Scottish Mortgage Invest... Share Discussion Threads

[lord loads of lolly] 20/2/2024 09:26

Bye steeplejack.

When I last checked, the UK was still a democracy. So you & I are equally entitled to our differing views (whilst staying within the law).

Sadly, paying for premium membership doesn't grant you power of veto. Any more than paying to be a member of the Tory party improves their (now zero) chance of winning the next general election.

[quepassa] 19/2/2024 14:11

sorry to see you go, steeple.

i thought you spoke with great wisdom and experience in all of your posts and brought a refreshing and intelligent approach with you.

[steeplejack] 19/2/2024 11:29

Well not the NASDAQ which has continued to hit new all time highs over the last year or two.PCT is also at an all time high.SMT remains a half of its all time high.

Anyway,i’ve said enough so i’ll wish you happy days and goodbye.I’m pretty confident that SMT will experience further recovery and unlike some,quite appreciate the somewhat contentious large holdings in private companies.

(Incidentally,if hadn’t a holding in SMT,would that in someway,invalidate my comments.Afterall,i’ve been a PREMIUM member here for years and contribute to keeping the lights on.Yet,I don’t object to FREE members like Loads of Lolly having their penny’s worth!)

[hazl] 19/2/2024 11:18

I think your comments might have been better placed before it went down.
A lot of the market has been similarly affected.

Now perhaps some people might say , there is value?

[steeplejack] 19/2/2024 10:26

Yes i hold SMT and have for sometime.i bought the stock a few years back and all went well for awhile but as you’ll be aware,the stock has more than halved since the stock was around 16 quid and traded at a premium to assets.

I would consider my comments to be constructive criticism.The company has an excellent track record albeit in the last couple of years it has fallen behind the likes of ATT and PCT whose long term track record is now superior.Things don’t stay the same for evermore and one wonders whether Andersen’s departure doesn’t signal a wind change.Most investment trusts concentrated in the US (especially the Nasdaq ) market have enjoyed exceptional success in the last quarter of a century,especially compared to those invested primarily in the UK.If you want doe-eyed appreciation of SMT,you’re not going to get it from me.Tesla was a coup for SMT but that flagship holding was replaced by Moderna which has been anything but a success.Not a good choice.Moderna might have fallen below Nvidia and ASML as percentage holdings but this is primarily because of a dreadful underperformance by the former.You see,the SMT managers aren’t infallible,who is!No worry,if things don’t improve the stock will slowly but surely slip down the rankings and will barely draw comment.

PS You see,in some of my portfolios,i’m actually running a loss in SMT and i’m more than interested as to analyse why.The same doesn't apply to PCT and ATT .I would reiterate that i don’t hold significant holdings of investment trusts.

[hazl] 19/2/2024 06:53

Que Passa very interesting thank you.

[steeplejack] 18/2/2024 21:03

Interesting....am i right in thinking that you would have outperformed SCM if you'd been in PCT and ATT over the same period ie to Feb 2024?

[quepassa] 18/2/2024 13:57

HAVE YOU OUTPERFORMED SCOMO??

----------------------------------------------------

ISA's began in their current format twenty-five years ago in 1999.

If you had invested your full annual ISA allowance every year since then (£306,500 in total subscriptions) into ScoMo, your ISA pot would now be worth £1.64 million.

For those who have used their full ISA allowance since 1999, it's easy enough to check and compare.

The following fascinating new article in IT Investor about Investment Trust ISA millionaire-makers refers:-

hXXps://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2024/02/trust-isa-millionaires-the-2024-edition/


If you have outperformed ScoMo - well done.

If you haven't- you'd be better off playing golf and letting ScoMo do it for you!



all imo. dyor.
qp

[hazl] 18/2/2024 12:55

The thing about funds is that they spread their risk.
Nvidia keeps getting mentioned but that is because it is excellent at the moment.
Sectors go in and out of popularity all the time.
Some of SMT's choices might well be flavour of the month in the future when tech stocks drag and so on.

It's horses for courses.

[steeplejack] 18/2/2024 11:09

Blimey,what a fuss.I'm not saying i know better,i'm simply saying that i consider a couple of years quite sufficient time to adequately appraise how a trust is performing.There's nothing 'perverse' about that,what is remotely 'perverse' about questioning that the 5 year term recommended by those marketing the fund is of a rather long duration. If you're happy to give the managers five years to demonstrate the efficacy of their investment decisions,then good on you,very generous.It's useful to examine the list of major holdings held by a variety of trusts from Berkshire Hathaway to SMT to PCT,to get ideas.I find trusts very useful in that respect but i don't necessarily wish,as a matter of policy, to give a fund 5 years before assessing the trusts performance.A lot changes in 5 years.

