The Lemon Fool

These posts generally confuse me. On the back of a face ripping rally people are saying how disappointing their returns are.

And look, I'm going to say it - and I doubt this will win me many friends, but - you lot are obsessed with ITs and UK shares. I'm 70% US index tracking with a small tilt toward funds (global tech 12%, FTSE 100 5%) with the rest in 4 shares: Amex, Astrazeneca, Barratt, & LVMH. That's it. It seems a lot of people here are closet indexing through inefficient and costly holdings via ITs. I accept age and income generating portfolios play a part but please don't complain when you've got 50 different ITs, all basically tracking the same thing while wondering why your PF is in the bin.

This week for me has been a very slight down week after huge gains in November and December. I've topsliced some positions and reinvested in the S&P 500.

elephanthunt11 wrote:These posts generally confuse me. On the back of a face ripping rally people are saying how disappointing their returns are.

And look, I'm going to say it - and I doubt this will win me many friends, but - you lot are obsessed with ITs and UK shares. I'm 70% US index tracking with a small tilt toward funds (global tech 12%, FTSE 100 5%) with the rest in 4 shares: Amex, Astrazeneca, Barratt, & LVMH. That's it. It seems a lot of people here are closet indexing through inefficient and costly holdings via ITs. I accept age and income generating portfolios play a part but please don't complain when you've got 50 different ITs, all basically tracking the same thing while wondering why your PF is in the bin.

This week for me has been a very slight down week after huge gains in November and December. I've topsliced some positions and reinvested in the S&P 500.

This is a gross generalisation. Who are “you lot”? My approach couldn’t be further from what you describe. I hope you’ll still be happy with your overweight S&P500 position at the end of the year.

I did a valuation last weekend. I'd had a pretty good year.

I just did another, down nearly 2% in a week.


If it continues like this there'll be nothing left by next Xmas

Paul

Hi ElephantHunt11.

I think your first and last sentences/paragraphs are fine in this topic.

I think the middle one is both out of place and has a number of aspects open to challenge. It would probably be suited to a new topic - possibly with a reference back to this one as its genesis.

In context, I won't directly comment on any aspect of the middle paragraph on this topic.

Regards, Newroad

elephanthunt11 wrote:These posts generally confuse me. On the back of a face ripping rally people are saying how disappointing their returns are.

And look, I'm going to say it - and I doubt this will win me many friends, but - you lot are obsessed with ITs and UK shares. I'm 70% US index tracking with a small tilt toward funds (global tech 12%, FTSE 100 5%) with the rest in 4 shares: Amex, Astrazeneca, Barratt, & LVMH. That's it. It seems a lot of people here are closet indexing through inefficient and costly holdings via ITs. I accept age and income generating portfolios play a part but please don't complain when you've got 50 different ITs, all basically tracking the same thing while wondering why your PF is in the bin.

This week for me has been a very slight down week after huge gains in November and December. I've topsliced some positions and reinvested in the S&P 500.

Looking at this thread back to pre recent rally I see discussions on performance but I don't see any complaining going on so perhaps that's a matter of your interpretation.

Across all your investments you've allocated about 75% to the US so you must be feeling quite pleased with yourself just now but in 30 odd years time when you're approaching retirement your allocation will probably look different to how it looks now.

simoan wrote:

Gerry557 wrote:2024 does start off on a down week. Not a great fall but has broken that winning cycle. If there are another 6 more down weeks it will probably be time to buy something.

Could just be selling into the Santa rally. I’ve top sliced some holdings that were looking fully valued over the Xmas period, the latest of which was following Lord Wolfson and selling some Next at £85 yesterday.

Also the US tax year ends on December 31st. so folks wanting to sell their winners (up 24% in 2023) wait until early January to postpone taxes for a year.

simoan wrote:

elephanthunt11 wrote:These posts generally confuse me. On the back of a face ripping rally people are saying how disappointing their returns are.

And look, I'm going to say it - and I doubt this will win me many friends, but - you lot are obsessed with ITs and UK shares. I'm 70% US index tracking with a small tilt toward funds (global tech 12%, FTSE 100 5%) with the rest in 4 shares: Amex, Astrazeneca, Barratt, & LVMH. That's it. It seems a lot of people here are closet indexing through inefficient and costly holdings via ITs. I accept age and income generating portfolios play a part but please don't complain when you've got 50 different ITs, all basically tracking the same thing while wondering why your PF is in the bin.

This week for me has been a very slight down week after huge gains in November and December. I've topsliced some positions and reinvested in the S&P 500.

This is a gross generalisation. Who are “you lot”? My approach couldn’t be further from what you describe. I hope you’ll still be happy with your overweight S&P500 position at the end of the year.

It may be something of a generalisation but has come to be my experience. And apologies - “you lot” was a flow of the moment type of thing and wasn’t intended with any rudeness. As for my positions my I’m total US about 60% in fact, I think the US generally has way better prospects than elsewhere for many reasons so I’m very comfortable.

Week 3 of this year and another down week. I was looking for x4 in a row to add more but one of the days last week was quite a big drop so I have used up all the remaining cash from the EPIC forced sale.

I dont know if that big drop will lead to an up week next or just a continuation of the slide as nearly all the santa rally has gone but he might want to shake the snow off his boots.

I normally take ages to type things but I got this message

"You cannot make another post so soon after your last."

Aye, it's a dry January for sure.

