About UK Value Investor

Hello. My name is John Kingham and I’m the founder and editor of UK Value Investor.

UK Value Investor is a website and monthly investment newsletter for defensive and dividend-focused value investors.

I originally launched this website as a personal blog back in 2008 as a way to connect with other UK value investors. I also found it useful to write publicly about my evolving strategy and research techniques as it enforced a degree of rigour that might otherwise have been lacking.

In 2011 I started publishing a monthly e-newsletter as a side project to my day job, where I worked as an insurance software analyst. However, at the tail-end of that year my employer ran into some problems and I was made redundant. In a moment of madness, I decided to switch from software analysis to investment analysis, since I found analysing companies more interesting than analysing software.

Since then I have been working full-time as an investment analyst and researcher, publishing the results of my work in the monthly UK Value Investor newsletter.

I am also the author of The Defensive Value Investor, which was published by Harriman House in 2016. I also write for other publications, most notably the regular Dividend Hunter column for Master Investor Magazine.

I hold the Investment Management Certificate from CFA UK.

About the UK Value Investor newsletter

I publish a monthly investment newsletter for defensive and dividend-focused value investors. It’s mission is to provide investors with tools and information to help them build high quality, high yield portfolios.

One of the main features of each issue is the model portfolio. This portfolio is managed according to the defensive value investing strategy and subscribers get to see every detail of the portfolio and how it’s managed.

Over 90% of my family’s investments are in the same stocks as the model portfolio.

Subscribers also have access to a unique stock screen which makes up the first stage of each buy or sell decision, as well as the worksheets and spreadsheets which are used to analyse companies. In short, every part of the investment process is completely transparent.

From its inception in 2011, the model portfolio has achieved each of its core goals, which are to have a higher yield, higher total return and lower risk than the FTSE All-Share.

Why investors subscribe to UK Value Investor

• It’s factual. My research is based on facts as much as possible and speculation is kept to a minimum.
• It’s educational. I keep jargon to a minimum and explain what I’m doing as fully and as clearly as I can.
• It follows a sensible, hype-free approach. My approach is calm, free of hyperbole and focused on quality companies and long-term results.
• It has a good track record. The newsletter’s model portfolio has beaten the FTSE All-Share since inception in 2011, with a higher yield, higher growth and less risk (although of course future results are not guaranteed).

Values, beliefs, standards

My one overriding goal is to show investors how they can build high yield, high growth, low risk portfolios by applying defensive value investing principles. This takes priority over everything else and the newsletter’s core principles are encapsulated in the following list:

• Be professional. Put subscribers’ long-term interests first.
• Eat your own cooking. Virtually all of my family’s investments are held in exactly the same companies as model portfolio.
• Be transparent. Make public the model portfolio’s performance results as well as the final results of every individual investment.
• Focus on improvement. Work hard to learn from every investment, whether good or bad. Learning should never stop because nobody is perfect, not even Warren Buffett.

UK Value Investor subscribers should:

• Be committed to achieving good results
• Have a long-term outlook
• Be able to cope with market declines without panicking at the first sign of trouble
• Accept that the future is an uncertain place and be willing to invest despite that uncertainty
• Ask questions if they’re unsure of anything, even if it seems like a daft question
• Give honest and detailed feedback on what they do or don’t find valuable in their subscription