has followed the ministerial code to the letter in his declaration of interests”."

There has been plenty of 'sailing close to the wind' by politicians of the other parties (I recall the Mandelson/Robinson affair years ag) but all this is very OT isn't it?

Back on topic, I see the Tesla share price has now gone over $700 ($714 ATM). Bruce and Tom must have nerves of steel!

Laughton wrote:Always interesting to hear what James Anderson and Tom Slater have to say - Investors Chronicle interview podcast released today:-

https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/po ... in-energy/

It's free and you don't have to be an IC subscriber.

Thank you. Worthwhile.

Think I am going to top up my rather small holding.

I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73.

Tesla seems to go up 5% every day. It is already the 6th biggest company on the planet by market cap and is poised to overtake Facebook soon, at this rate.

Lootman wrote:

Dod101 wrote:I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73.

Tesla seems to go up 5% every day. It is already the 6th biggest company on the planet by market cap and is poised to overtake Facebook soon, at this rate.

Tesla - surely that has to be a bubble? There must be a correction coming, drop of >20%?

bluedonkey wrote:

Lootman wrote:

Dod101 wrote:I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73.

Tesla seems to go up 5% every day. It is already the 6th biggest company on the planet by market cap and is poised to overtake Facebook soon, at this rate.

Tesla - surely that has to be a bubble? There must be a correction coming, drop of >20%?

Yup inevitable but when? In the meantime buy today for 5% a day.

I'm sure SMT will know better than I when to sell Tesla and have plenty of other glowing irons in the fire.

joey wrote:I offer my apologies to any existing holders. You see, I finally took a position in SMT yesterday. After thinking it was too expensive at £8-ish. Of course, we know where it’s now headed.

On a slightly more serious note. James Anderson and Tom Slater speak a lot of sense. I read & listened to their musing. A bit late in the day vs some here, but hopefully not *too* late in the day.

Welcome from old hands like me who bought way way back in May 2020.

I don't remember quite when I first bought (the record is obscured by the move from my SIPP to my drawdown SIPP when I took the lump sum). But I know the price dropped from £10 to £2 shortly afterwards.


... when they had a 5:1 share split.

I first bought at 130p (adjusted for 5:1 split). Don't worry, there were catastrophes as well, but you can't lose more than 100% on a share, whilst if you leave it to multiply 9 times, that offsets a lot of catastrophes! A good argument for letting your winners keep on running.

I bought SMT about 3 years ago for my SIPP as it went into drawdown, this was alongside several other investment trusts, one of those being RIT Capital partners. We all know what has happened to SMT in that time. I have reduced my holding by a third and it's still comfortably my largest holding. This does worry me.
What also worries me is that another of my modest starting portfolio, the aforementioned RIT, has done nothing, it is worth now virtually what I paid for it. This worries me more. Of course they are very different trusts for very different times, and their day will surely come, again, eventually. I just wonder if it's time I moved my money to somewhere where I can get a modest return of the long term, say VWRL or other tracker. Of course if there is a bubble forming in US equities then this would not only affect SMT but also VWRL, which has 55% in the US and of course all the mega-caps.
My Morningstar portfolio tracker says that overall I am up 63.35% in those three years, so maybe I should just stick with what I hoped would be a balanced portfolio for the long term and live with the likes of RIT, and SMT.
I guess that this is the time to continue doing nothing.

MM

Apologies if this has already been posted, but holders of SMT may find this interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpBESgEo3m8

MM

Very interesting. My grandson is in his first year at Sussex, doing a business degree and owns some SMT in his ISA. I must ask him if he has come across the Prof. mentioned, whose name I couldn't quite catch. I'll forward the link to him. Now he's 18 he needs to learn how to manage his investments.
My SMT holding (I started buying them in May 2017) was up over 158% last time I looked and have turned my ii ISA from a thundering loss to a small profit. I wish I had started investing in ITs long ago. In the days when one had a broker, they were never mentioned. The other one I own, Monks, has gone up very little by comparison yet I believe is still 2nd highest in the performance table for last year which shows what a star SMT is. Long may it shine. I can't forget that I lost all my money in a trust or fund run by Slater's father many years ago so I don't take anything for granted.

