Q1 Portfolio/Performance update (+11%) Coronavirus and thoughts on where to go from here

Lots going on in the portfolio so I thought I would give a quick update.

At the end of Q1 I was +4% ytd, now (14/4/2020) I am c+11%.  This should be compared to the index which is -c22% now, at the low I was down c5% for the year. I feel a little bad posting this as lots of this is from non-usual (for me) trades… Many of these, I put on Twitter, unfortunately, I can’t post everything as it may move prices against me, particularly where I only sell half.  I know many of you are not twitter followers.  If you would like an e-mail when I tweet there is a service for that here.

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Porfolio Review Q1 2019

Quick Portfolio Review – Q1 has been pretty poor for me – up 1.3%. vs 9% for the FTSE All share.

This is despite being up at various points.  My general policy of not runing a stop loss has hurt me.  It might be time on my more liquid holdings to consider putting stop losses in.  This is very much a function of where we are in the cycle – likely near the top / end and not a general policy.  Whilst some people would say that not having stop losses is irredemably reckless I would disagree.

Warsaw Stock Exchange $GPW GPW.WA

Brief write up of the Warsaw stock exchange. I found this and think it is a rather neat idea. It is currently a 5.9% portfolio weight.

Exchanges used to be considered an typical natural monopoly – it’s inefficient to transact across multiple venues – any investor wants to be where the liquidity and best price is.  The Internet changes this, as prices can be advertised electronically  / deals can be done across multiple venues, but it still isn’t quite that simple – there are things such as settlement, regulation, risk and habit which potentially make switching exchanges difficult.

Fondul Proprietea raised stake + Others

Raised my holding in Fondul Proprietea 50%. It is now a 9% portfolio weight.

This is a Romanian investment trust trading at a discount to NAV – so very much my usual type of investment. It is managed by Franklin Templeton and is at a c45% discount to NAV (on the GDR) – very much too high given quality of management / assets and that action is being taken to narrow the discount.

It is listed on the LSE under ticker FP.  I covered it back in 2014 and have happily held it since 2012/3.