cwah
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Post by cwah on Jul 1, 2020 20:35:39 GMT
Hello How is your portfolio composition in order to minimise risk? I used to be very overweight in P2P and have been on all the big platforms (Lendy, Fundingsecure, Moneything, Growthstreet, Mintos) with load of default on them: As more and more defaults happened, my portfolio shrunk gradually (very painful to write off massive losses) but it made the other asset classes bigger and bigger. At the moment I'm a bit overweight on stock so I'd like to move more into commodity and increase my cash position. I won't touch bonds as they pay nothing and are all-time high and would rather stay in cash than buying bonds. I'm also stopping any position on P2P due to having burnt too hard and just have a smaller % waiting for recovery to happen (hopefully not needing to write this off as well) How's your portfolio? And how's surviving the pandemic?
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hazellend
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Post by hazellend on Jul 1, 2020 21:08:35 GMT
I am in a DB pension scheme so don’t feel much need for bonds.
I am 90% equities 10% p2p. I keep a small float of cash < 5k My desired allocation is 100% equities (all world index).
I have no interest in commodities/bitcoin/gold/ etc. I’m happy with whatever exposure I get to these through my all world equities.
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Post by failedtheturingtest on Jul 1, 2020 21:22:17 GMT
I get what you mean about bonds, but as they say, you hold bonds for stability, not for return. I was mighty glad to have 21% in bonds when the stock market bottomed in March - my stocks dropped hard, but my bond fund hardly moved at all.
I'm currently 13% cash, 21% bonds, 61% stock index funds or ETFs, and 5% P2P. I'm focusing now on building up cash, partly for a major purchase but also because I expect stock markets might have another wobble later this year when the second wave of Covid hits us, the government turns off the economic support taps, Brexit gets done, the US election gets messy... lots of uncertainty to look forward to!
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macq
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Post by macq on Jul 1, 2020 21:33:43 GMT
Hello How is your portfolio composition in order to minimise risk? I used to be very overweight in P2P and have been on all the big platforms (Lendy, Fundingsecure, Moneything, Growthstreet, Mintos) with load of default on them: As more and more defaults happened, my portfolio shrunk gradually (very painful to write off massive losses) but it made the other asset classes bigger and bigger. At the moment I'm a bit overweight on stock so I'd like to move more into commodity and increase my cash position. I won't touch bonds as they pay nothing and are all-time high and would rather stay in cash than buying bonds. I'm also stopping any position on P2P due to having burnt too hard and just have a smaller % waiting for recovery to happen (hopefully not needing to write this off as well) How's your portfolio? And how's surviving the pandemic? Not a bond expert but you say about minimising risk and that's what they have been used for by most multi asset funds/wealth preservation IT's like say Capital Gearing rather then say looking at massive gains i.e with junk bonds.To be fair the first quarter of this year was an example when maybe Global funds dropped 10 - 15% Gilts went up 7% as really like holding Gold you would not expect them to all be going up at the same time. It seems bonds Govt/Corp have been written off for what seems like a decade or more now and in that time even a simple index fund like Vanguard UK govt bond (or a gilt etf) has annualised returns of 6% which comperes with the lower rate p2p like RS (but maybe not as much fun ) Like i said not an expert and that could change in the future but as an older poster still see bonds as part of my portfolio moving forward and have just added some ethical/sustainable bonds within a pension
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cwah
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Post by cwah on Jul 1, 2020 21:36:40 GMT
I get what you mean about bonds, but as they say, you hold bonds for stability, not for return. I was mighty glad to have 21% in bonds when the stock market bottomed in March - my stocks dropped hard, but my bond fund hardly moved at all. I'm currently 13% cash, 21% bonds, 61% stock index funds or ETFs, and 5% P2P. I'm focusing now on building up cash, partly for a major purchase but also because I expect stock markets might have another wobble later this year when the second wave of Covid hits us, the government turns off the economic support taps, Brexit gets done, the US election gets messy... lots of uncertainty to look forward to! I was 30% treasury bonds just before the stock market crash. At that time at 2.5% it was still worth it. But now they yield 0 and are expensive as well. At the current level bonds are already at all time high and don't have much chance to gain value. And not only this, it doesn't bring much interest as well as having risk of losing value if stock recover. For stability and liquidity, I thin cash is a much better option
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Post by Ace on Jul 1, 2020 22:05:44 GMT
S&S | 38% | Mostly world index trackers | Cash | 30% | Including PBs | P2P | 26% | Across 29 platforms | Others | 6% | Mostly crowd funding |
I have 3, roughly equal, DB pension schemes that will be sufficient for my basic day to day living costs. So, like hazellend, I see no need to include bonds (other than some PBs that I hold as part of my emergency funds). Like failedtheturingtest, I'm holding ridiculously large cash reserves in the expectation of a large dip in S&S prices in the near future. If this happens then the majority of my cash will be used to buy more World index trackers; if not, then some will be drip fed into S&S and some into P2P as opportunities arise. I'm much more confident in P2P than most, so will be increasing my exposure regardless, though will hopefully reduce the number of platforms now that I've learnt which ones I like and which ones I don't. A large part of my investments are isa wrapped, but there's still some work to do in wrapping the rest.
