Fundsmith - Interesting article that considers recent stock disposals. The "do nothing" mantra is probably an aspiration rather than an end in and of itself. If an investment thesis doesn't play out it is best to sell quickly than to hold on and hope.

Do the right thing only when it is in your financial interest to do so? Brings to mind a certain film: “I am shocked to discover there is gambling here.”

All credit to @FT for the significant research resources on this story (and Wirecard previously) and its three writers. Enough of the backdrop is substantiated for the allegations to be highly credible IMO. How did he get away with it for so long?

@Quartr_App @Wexboy_Value @convictionhold @Matt_Cochrane7 @FundasyInvestor @dekleinekapita1 @Quality_stocksA @Stock_Opine @Ivan_Bolsa @HiddenValueGems $EPAM is in some emerging market funds but is also part of the S&P 500 technology sector. I think the founder comes from Belarus and there is a heavy presence there as well as Ukraine. An interesting company. But lots of the operations are in the US too I think.

Finsbury Growth & Income $FGT - Agree with the comments in this article. Why not make this Trust global. Scottish Mortgage became global sometime in the 2000s. $FGT is ridiculously concentrated IMO with the top 10 stocks circa 85% of assets.

@MarceloPLima $EL Estee Lauder forecasts are below. Some kind of a hiccup hitting this year's numbers that it will take a while to recover from. Both a revenue and margin hit. The key is returning to growth and building margins back up again.

@MarceloPLima $EL forecast P/E for 2025 is 26X versus L'Oreal at 28X. Near-term $EL looks expensive I think due to some earnings headwinds related to China. If they get back on track it might be reasonable a year or so out perhaps.

Estee Lauder $EL is now off 50% from its record high. Was a top ten for Fundsmith at the end of April 2023 and also the biggest position in Lindsell Train North America at 5.7%. Any lessons here? You can pay too much for quality? P/E had increased from 20X to almost 50X.

Blackrock Trusts - Very hard to invest in given the horrible garish colour scheme in their reports - pinks, yellows, black background. The below is for Blackrock Greater Europe Trust ( $BRGE ). Might go to the AGM just to question the weird graphic design choices. 🤔

The Fintwit Guide to engagement bate 1) economic and market weakness - this is 1929 all over again 2) tech sector weakness - the dot-com crash all over again 3) banking weakness - the financial crisis all over again 4) high inflation - this is the 1970s all over again. Etc… 🤔

@lhamtil Does that not raise the question of $PG only outperforms if there are significant bear markets? From 1995 to 2022 we had two major bear markets. So you need the rest of the market to experience at least one major drawdown for $PG to deliver stronger returns?

Easy to believe an investment strategy will work because it seems like a good strategy e.g. disruptive innovation (whatever that is). But the strategy is not going to work if the active manager picks lousy stocks as appears to have been the case with $ARKK.

A lot of the content from ARK Invest focuses on their strategy of investing in disruptive innovation. They don't seem to say anything about how well they are executing that strategy. So it comes across more as marketing and media bluster than anything else IMO.

$ARKK ETF - Worth considering active fund 1) strategy and 2) execution separately IMO. Even if you believe in the disruptive innovation strategy, $ARKK's execution has been poor. Top holdings include Zoom, Roku, Coinbase, Block & UIPath. Nvidia cut before the strong update.🤔

Blackrock Global Unconstrained Fund on 31st August 2022. Another game of 'rate this portfolio.' Or any thoughts/feedback. Thanks. (Fund highlighted by @MuzamelShah2).

Blackrock Global Unconstrained on 28th February 2022 and on 31st August 2022. Another game of 'rate this portfolio.' Or any thoughts/feedback. Thanks. (Fund highlighted by @MuzamelShah2).

@rhomboid1MF $PXC seeking to sell a bond at 8.5% to 20%. Is that enough compensation for the risk for the development of a copper project? If the project doesn’t come to fruition successfully bond holders presumably don’t get paid back. So it essentially has equity-like risk surely?

UK-focused fund manager during a presentation- The UK stock market might outperform for decades. Not sure whether they actually believe it or if it is just marketing. Every fund manager always says their area is set to outperform e.g. emerging markets, small caps etc.

Fintwit can be a great contrary indicator $NVDA.

@TSOH_Investing Very strong views on position sizing. My 2 cents is that everything in a portfolio should be good risk/reward. Then after that wouldn't you focus on risk? Very high-risk positions have a smaller % while lower risk a larger %. This avoids betting heavily on high-risk stocks.

Accurate a lot of the time! The more effusive the podcast praise and the greater the historical outperformance the weaker the future returns. The curse of podcast adulation!

The "Winning portfolios" part is a bit cheesy but refers to being able to take a holiday and relax i.e. not worry about market gyrations and setbacks. This means focusing principally on sound funds, being reasonably diversified and risk-profile matching. 2/n.

Looking forward to @MelloEventsUK 2023 starting tomorrow (23rd -25th May). If anyone is interested, I am presenting on Three Types of Fund tomorrow at Mello in the morning. Categorising funds helps to avoid the trap of having much exposure to 'exciting' high-risk funds. 1/n.