BeeBop does UK

[GTM 3442]

Fully agree with BeeBop about Internaxx. Access to a multi-currency account, and to all the markets I'm interested in (EXCEPT New Zealand).

I'm not sure what the setup process is these days - almost certain to be more difficult than when I did it - but they are internationally focused on the expat market, so it will be as painless as AML regulations allow.

I use them mainly for ETFS, with the occasional foray into individual shares. They've certainly opened my eyes about what's available in the ETF space - the granularity is mind-boggling.

[kiwico]

Fully agree with BeeBop about Internaxx. Access to a multi-currency account, and to all the markets I'm interested in (EXCEPT New Zealand).

Interactive Brokers is also very good with share costs typically being US$1-2 a trade. If trading the ASX if is typically AU$6 a trade. There is a minimum charge of US$10 per month if you hold less than US$100,000 cash or shares with any trading costs included within this US$12.

[BeeBop]

A good trading price....I haven't heard any negatives about IB which is a good thing.

[BeeBop]

Now that I am about to enjoy my summer in the Southern NZ winter; it is time for another update on my UK investing and hasn’t it been a volatile month or two!

SO far, I am up, again, but I expect the growth folio will continue to swing a little up and down. My good performers have been Alexander Darwell’s Jupiter European Opportunites (JEO) and Monks Investment Trust (MNKS). For JEO, the “little hassle” over Germany’s Wirecard (WDI) fraud accusation has gone away returning the fund to near its previous highs. The fund is quite concentrated and is dominated by WDI at around 16% so I do watch what is going on with WDI. Added to JEO, MNKS has been great. In fact, its performance now exceeds that of its big brother Scottish Mortgage Fund over 1 and 3 years (I think). I selected MNKS because I really liked its increased diversification and its careful balance in four key areas allowing a global balance and as it is my largest holding (fees now 0.5%); care was necessary because I don’t like negative returns very much.

On the other side, the education allocation of the folio, I have found that there is effectively near zero growth. Maybe, I should be thankful that it isn’t negative! Anyways, to deal with the fact that I believe I have selected some great income trusts and shares that will soon compound nicely, I bit the bullet and am putting the dividends into a lightly leveraged small cap fund called the Acorn Income Fund (AIF). It pays 5.3% and is made up of smaller cap UK companies, the leverage seems complicated to me but it does swing quite “nicely” both up and down. We shall see no doubt! And over time, things should be fine.

And of course, my single conviction stock (Trifast) produced a solidly boring annual update on Tuesday. At 16% of the growth folio, I am happy with this especially as the dividend is continually increasing, although the cover has reduced to around 2.4x (from 3x). Nuts and bolts seem to be popular at the moment and the company is growing gently taking into account its global footprint.

On a side note, I am thankful that I ignored advice and recommendations to buy into Woodford’s managed fund. The number of people who have told me he was a guru turned me off the fund. Personally, I found him a tad arrogant and he reminds me of characters I saw in my corporate years; he lacks humility. But I don’t like OEICs as it takes me too close to the GFC, I would rather a closed-end fund that has a good degree of liquidity.

I doubt that I will add any significant purchases this year to the UK folio. As the USD/NZD exchange rate is quite in my favour, I will push some cash down south for the next wee while and maybe take a wee holiday from shares. If there was any way I had the self-control, I would leave it all alone and “go bush” for a while and let it do its thing. Does going down to Stewart Island count as going bush?

Must get my life sorted out now as I hop onto my last leg of flights to NZ. I had the pleasure of enjoying a row of seats to myself last night in front of a deportee from the UK being escorted to Dhaka (there were five escorts and one medic). Needless to say, he wasn’t a happy Chappy and had a narrow vocabulary consisting of Mother F c k r on repeat. Having had a 20 hour stopover, I am ready for my ultra long haul night flight. I thank whoever it was that invented noise cancelling headphones.

[nizzy]

BB, enjoy the break and hope you make to Oban and Stewart Is. Wonderful winter weather at moment and with Trump & Xi talking again, we can expect markets to remain upbeat for a little longer...

[BeeBop]

BB, enjoy the break and hope you make to Oban and Stewart Is. Wonderful winter weather at moment and with Trump & Xi talking again, we can expect markets to remain upbeat for a little longer...

Nizzy;

Thank-you, I have booked and paid for the trip over - super keen on visiting Ulva Island there too.

Thankfully, I have been super busy so have not been spending too much time looking at the markets....mostly focused on preparing another wee property and have been in my ‘grease monkey gloves, swandri, beanie, and 1994 car with old tapes beating out of the ‘stereo’ with my wind-down windows!!...that is what I call a holiday.