Merchants Share Discussion Threads

[poikka] 27/12/2020 12:06

History won't be much of a guide for the next couple of years, things have changed so much: technology; divi cuts and debt reduction; massive unusual trading opportunities; online shopping boost; Brexit...

Read what the investment managers have to say in their reports.

[zac0_4] 27/12/2020 11:37

mister md - thanks for the link. It will be interesting to see the effect of finally removing the Brexit issue from market sentiment.

A quick look shows my UK listed dividend paying holdings having delivered an average loss of -17% year to date, including dividends! By comparison my investments for capital growth have delivered an average gain of +19%.

My dividend portfolio needs to deliver for me this year or I see little point in continuing to hold! I'd be happy with 5% share price growth over the next 12 months as, coupled with dividends, that should deliver around 12% total return. Let's see what 2021 brings.

[tim 3] 24/12/2020 09:47

Indeed I think when you take emotion out of it most people think its better to have some sort of deal certainly for business than none at all.

[joe say] 24/12/2020 07:51

And the country

[pj fozzie] 24/12/2020 01:27

Looks like the news on Brexit deal is positive. Strong speculation that there will be an annoucement in the morning. Should give a bit of a boost to MRCH.

Cheers,
PJ

[mister md] 23/12/2020 19:07

MRCH not performing much worse than overall FTSE then. For low risk, high dividend yield, this should be a core holding in any portfolio imho

[zac0_4] 23/12/2020 16:05

jeffian, many thanks. I didn't realise!

[ctrader3] 23/12/2020 13:02

ADVFN stopped all https links from working years ago, guess they didn't
want posters to leave their esteemed bb's.
they haven't, yet, got around to blocking the adapted links.

[jeffian] 23/12/2020 12:33

zac, I did it for you before! If you change the https to hTTps it will form a link.

[zac0_4] 23/12/2020 12:17

Tim3 - yes, I'm a long term investor. I think the debate regarding 'growth' vs 'value' investing is an interesting one. One of my best performers this year has been LF Blue Whale Growth Fund. It's up 27% over 12 months and that's on top of 29% the previous 12 months. The fund manager, Stephen Yiu, has just released a podcast sharing his views on what's behind the success. I've attached a link which will take you to it. He makes some interesting points as to why some US stocks have totally outperformed UK stocks, and are likely to continue to do so, over the next 3 -5 years. I think it's around 19m30secs in. hxxps://moneyweek.com/investments/investment-strategy/602424/stephen-yiu-in-a-low-quality-market-buy-only-the-best-stocks

[tim 3] 23/12/2020 00:13

Zac

Good to see you looking at the long term.

If and its a big if their is a longer term trend back into value stocks then there could be lots more upside.Trends usually go on for much longer than people think often for many years.Personally not sure there is enough evidence to see how serious a move this is but have the majority of my portfolio in S&P trackers so happy to keep this to add some balance although I think if the US does take a drastic turn to the downside these will still be heavily hit especially with this being a geared fund.

[zac0_4] 22/12/2020 22:57

As you say it always looks good when the share price is heading north. This is a fairly substantial investment for me. On that basis I prefer to judge performance based on facts. This is still down almost 18%, including dividends, over a 12 month period. I'll continue to hold for the next 12 months. A 5% capital growth figure over that period coupled with 7.15% dividend will deliver over 12%. Surely that's within reach given the current share price position. If so, I'll be satisfied with that and will re-asses in 12 months time.

[tim 3] 22/12/2020 19:16

Looks good but always does when shares going up lol.

[zac0_4] 22/12/2020 18:20

See attached link. This is the latest update from the fund manager along with the latest factsheet. Hopefully it's of some interest.

hxxps://intouch.rdir.com/customtemplates/templates/ALD-/MerchantsTemplate181220web.html

[ctrader3] 18/12/2020 13:20

The following were the best performing London-listed investment companies in November, excluding trusts with market capitalisations below GBP15 million:

Best performing funds in NAV terms with % change:

Chelverton UK Dividend Trust PLC 31.6

Aberforth Split Level Income Trust PLC 30.1

Temple Bar Investment Trust PLC 25.1

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust PLC 23.5

Blackrock Latin American Investment Trust PLC 21.5

Aurora Investment Trust PLC 21.1

TR European Growth Trust PLC 21.0

Merchants Trust PLC 20.8

Aberdeen New Thai Investment Trust PLC 20.5

Acorn Income Fund Ltd 20.4

[ctrader3] 16/12/2020 07:49

tks, plenty of info to research there

[zac0_4] 15/12/2020 22:47

If people have read my previous posts they'll know that the majority of my income comes from drawing down capital from funds. For me this approach has proved far more profitable than the dividend paying trusts and individual shares I own. I'm in the process of reviewing my holdings for 2021 with the view of possibly moving away from some of my funds to the equivalent investment trust ie Polar Capital Global Tech Fund to Polar Capital Tech Inv Trust. Purely to save on platform costs. During my research I've found some links which might prove useful to others. These provide data on the Top Performing Funds, Top Inv Trusts and Top ETFs to December 2020. Maybe of use.

hxxps://media-prod.ii.co.uk/s3fs-public/pdfs/TopfundsDec2020.pdf?avjChI78P6cBtpENF6i4y0PE4o_QKX8n=

hxxps://media-prod.ii.co.uk/s3fs-public/pdfs/ToptrustsDec2020.pdf?EHQncimmSjhtF7pIn4y80juj9gBoHFjs=

hxxps://media-prod.ii.co.uk/s3fs-public/pdfs/ExhangetradedfundsDec20.pdf?AiCi3Cg_WIfghe6HqSDWRnC8voCKMqyx=