[lord loads of lolly] 18/2/2024 10:36

steeplejack - ANY Fund Factsheet is by its very nature a “blanket recommendation”;. Managers clearly aren’t going to know an individual’s circumstances, portfolio or risk appetite.

But IMHO it’s just perverse to think you might know better, ignoring managers’ guidance on minimum recommended investment timeframes, simply because you’ve “worked for years in the City” or believe your circumstances somehow differ from the norm. And to then use this same rationale to judge a trust over far shorter periods than its fund managers recommend defies any logic.

As for your direct US holding in Nvidia, I don’t really see any relevance there. Holding one individual share is a totally different proposition from buying into a trust with multiple holdings - including in several unlisted securities. There are obviously going to be extra fees involved with the latter, as it’s a far more complex proposition which an individual investor could never fully replicate.

[steeplejack] 16/2/2024 12:51

I'd add that when i buy Nvidia in the US,i do it through a US broker who doesn't charge commission,i'm not subject to stamp duty and neither do i pay an investment trust fee.

[steeplejack] 16/2/2024 12:20

That’s a blanket recommendation which takes no account of individual circumstances or the size of holding in the context of an overall individual portfolio strategy.Anyway,i worked for years in the City and as a Fellow of Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment probably mistakenly believe that i don’t have to pay homage to the all embracing recommendation of investment trust marketers.Moreover,fund managers come and go,often within a five year period.If you’d sold SMT when Anderson left,you would have done rather well.l like to have a direct holding in the likes of Nvidia and ASML,which i do.My holdings in investment trusts are relatively small.

PS That said,if you want to go with a the 5year guideline,fair enough.Makes for an easier life.

[lord loads of lolly] 16/2/2024 12:02

steeplejack - re: investment timeframes, I'd argue you're best off heeding whatever the fund managers suggest (providing they don't keep changing their tune).

As you say, there are no hard & fast rules. But SMT has consistently marketed this fund as a 5 year+ hold. So why ignore this in favour of your own 2 year view?

If investors might need some/all of their capital back in less than 5 years, then clearly SMT isn't really suitable for them. But that doesn't make the consistenly stated 5 year timeframe any less valid.

[steeplejack] 16/2/2024 10:59

You're right of course.Whilst its very relevant to point to the fact that the fund has large holdings in the likes of ASML and Nvidia, it also has that Moderna holding which is down over 20% ytd which has weighed on the NAV.Also,the likes of ATT and PCT have a much larger percentage of their trust in the likes of Nvidia.Banging on about Nvidia is a rather good publicity for those investment trusts :)Should you take a five year perspective on a selected investment?There are no hard and fast rules but frankly five years is a long time,longer than the duration of the first world war.Most analyst forecasts over a couple of years begin to look like star gazing and so ,i tend towards a two year view.

[quepassa] 16/2/2024 09:46

ASML continues to make new all-time-highs this week at Euro 875.

A major jump from last October's Euro 550's.

And going strong.


ASML is ScoMo's largest holding at 8% of portfolio (31/1/24).



all imo. dyor.
qp

[lord loads of lolly] 14/2/2024 09:39

takeiteasy - according to SMT's share chart on Google, it hasn't dropped anything like 3% YTD. More like 1%. And if you'd checked two days ago, it was actually UP YTD.

A meaningless timeframe anyhow, as is 1 year really. If holders might need their capital back in less than 5 years, they really shouldn't have invested here in the first place. The fund facts document which you're obliged to download before investing makes that quite clear.

[takeiteasy] 14/2/2024 06:52

Please explain why when Nvidia is up 49% YTD and clearly a great investment choice (alongside ASML, Amazon, Ferrari, Shopify etc) and Nasdaq is up 6% YTD, SMT as a whole is down over 3% YTD - surely there is more to discuss here than just Nvidia.

If you look at the performance tab on SMT website they quote FTSE all world index as their reference point which is up over 5% 2024 YTD. So 8% tracking error already in less than a couple of months in 2024 (as context SMT c.9% also down over 1 year too against this index) - I wonder why....

dyor etc

[hazl] 13/2/2024 07:22

Above
Datacentre custom chip market could swell to $10 billion this year and potentially double by 2025
Dev Kundaliya
clock 12 February 2024 • 2 min read

[hazl] 12/2/2024 22:22

Just to lighten the mood.

DYOR