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Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Tue Feb 11 2020 9:39pm
by garindan
Hi all,

We made our first proper investment on the 26 Feb 2015, so in just two weeks time it will be our "real" investment 5th birthday! It's fair to say that we've had our ups and downs over the past 5 years. It was an achievement to get the club up and running in the first place, let alone get to 5 years lifespan. I thought now would be another good time to take stock of what has happened in the last year or so.

As you will have noticed - we seem to have reached a point where the Club seems to be functioning a lot better. Barring some slow voting here and there, we have made some significant progress in the past year. Below are a few highlights of the changes, progress and my thoughts on how well each has gone:

1) We have changed how we select shares for investment polls
- this has cut out the severe difficulty we had in trying to get any nominations and the same people generally doing it.
- so far it seems to have worked in terms of having a range of interesting shares to take a look at and select from
- I've been quite happy about how well it has gone. Through a little bit or trial and error to see what best fits we seem to have identified a pretty reasonable and balanced method.

2) Deciding when to buy/sell/hold
- we previously were unable to react quickly to changes in share news and price but with this "open ended" monitoring poll our reaction time has greatly increased
- members have generally adopted a reasonable approach to voting and checking each of the polls for shares we own and our reaction times have certainly increased
- I think it has been a success but there is certainly room for improvement in terms of how members approach updating their view on a share as some have still yet to vote on one of the shares we have held for a while. Pragmatically speaking I think this system is the best we can expect, at least in the foreseeable future, so I hope all members try to make a habit of checking where things are at least once a week. It's your money as much as any other member's after all.

3) Type of share to purchase
- we had a portfolio of "little excitement" but have taken a bold move to abandon buying the "safer" income generating shares in favour of more spicy options that carry increased risk.
- we have successfully sold five lots shares in 2019 from our historical portfolio without incurring loss and now only three remain plus the 200 Share Centre shares that provide us with a discounted service. We have successfully bought a number of new shares throughout the year, already sold some for a profit and now have a 5-3 split in favour of our "more interesting" choices vs historical ones but that represents much larger monetary split of approximately a 75% / 25%.
- I've been really pleased with how we managed to put together the new portfolio we have. I think it has gone better than anticipated in terms of the results we've had so far but also the speed of purchase/selling and transition.

So we have gone from being very much in the red due to Carillion's dreadful impact, to being in the black. We now have a much more exciting portfolio, more regular polls, some much happier faces and Iong may this continue.

I would like to know your thoughts on how well the new processes have worked, what you like about them and how we could make any simple improvements. If we could just keep the feedback limited to the processes and their function on this thread it would be very helpful. There is going to be plenty of opportunity to talk about other stuff very soon as there are a number of things I want us to have a discussion about over the coming month or so....but one thing at a time.... I'm not going to bring them all up right now as it will dilute the discussion I want to have about the first matter at hand than needs member feedback....

....which brings me to the first new item for discussion that you can find here.

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Wed Feb 12 2020 12:59am
by Boro Boy
Congratulations and Happy Birthday!!! When's the party...!?! ;)

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Wed Feb 12 2020 9:03am
by blythburgh
Congrats, so pleased to see the way the club has moved into the black

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Wed Feb 12 2020 3:16pm
by BeautifulSunshine
Well done everyone.

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Thu Feb 13 2020 11:49pm
by timco
Time flies doesn't it!

Not invested here currently but wish you all the best for the future.

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Fri Feb 14 2020 12:43pm
by BeautifulSunshine
timco wrote:
Thu Feb 13 2020 11:49pm
Time flies doesn't it!

Not invested here currently but wish you all the best for the future.
Mighty kind of you.

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Fri Feb 14 2020 3:36pm
by Beachboy
timco wrote:
Thu Feb 13 2020 11:49pm
Time flies doesn't it!

Not invested here currently but wish you all the best for the future.
I thought you were a member, have you left?

Re: Club's 5th birthday

Posted: Sat Feb 15 2020 12:31am
by timco
Beachboy wrote:
Fri Feb 14 2020 3:36pm
timco wrote:
Thu Feb 13 2020 11:49pm
Time flies doesn't it!

Not invested here currently but wish you all the best for the future.
I thought you were a member, have you left?
I think I am still technically a member but when looking at what investments were best to cash in when laying down the deposit for the new car this was on the list.

I always only invested daily click monies and these are scarce at the moment so maintaining the correct amount of investment to maintain the membership would have become difficult.

So I currently have no invested cash in the fund withdrew it in December if Dailies pick up again I may well invest again but for the time being I am not invested.

I also cashed in 1000 Sainsburys shares as well as this one :( but have options over the next 3 years on 5000 or so more shares at sub £1.85 so easily replaceable.