“Megan the sheepdog is moving to the US after being sold for £18,900” (Metro, 23rd February 2020).
Bertie needn’t worry; there’s no price tag on him but sometimes it’s good to sell something and that’s what I did this morning. Five years ago I bought a boring investment trust, Brunner. In 2016 I explained why. I’m sorry to say goodbye to Brunner but it has gone up 67% in five years, or would have if I hadn’t spent the dividends. Why did I decide to sell this morning? FTSE is down 3% because of the ‘flu. Big moves in the market tend to be triggered by something. Remember the storms in the UK in 1987 and Black Monday?
Equities have had a great run since the last collapse in 2008 and I reckon they will tumble again because of the virus; but when the virus peters out they will not recover as fast. If, like me, you are a long term investor shrug your shoulders because, sure as eggs, they will bounce back sometime. I look at the market most days but only occasionally value my portfolio. For no reason, I did this on Saturday morning and noticed that my previous valuation was in June 2019. Next time I take a look I expect it will be worth twenty or thirty percent less. The two biggest dogs I have are Vietnam and Marks and Spencer, both in an ISA. The Vietnam funds I carefully curated in 2018 are down more than 6% this morning! It’s worth mentioning that Brunner charges less than 0.1% and the Vietnam funds some 2% so the dice are loaded against me. Well, if I’m right I know that even the bad times are good.
You might probably be right this time around Christopher, but it will not surprise you that my
SIPP portfolio manager Mr. Ken Fisher has just advised his faithful flock, just like Lance Corporal Jack Jones of the Home Guard platoon in Dad’s Army would have said, ‘DO NOT PANIC, DO NOT PANIC’ !
In a way Ken’s right because as always the market will recover sometime, if my gloom ‘n doom is right, and maybe I’m wrong – I hope so.