The Lemon Fool

I held Scottish Mortgage, and sold it about Dec. Feel an idiot, volatile, but done so well lately!

fca2019 wrote:I held Scottish Mortgage, and sold it about Dec. Feel an idiot, volatile, but done so well lately!

Don't feel like an idiot: just buy back in!

Best wishes

Mark.

Ach, I've mentioned this before but many years ago I was sat in front of the PC trying to decide which of CTY and SMT I should choose as a monthly 'Share builder' investment in my non-ISA account. I had a small , similarly sized, holding in each (c £3k)
A binary decision and I still managed to **** it up.
CTY hasn't done bad, but I still look at SMT and think...if only. I guess the better yield (at the time) has softened the blow somewhat

I have a bit of history here, being weighted towards GSK in my ISA account, having sold off a bit of AZN. Doh!

Perhaps I should set myself up as a 'tipster' in two horse race scenarios? Buy my advice, and then do the opposite to make £millions

The Chairman's Statement in last week's results referred to upthread by UncleEbenezer and available here: https://www.investegate.co.uk/scot-mort ... 00059845M/ is worth a read for an impressively clear and well-argued setting-out of their investment philosophy.

SMT are firmly on my watchlist - I share Lootman's concerns that Tesla may be heavily overpriced and I think both Alibaba and Tencent (whose share prices have gone largely sideways in the last two years) could struggle to justify their current valuations (don't see where the growth can come from with the Chinese market saturated for both of them and linguistic/regulatory/political obstacles to expansion abroad).

But SMT's numbers over many different time periods are truly impressive.

It is surely also interesting to note the charges for SMT, at 0.36% compared to say Fundsmith, at 0.95% where the fund size is almost double that of Scottish Mortgage. Fundsmith is very popular on these Boards but Terry Smith is being greedy by the looks of it.

In itself that is not a reason to switch to SMT as they are very different funds, but just the same.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:It is surely also interesting to note the charges for SMT, at 0.36% compared to say Fundsmith, at 0.95% where the fund size is almost double that of Scottish Mortgage. Fundsmith is very popular on these Boards but Terry Smith is being greedy by the looks of it.

In itself that is not a reason to switch to SMT as they are very different funds, but just the same.

Dod

It does surprise me how low cost SMT is.

Cheaper than some trackers even.

I've heard the same comment levelled at Fundsmith before.

I have a fairly simplistic take on it which is so long as Terry is doing the job he's paid to do 1% seems quite reasonable.

If and when that situation changes I'm sure market forces will do their thing.

Dod101 wrote:Current share price £7.15. Wow!

Dod

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Aminatidi wrote:

Dod101 wrote:It is surely also interesting to note the charges for SMT, at 0.36% compared to say Fundsmith, at 0.95% where the fund size is almost double that of Scottish Mortgage. Fundsmith is very popular on these Boards but Terry Smith is being greedy by the looks of it.

In itself that is not a reason to switch to SMT as they are very different funds, but just the same.

Dod

It does surprise me how low cost SMT is.

Cheaper than some trackers even.

I've heard the same comment levelled at Fundsmith before.

I have a fairly simplistic take on it which is so long as Terry is doing the job he's paid to do 1% seems quite reasonable.

If and when that situation changes I'm sure market forces will do their thing.

I think the reason that SMT is so low cost is that the manager Baillie Gifford is organised as an unlimited partnership and so they have no conflict of interest. They simply do the best for their clients. Furthermore, fees for most active funds have reduced in recent years in response to the trend towards trackers with their very low fees. Terry Smith gets away with his outrageous fees because he has an almost cult following and most investors obviously display the same 'simplistic' attitude as you. Mind you I am just as bad because I hold Smithson where the OCF is 1% but at least it is a much smaller fund (£1.5 billion v around £20 billion for Fundsmith).

Can you imagine how much better the result for Fundsmith would be if their fees were only 0.36%?

Dod

ADrunkenMarcus wrote:

fca2019 wrote:I held Scottish Mortgage, and sold it about Dec. Feel an idiot, volatile, but done so well lately!

Don't feel like an idiot: just buy back in!

Best wishes

Mark.

I am being tempted (to buy SMT), but its SP is now even higher. Currently I hold MNL (London & Manchester), pending a buying opportunity.

Out of l7 holdings in one of my ISAs, SMT is the only one currently showing a profit, up 66.54% and I haven't held them all that long, with some recent top ups. Overall, that ISA's current holdings are showing a loss of 43.37% with only BHP close to the buying price. Now should I be tapering SMT as that holding's value is greatly out of kilter with the others or buying more with the £2k + cash sitting in the ISA with a trading credit due to expire in the near future? I have to say that none of the other holdings hold any appeal.

Urbandreamer wrote:I'm a fan of STM and have held them for five years, but it is high risk.

The top 10 holdings are an interesting read. BIG bets on Tesla, Amazon and Alibaba.

