This week was shortened by the upcoming Queen’s birthday long weekend holiday – which we hope everyone was able to safely enjoy!
We did not do too much this week, as the markets have been less volatile, but still looking overpriced and vulnerable to any new shocks again. June is often a relatively quiet month as many people are now turning their attention towards having another summer break (i.e. Northern hemisphere). So there is usually very little happening for the next couple of months to disturb the markets but then things get very busy and volatile when people return to work by August. We are almost break-even in a global sense and it may even seem pointless but we are gradually setting ourselves up for what we hope are better opportunities. Remember that Luck is what happens when Preparations meets with the Opportunity! So we are positioned for both market upsides as well as having cash if it falls. This is the balancing act of successful investing!
The portfolio has returned back into profits and only time will tell if this lasts and that’s what investing is about. Giving them time to produce the results that we hope for. Please feel free to individually ask me for more details about the reasons for the decisions we are making about the companies selected. As it would take a lot of time to put down all the reasons for each company here but we know that everyone is struggling for time as we are all very busy with life! Plus the situation is changing all the time and in a few months time the information could become obsolete or change significantly.
If you would like better details of the above, please look at the spreadsheet we keep to manage these and that are clearer below. (I may need to change the screenshot program?)
The Bell Potter broker account is currently being used to access what I would call a Core part of the investments. This Core part is invested in consistent managers that are good at the older and well established companies that are generally better at producing regular dividend income. As it’s sometimes important to have liquidity (i.e. cash), companies with positive cashflows are doing well again because they are expected to handle any potential inflation outbreak better than small companies that need capital to continue to grow their businesses. The link being that smaller companies often may need to borrow and higher interest rates makes things more difficult for them because Larger companies have the advantage of being able to borrow at lower interest rates (in addition to raising equity if they need it). Not much to report here yet as the small negative returns are largely due to the costs they charged us on the “buy/sell” spread margins. Now time is needed to generate the returns we are hoping for. We did finally get the ANZ share account opened after many delays by them. Then I was advised that Interactive Brokers now offers access to Managed funds but we still need to see if they have the ones we like? So more about these managers and brokers next week!
The cryptocurrencies are still going nowhere, up one day then back down the next, and the battle about their future relevance is still being sorted out. Again, there were costs to initially invest in these, and time is needed for this to be resolved if it’s good or not? Let’s just hope we are riding the right wave and it still has a way to go!
