Basket of Seven: 2018 review

[Luniversal]

Most grateful to all 40+ Lemon Fools who have thanked me for this flying visit of a prodigal son.

I kept stats for the Basket of Eight (a 'juicier' but short-termist alternative in income ITs) and will update it in the autumn if anyone is interested. The 'Growth Ten' ITs (global, for capital gain) and 'Conviction Five' (wealth preservation) look quite canny also.

OT, my real-money High Yield Portfolios from the FTSE100 (2011-) and FTSE250 (2012-) indices are delivering the goods. These are are based on vintage, strict pyadic principles: bought with lump sums and never voluntarily tweaked since. They yield more after derisking than a B8 bought at the same times, and have behaved more sedately than HYP1.

Sounds as if I might have to get busy on the boards again... well, busier.

Again, thank you all very much.

[Vince56]

Luni,
It was thanks to you that I first became aware of, and then bought investment trusts. Your posts were great for someone like me, who had no prior experience of the stock market.
Thank you, and I look forward to reading your future posts.

[Breelander]

Sounds as if I might have to get busy on the boards again... well, busier...

That would be most welcome.

[eyeball08]

Got me interested in ITs too Luni and I liked the style. Welcome back indeed.

[vrdiver]

As others have said, "welcome back"!

When I started reading your posts in "the other place", I found them annoying and frustrating to read due to their length, but one day I discovered I wanted to look up something you had discussed, and it was your stream of posts that became most useful to me. It was your posting that introduced me to the world of ITs and their potential candidature as things I might hold (albeit any decisions and their subsequent frustrations are acknowledged as mine alone).

So welcome back indeed, and please do post your updates and commentary: I hope you open up the concept of Investment Trust investing for income to others, as you did to me (when it finally sank in).

Very best regards
VRD

[melonfool]

I read everything I could including Luni's posts and associated comments from others, and plumped for B7a (plus CTY as I have an aversion to odd numbers)

But, but......7 isn't any old odd number, it's a PRIME number! It is magical, special....not to be overlooked....

Mel

[BrummieDave]

I read everything I could including Luni's posts and associated comments from others, and plumped for B7a (plus CTY as I have an aversion to odd numbers)

But, but......7 isn't any old odd number, it's a PRIME number! It is magical, special....not to be overlooked....

Mel

It's pretty odd when you're trying to split the total between two ISA accounts, for me and Mrs BD! Such are the decisions upon which we invest...

And don't forget, for posterity, the B8 started life as a 10 IT basket until British Assets and Shire were shown the door, and also there was once a BLite proposed with 10 ITs. But as someone with an irrational leaning towards the number 4, and any derivative of it, I'm happy with 8

Although I have since added to it, thus disturbing the initial beautiful symmetry of it all

If Luni is minded to hang around on LF a little longer, perhaps in addition to the updates he (do we know he isn't a she?) suggests higher in this thread, an updated B7a providing "goodish immediate income with hopes of longer and stronger real increases in purchasing power than the Basket of Eight (B8)" could be discussed? This may interest any posters still looking to invest new money with these ongoing objectives. Much has happened to the B8 and B7a ITs since the baskets were first 'released', as well as the increasing global nature of the investing world mentioned earlier.

[Mulberry]

Somewhat belatedly - I am in the process of moving and haven't logged on for several days - I too would like to express my delight at Luni's return.

Mulberry

[funduffer]

Welcome back Luni!

I would like to thank you for introducing me to IT baskets for income. Following your B7 and B8 endeavours, I started by IT portfolio 5 years ago, and it has really done the business so far.

I didn’t just copy B7 or B8 but chose IT’s from both based on yield, discount and dividend reliability. I also added a couple of others for international diversity.

The result is increased capital and a rising income, as explained in my recent 5 year review:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12064

I could never have achieved this without your knowledge and gift of communication!

Once again, welcome back!

Gratefully, FD

[mickeypops]

I'd like to belatedly add my thanks to Luni for his sterling work over the years and to thank him for introducing me to Investment Trusts. Although I was somewhat dubious at first, I came to appreciate the benefits of using ITs to drive income for my recent retirement. I sincerely hope he contributes more regularly in future - few of us have the diligence to record and report so meaningfully on investment related data.