Lucky escapes

It is time to look at some of the stocks that I considered, rejected, and that didn’t do well. I don’t tend to write many posts about companies which I am not interested in so it is hard to track my past thinking without resorting to my (poor) memory. I think I will make more of an effort to write up bad stocks next year, they can still offer good learning points.

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The ones that got away

It’s that time of year; everything seems to be winding down, everyone is looking forward to a well deserved break over Christmas and time becomes scarce as free moments are taken up with shopping for gifts, writing cards to relatives you haven’t spoke to all year, and of course, eating all those cakes and mince pies. It is a great time to look back over the year and contemplate the good times and the bad times, to hopefully learn some new lessons for next year.

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on some of the companies I’ve followed this year, who’s stock prices have rocketed. Unfortunately for me, I have either sold too soon, or not bought at all. I’ve tried to hold back the tears while writing this.

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Most investors should beat the market

Almost all investors assess their performance against ‘the market’. The premise is that if you are spending time actively managing funds then to make it worthwhile you should at least beat a simple tracker fund which would take no effort whatsoever.

But just how easy is it to beat the market? Looking at the performance of most mutual fund managers you could be forgiven for thinking that it isn’t easy at all! The fact is a lot of managers fail to beat the market, while the ones that do, like Warren Buffett, are catapulted to stardom as heroes of the industry. But I would argue it is easier than people think

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