MaraMan wrote:Apologies if this has already been posted, but holders of SMT may find this interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpBESgEo3m8

MM

Thanks for that. It makes a refreshing change from the way most investment managers go about their business I must say. I wonder how long they keep us this success? Anyway I am very glad to own them I must say. Despite my best efforts they remain comfortable my biggest investment.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73

I think a lot depends on what happens after covid. If we 'return to normal ', or if this is the new normal. I think the upward trajectory is that the disruptor technologies are going to keep on growing, and SMT would benefit.

I do think this is looks quite possible. Exciting in many ways, but worrying in others.I

In the future it's possible we could all have autonomous EVs, no offices or shops, working only from home, fully automated factories run by robotics, a fully internet and cashless society. Leaving only technically skilled jobs in a smaller workforce. Plus would be more leisure.

on the other hand things could stay pretty much as they are, not really sure.

Adamski wrote:

Dod101 wrote:I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73

I think a lot depends on what happens after covid. If we 'return to normal ', or if this is the new normal. I think the upward trajectory is that the disruptor technologies are going to keep on growing, and SMT would benefit.

I do think this is looks quite possible. Exciting in many ways, but worrying in others.I

In the future it's possible we could all have autonomous EVs, no offices or shops, working only from home, fully automated factories run by robotics, a fully internet and cashless society. Leaving only technically skilled jobs in a smaller workforce. Plus would be more leisure.

on the other hand things could stay pretty much as they are, not really sure.

Heaven help us if this is the new normal. I (and the other widows and widowers) are still waiting for Phoenix Life to pay us the correct annuity payments with the correct deduction of tax on the correct dates. That's what happens when everything is automated, with input from incompetents presumably, and everybody is working from home and nobody notices or can answer any queries. I am without buildings or contents insurance a.t.m. because the insurance company failed to send me renewal details in time, then failed to answer my queries, then failed to ring me back at all. I gave up in disgust but I will probably need valuations to start afresh with another company and it would be a waste of time trying to get those at present. Lucky I am not going anywhere. You won't convince me that efficiency and productivity will not suffer when everyone is working from home, still in their beds with a tray table over their legs; that's when they are not doing the decorating or gardening or going for walks. Sounds like a recipe for total chaos to me. I object to being held on the phone at my expense for over an hour while waiting for someone to fail to resolve a problem, which happens all too frequently.

Adamski wrote:

Dod101 wrote:I started this thread asking where Scottish Mortgage is heading. The only answer seems to be who knows? Tonight closing at £12.73

I think a lot depends on what happens after covid. If we 'return to normal ', or if this is the new normal. I think the upward trajectory is that the disruptor technologies are going to keep on growing, and SMT would benefit.

I do think this is looks quite possible. Exciting in many ways, but worrying in others.I

In the future it's possible we could all have autonomous EVs, no offices or shops, working only from home, fully automated factories run by robotics, a fully internet and cashless society. Leaving only technically skilled jobs in a smaller workforce. Plus would be more leisure.

on the other hand things could stay pretty much as they are, not really sure.

I think it inevitable that such disrupter technologies will continue to grow. Progress has always been thus.

However there is no direct correlation, let alone causation that investors in such technology will be rewarded for that investment. Valuation (based on market interpretation of future growth) and future growth itself might not even go in the same direction, let alone move together.

Adamski wrote:
In the future it's possible we could all have autonomous EVs, no offices or shops, working only from home, fully automated factories run by robotics, a fully internet and cashless society. Leaving only technically skilled jobs in a smaller workforce. Plus would be more leisure.

We already do. That's why most jobs are in service sectors. Some of them life-enhancing, e.g. in the arts or in hospitality.

I bought some more SMT today on a slight dip at 12.50. I have been wanting to top up for a while and they don’t seem to be going down very much for very long. I can’t see them dropping in the near future as financial results are coming up from the likes of Amazon and Netflix at the end of January and I would be surprised if they were bad....