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starfished
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Post by starfished on Jul 1, 2020 22:12:10 GMT
S&S | 38% | Mostly world index trackers | Cash | 30% | Including PBs | P2P | 26% | Across 29 platforms | Others | 6% | Mostly crowd funding |
I have 3, roughly equal, DB pension schemes that will be sufficient for my basic day to day living costs. So, like hazellend , I see no need to include bonds (other than some PBs that I hold as part of my emergency funds). Like failedtheturingtest , I'm holding ridiculously large cash reserves in the expectation of a large dip in S&S prices in the near future. If this happens then the majority of my cash will be used to buy more World index trackers; if not, then some will be drip fed into S&S and some into P2P as opportunities arise. I'm much more confident in P2P than most, so will be increasing my exposure regardless, though will hopefully reduce the number of platforms now that I've learnt which ones I like and which ones I don't. A large part of my investments are isa wrapped, but there's still some work to do in wrapping the rest. "Across 29 platforms" Impressed. How do you have anytime left to do anything else? The spreadsheets must take ages to track / update...
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Post by Ace on Jul 1, 2020 22:48:35 GMT
S&S | 38% | Mostly world index trackers | Cash | 30% | Including PBs | P2P | 26% | Across 29 platforms | Others | 6% | Mostly crowd funding |
I have 3, roughly equal, DB pension schemes that will be sufficient for my basic day to day living costs. So, like hazellend , I see no need to include bonds (other than some PBs that I hold as part of my emergency funds). Like failedtheturingtest , I'm holding ridiculously large cash reserves in the expectation of a large dip in S&S prices in the near future. If this happens then the majority of my cash will be used to buy more World index trackers; if not, then some will be drip fed into S&S and some into P2P as opportunities arise. I'm much more confident in P2P than most, so will be increasing my exposure regardless, though will hopefully reduce the number of platforms now that I've learnt which ones I like and which ones I don't. A large part of my investments are isa wrapped, but there's still some work to do in wrapping the rest. "Across 29 platforms" Impressed. How do you have anytime left to do anything else? The spreadsheets must take ages to track / update... You're absolutely correct. I have less than 1% of my P2P pot invested in each of 13 of them, so they hardly count really. I have 5 favourites and about 5 or 6 more that I quite like. The rest I'm either unsure about or would like to escape. Unfortunately escaping from platforms that you don't like is usually much harder than escaping from the ones you do like would be. Yes, it does take a lot of time, some much more than others.
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hazellend
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Post by hazellend on Jul 2, 2020 8:21:37 GMT
I get what you mean about bonds, but as they say, you hold bonds for stability, not for return. I was mighty glad to have 21% in bonds when the stock market bottomed in March - my stocks dropped hard, but my bond fund hardly moved at all. I'm currently 13% cash, 21% bonds, 61% stock index funds or ETFs, and 5% P2P. I'm focusing now on building up cash, partly for a major purchase but also because I expect stock markets might have another wobble later this year when the second wave of Covid hits us, the government turns off the economic support taps, Brexit gets done, the US election gets messy... lots of uncertainty to look forward to! I don’t understand this strategy. If the stock market crashes why not just rebalance by selling bonds and buying equities? Increasing cash is attempting to time the market, it might work out, but usually doesn’t
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cwah
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Post by cwah on Jul 2, 2020 9:07:04 GMT
I get what you mean about bonds, but as they say, you hold bonds for stability, not for return. I was mighty glad to have 21% in bonds when the stock market bottomed in March - my stocks dropped hard, but my bond fund hardly moved at all. I'm currently 13% cash, 21% bonds, 61% stock index funds or ETFs, and 5% P2P. I'm focusing now on building up cash, partly for a major purchase but also because I expect stock markets might have another wobble later this year when the second wave of Covid hits us, the government turns off the economic support taps, Brexit gets done, the US election gets messy... lots of uncertainty to look forward to! I don’t understand this strategy. If the stock market crashes why not just rebalance by selling bonds and buying equities? Increasing cash is attempting to time the market, it might work out, but usually doesn’t Because there are way more risk owning bond now than before. When buying bond I buy an ETF that can go up or down in price AND paying almost no interest. So if economy recover somehow I can loose quite a bit of money on bonds. But if the economy worsen I don't earn much in compensation as the gain in the bond etf is already priced in. In other world, there are more risk of losing money with bonds than they worth. I'd rather stay in cash for that reason
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cwah
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Post by cwah on Jul 2, 2020 9:10:27 GMT
I'm also stopping any position on P2P due to having burnt too hard and just have a smaller % waiting for recovery to happen (hopefully not needing to write this off as well) How's your portfolio? And how's surviving the pandemic? I gave up on P2P a long time ago. Its a joke, a wild-west where the borrower is treated like a king and there's no respect for the lenders who are stumping up the cash. I'm 100% in equities ("stocks & shares" if you prefer). At the height of the pandemic, I was 15% down off the pre-pandemic peak, but now 5-8% down depending on which portfolio. I did not panic-sell like some on here. So I'm very happy indeed with my present position given the circumstances. I'm particularly happy with the bargains I picked up in the dark days of March of course... P.S. For clarity, when I say "100% in equities", that is 100% of investible funds. I do not count (for reasons I've banged on enough about round here) uninvestible emergency cash which sits NS&I. I don't care about returns on uninvestible cash. Its emergency cash. The safety of that cash is paramount and surpasses all other concerns, it MUST be there if/when I need it, I don't give a toss about interest rates. Investible funds also does not include day-to-day living (current account) funds for obvious reasons. Ah I see. I never saw the value of premium bond and I stay in cash instead. By the way, I'm all in Interactive brokers and its my favourite stock broker so far. What I like most is the choice of stock, the fine control (ability to trade premarket) AND above all the very cheap margin loan. I'm doing margin at 20% max at the moment. So thanks for the recommendation not so long ago!
