Only one chick hatched this year (again) and is thriving; just twelve days old and growing like Topsy.
That’s the good news. Recently I have done well with a portfolio skewed towards tech stocks. Now the tide has gone out. My main portfolio lost 15% in the first quarter of this year and has added to that loss this month. A ban on Indonesian palm oil exports hasn’t helped. I’m glad I carry some ballast in the form of McInroy & Wood’s Balanced Fund and Personal Assets. Vietnam is holding up well but I hope it will not attract the greedy attention of China, so I’m not adding in that department. I am going to put my annual ISA allowance into Monks investment trust. I am tempted by Bill Ackman’s fund: Pershing Square. Not to be sneezed at, it is in the FTSE 100 and trades at a 38% discount to Net Asset Value. You might like to take a punt but I don’t want to add anything new to my portfolio. Ackman is only fifty-five so has plenty of gas in the tank and while I wouldn’t trust him to make scrambled eggs he has a good track record making money for himself ($3.2billion) and his investors. Buy the dip?
Geopolitical events are making the trip on the investment roller coaster a bumpy ride with every indication things will get worse before they get better. My ship’s not coming in anytime soon.