Well it was an up week!

I thought it might be after 3 down weeks and a big daily drop at the end. So adding the remaining cash into the market might have been ok, well for now.

Im not sure which way the wind will blow next. Up or down I cant think of any reason it couldn't do either or. I suspect I will hold onto any dividends awaiting the next 4 weeks in a row fall.

Jan's income is looking like it will be down on the prior year as expected. Just have to keep an eye out that it catches up later on.

Gerry557 wrote:Well it was an up week!

I thought it might be after 3 down weeks and a big daily drop at the end. So adding the remaining cash into the market might have been ok, well for now.

Im not sure which way the wind will blow next. Up or down I cant think of any reason it couldn't do either or. I suspect I will hold onto any dividends awaiting the next 4 weeks in a row fall.

Jan's income is looking like it will be down on the prior year as expected. Just have to keep an eye out that it catches up later on.

Overall the month has not been very interesting so far but this last week has been encouraging. Having made few changes to my portfolio, my January dividends are up a little. I expect February to be down though because I sold half of my BAT holding and they are a high yielding share.

Dod

No new money has entered my SIPP for a few years.
Last year 31/12/22 to 31/12/23 was +16.33%

This year so far -:
week ending
01/05/2024 -1.37%
01/12/2024 +1.18%
01/19/2024 +0.26%
01/26/2024 +1.64%

Currently at ATH by some margin. All in various index tackers; global and dev world, plus L&G100 and VUSA. Besides 0.8% in SMT there are no other IT's.

Easy sleeps every night.

clunk wrote:No new money has entered my SIPP for a few years.
Last year 31/12/22 to 31/12/23 was +16.33%

This year so far -:
week ending
01/05/2024 -1.37%
01/12/2024 +1.18%
01/19/2024 +0.26%
01/26/2024 +1.64%

Currently at ATH by some margin. All in various index tackers; global and dev world, plus L&G100 and VUSA. Besides 0.8% in SMT there are no other IT's.

Easy sleeps every night.

I thought at first that you had a good crystal ball but I suppose you are using the US convention of showing for instance 5 January 2024 as 01/05/2024. I recognise that as 1 May 2024.

Whilst we are here, what do you mean by ATH?

Dod

Currently at ATH by some margin.

Some like cryptic crossword puzzles, but I'm stumped on this one.

All Time High ?

Dod101 wrote:I thought at first that you had a good crystal ball but I suppose you are using the US convention of showing for instance 5 January 2024 as 01/05/2024. I recognise that as 1 May 2024.

Whilst we are here, what do you mean by ATH?

Dod

As posted above, yes, all time high.

Despite trying I gave up fighting the US date style MDY within Excel. It does make lists easier at a glance but overall I still prefer UK style of DMY as it makes more sense.

clunk wrote:Despite trying I gave up fighting the US date style MDY within Excel. It does make lists easier at a glance but overall I still prefer UK style of DMY as it makes more sense.

When working at my employer to define a new global software system, we decided on ddmmmyy (27Jan24) as the date format to be displayed on screens and printouts. Worked globally (americas, europe, asia) with no confusion, and became the standard in spreadsheets etc. Excel interprets it as a date, it's sortable in a spreadsheet. I've used it ever since in everything I do

--kiloran

kiloran wrote:

clunk wrote:Despite trying I gave up fighting the US date style MDY within Excel. It does make lists easier at a glance but overall I still prefer UK style of DMY as it makes more sense.

When working at my employer to define a new global software system, we decided on ddmmmyy (27Jan24) as the date format to be displayed on screens and printouts. Worked globally (americas, europe, asia) with no confusion, and became the standard in spreadsheets etc. Excel interprets it as a date, it's sortable in a spreadsheet. I've used it ever since in everything I do

--kiloran

right click on the "offending" date. This brings up a menu

select format cells ..number ...date

change the 'locale' to English (United KIngdom)

select one of the dates that start with an asterisk * (example * 14/03/2012)

(note the text about dates responding to regional changes - hence set to Blighty!)

monabri wrote:

kiloran wrote:When working at my employer to define a new global software system, we decided on ddmmmyy (27Jan24) as the date format to be displayed on screens and printouts. Worked globally (americas, europe, asia) with no confusion, and became the standard in spreadsheets etc. Excel interprets it as a date, it's sortable in a spreadsheet. I've used it ever since in everything I do

--kiloran

right click on the "offending" date. This brings up a menu

select format cells ..number ...date

change the 'locale' to English (United KIngdom)

select one of the dates that start with an asterisk * (example * 14/03/2012)

(note the text about dates responding to regional changes - hence set to Blighty!)

Yes . I must say I have never had any problem with dates in my preferred style in Excel, using the helpful stuff that monabri has highlighted.

Dod

kiloran wrote:

clunk wrote:Despite trying I gave up fighting the US date style MDY within Excel. It does make lists easier at a glance but overall I still prefer UK style of DMY as it makes more sense.

When working at my employer to define a new global software system, we decided on ddmmmyy (27Jan24) as the date format to be displayed on screens and printouts. Worked globally (americas, europe, asia) with no confusion, and became the standard in spreadsheets etc. Excel interprets it as a date, it's sortable in a spreadsheet. I've used it ever since in everything I do

--kiloran

True... it works
But the one true correct answer is YYYYMMDD(HHmmSS)
Cos it works in a sort even if all you have is alphanumeric parsing