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cwah
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Post by cwah on Jul 2, 2020 9:37:53 GMT
Ah I see. I never saw the value of premium bond and I stay in cash instead. By the way, I'm all in Interactive brokers and its my favourite stock broker so far. What I like most is the choice of stock, the fine control (ability to trade premarket) AND above all the very cheap margin loan. I'm doing margin at 20% max at the moment. So thanks for the recommendation not so long ago! Yes indeed, I've got the full £50k in premium bonds. I don't care whether or not I "win". I just enjoy being able to sleep easy knowing the government guarantees 100%. I don't have to think about whether a bank will be there, or worry about the bank's ownership, or worry about my money being locked up whilst the administrators and/or FSCS fumble around. If it ever reaches a scenario where the UK government can no longer guarantee NS&I, well, I'll probably have bigger things to worry about ... Regarding Interactive Brokers. Happy to hear you are enjoying the experience. Yes, indeed, they are the best as long as you are willing to tolerate the steep learning curve (because IB very much will not hold your hand). IMHO there is no other better broker out there for the retail investor. Their executions are top-notch, their commissions are top-notch. The only negative is that they do not provide ISA accounts, only SIPP and taxable... but I think HMRC are to blame for that with their reporting requirements and the HMRC requirement that ISA accounts must be GBP only, which kind of goes against the ethos of IB. Yeah the ISA was a bit of a pain. I used vanguard initially but it had very limited choice of stock and can't even set limit/stop order.... So moved to trading212 which seems good so far. Although I still miss the pre-market trading AND above all the margin loan capability of IB
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cwah
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Post by cwah on Jul 2, 2020 9:41:39 GMT
And by the way, my safety is getting commodity (eg. Gold) if hits the fan. I'll move to 10% of my portfolio when gold/silver go lower in price. I'm not very comfortable with the way our gov a pumping money in the system and at some stage we may experience very high inflation. So I'd rather keep funds into gold than bonds, which are, as Ray Dalio said, just a promise of cash by the government in the future. But he also said that "cash is trash" and one of the riskiest investment you could do long term
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Post by failedtheturingtest on Jul 2, 2020 18:12:39 GMT
I get what you mean about bonds, but as they say, you hold bonds for stability, not for return. I was mighty glad to have 21% in bonds when the stock market bottomed in March - my stocks dropped hard, but my bond fund hardly moved at all. I'm currently 13% cash, 21% bonds, 61% stock index funds or ETFs, and 5% P2P. I'm focusing now on building up cash, partly for a major purchase but also because I expect stock markets might have another wobble later this year when the second wave of Covid hits us, the government turns off the economic support taps, Brexit gets done, the US election gets messy... lots of uncertainty to look forward to! I don’t understand this strategy. If the stock market crashes why not just rebalance by selling bonds and buying equities? Increasing cash is attempting to time the market, it might work out, but usually doesn’t Ah. Well, yes, you're right to call me out on that. Rationally, I should not attempt to time the market, and you have indeed caught me at it. I shall meditate on my sins for a bit...
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jester
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Post by jester on Jul 3, 2020 15:45:36 GMT
cwah I'm still very much overweight in P2P having bust my 25% pot limit chasing bonuses (which were quite lucrative for a small investor, should be a decent buffer against expected losses at least) reaching an uncomfortable peak of 40% As of today - Equities 55% (as with hazellend I've got a DB pension so I'm happy to grow this allocation to 75% plus, nothing fancy just all world trackers, threw all cash in close to the bottom of the latest dip) P2P 30% (across 12 platforms ranging from total dogs like Lendy, through the big players Assetz & Ratesetter, to those I'm happy with currently Octopus, Loanpad, Crowdproperty) Crowdfunding BTL 7% (a bit of a disaster with Property Partner fee hike and British Pearl seemingly winding down) Work Shares 5%REIT/Infrastructure 3%
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