Actually, I don't think it is a case of big bets.
SMT got into these companies many years ago, and just held on. At some point, some of the unquoted stuff they have will IPO, and some of them will (hopefully) go on to be multi-baggers.
More a case of careful bets + running your winners?

torata

Bouleversee wrote:Out of l7 holdings in one of my ISAs, SMT is the only one currently showing a profit, up 66.54% and I haven't held them all that long, with some recent top ups. Overall, that ISA's current holdings are showing a loss of 43.37% with only BHP close to the buying price. Now should I be tapering SMT as that holding's value is greatly out of kilter with the others or buying more with the £2k + cash sitting in the ISA with a trading credit due to expire in the near future? I have to say that none of the other holdings hold any appeal.

I think your dilemma is common to a greater or lesser degree with a fair number of investors - as they see the rapid growth of their SMT holdings. Should I be selling SMT to preserve the profits, or should I be buying more? Trusting to luck, I'm continuing to run with a winner and have decided to very modestly top up my SMT holdings. I fear this is a guessing game.

scotia wrote:

Bouleversee wrote:Out of l7 holdings in one of my ISAs, SMT is the only one currently showing a profit, up 66.54% and I haven't held them all that long, with some recent top ups. Overall, that ISA's current holdings are showing a loss of 43.37% with only BHP close to the buying price. Now should I be tapering SMT as that holding's value is greatly out of kilter with the others or buying more with the £2k + cash sitting in the ISA with a trading credit due to expire in the near future? I have to say that none of the other holdings hold any appeal.

I think your dilemma is common to a greater or lesser degree with a fair number of investors - as they see the rapid growth of their SMT holdings. Should I be selling SMT to preserve the profits, or should I be buying more? Trusting to luck, I'm continuing to run with a winner and have decided to very modestly top up my SMT holdings. I fear this is a guessing game.

Spot on. My instincts are the same as yours but OTOH I can't forget the massive gains I was sitting on in the past which came and went and more recently with such as WH Smith and Greggs which evaporated when Covid 19 butted in. It is all a game of chance and I don't waste time trying to make sense of endless pages of Annual Reports any more. Que sera, sera. If Warren Buffet can get it wrong (value has been devalued apparently) , what hope does Doris have? Will the Chinese hardening attitudes affect Ali Baba and thence SMT? Will Musk's space odyssey end in tears and generate a depression? Haven't a clue, but I did get my dahlias planted today and enjoyed Michael Portillo's railway journeys in Malaysia while I ate my solitary supper. Sufficient unto the day ...

Scottish Mortgage is not without risk, in fact I daresay that it is much more risky than many shares. I have since 1 January extracted first 15% of the 1 January valuation and since then another 15% of the same valuation just to protect the gain. It is still my biggest holding and I intend to let it run now.

OTOH, talking of risk, HSBC has proved to be by far the worse risk. At 1 January, its shares were quoted at £5.91, now £3.79. The corresponding figures for Scottish Mortgage are £5.79 and £7.30. I was hoping to sell some HSBC at something over say £4.50!

Dod

To answer my original question, to over £8 would you believe?

Dod

Enjoy the ride!

I opted for Monks. I wanted a less volatile journey as I suffer from vertigo!!

Yes, I am now showing an 83.66% gain on SMT, still the only holding in that particular ISA showing a profit, so the ISA is still showing a loss of 37.66% on current holdings and nothing much in the way of dividends. Very depressing. Kicking myself for not buying more in a different ISA where there is spare cash. I do have a small holding in Monks as well in the other ISA but that has not done nearly so well.

richfool wrote:I opted for Monks. I wanted a less volatile journey as I suffer from vertigo!!

For the last several months there has been no volatility, only an upwards trajectory. It can hardly go on for ever of course. Closing at £8.06. Quite remarkable.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:Scottish Mortgage is not without risk, in fact I daresay that it is much more risky than many shares. I have since 1 January extracted first 15% of the 1 January valuation and since then another 15% of the same valuation just to protect the gain. It is still my biggest holding and I intend to let it run now.

OTOH, talking of risk, HSBC has proved to be by far the worse risk. At 1 January, its shares were quoted at £5.91, now £3.79. The corresponding figures for Scottish Mortgage are £5.79 and £7.30. I was hoping to sell some HSBC at something over say £4.50!

Dod

I really don't think is 'much more risky than many shares'. Their largest holding is Tesla at 11%, followed by Amazon at 9.3%. Then lots of other companies which each represent 5% or so of their portfolio. In other words it is spread over a number of very successful companies. One can't equate buying shares in an investment trust like that with the risk of buying shares in a single UK company. One could argue that Tesla could well go pop in due course but that is only 11% of their portfolio (coincidentally about the same percentage as Mr Darwell's fund held in Wirecard!)

I have never sold any SMT with the result that it is rather a large part of my total portfolio. I will let it run.