Holding winners for longer and selling losers faster is a well-established rule of thumb for investors and traders alike. The idea is to offset the natural response of most people, which is to quickly sell winners (in order to lock in profits) … [Read more...] about Should you let winners run and cut losers quick?
Investment strategy
Why one-year investment performance is a terrible metric
Yesterday I published my investment performance review for 2017 and in it I mentioned my portfolio's one-year performance since the start of 2017. That was a mistake. Maynard Paton pointed out that in my 2016 year-end review I said this: To be … [Read more...] about Why one-year investment performance is a terrible metric
How to Pick Quality Shares: A book review
Phil Oakley’s new book, How to Pick Quality Shares, details a three-step process for selecting profitable stocks. It’s the kind of investment book I like because it’s mostly focused on numbers and ratios, and it approaches the topic of investing … [Read more...] about How to Pick Quality Shares: A book review
My journey to a million pound portfolio
One million pounds is a lot of money. It’s more than enough for most people to retire on, and becoming a millionaire remains a long-term dream for many. That’s why I’ve chosen one million pounds as the new long-term goal for my defensive value … [Read more...] about My journey to a million pound portfolio
Some more questions to help you avoid yield traps
Last month I outlined six questions designed to help investors avoid potential yield traps. This month I’ll cover four more. These four questions, plus the six from last month, look for a variety of warning signs including: bad management … [Read more...] about Some more questions to help you avoid yield traps
How many defensive shares should you hold?
If you’re a relatively defensive investor like me, you probably like to have a decent number of defensive shares in your portfolio. But what number should that be? Or more correctly, what proportion of your portfolio should be invested in … [Read more...] about How many defensive shares should you hold?
6 Questions to help you avoid yield traps
As a dividend-focused investor I’m always on the lookout for high yield shares, whether that yield is high relative to the market average or high relative to the company’s peers. However, as most yield-seeking investors soon discover, high yield … [Read more...] about 6 Questions to help you avoid yield traps
How I find long-term dividend growth stocks
Although I think of myself as investing in defensive value stocks, I could just as easily call them dividend growth stocks. That's because finding companies with a good combination of dividend yield and dividend growth is absolutely central to … [Read more...] about How I find long-term dividend growth stocks
Regular investments: How I add new money to existing shareholdings
Most investors make regular investments into their portfolios as they work towards retirement. But what’s the best way to do that? Should new money be used to buy more holdings or to top up existing holdings? And if it’s going to be used to top … [Read more...] about Regular investments: How I add new money to existing shareholdings
Should you sell your shares when a company starts to underperform?
At some point you’re going to buy shares in a company and then that company’s is going to issue a profit warning, stop growing or perhaps even cut its dividend. The question then is: What to do next? You have three main choices: Buy more … [Read more...] about Should you sell your shares when a company starts to underperform?