Some interesting financial and investing posts I ran across this week, plus a few decent articles from the newspapers.
Dear reader, by the time you get this note, I’ll be gone.
Yes, proving Monevator really is the product of one man’s ego mind and not a corporate mouthpiece or a big media outlet, I’ve gone on holiday for a week and hung the ‘Out for Lunch’ sign on the door.
This means no new posts for seven days!
But please don’t forget to come back to Monevator, because while I’m sure I’ll have the usual “what am I doing with my life” musings when sunning myself abroad, I’ve also got lots of posts planned already.
Important: What follows is not a recommendation to buy or sell Lloyds. I’m just a private investor, storing and sharing notes. Read my disclaimer. And remember that investing is best done via index tracking funds, not stock picks.
I have done a bad thing. Maybe. I bought Lloyds Group shares at 72p. Yes, greed has finally overtaken fear in my pondering of the banking shares. I can’t help thinking that this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a giant of tomorrow on the cheap today.
And so on Wednesday I placed about 2% of my portfolio in Lloyds.
I’ve owned the shares previously, and got out before they plunged 90% in merging with HBOS as I’ve written about before.
Why have I bought them again?
I don’t like guaranteed equity bonds (GEBs). I’ve written before that such structured products are risky, opaque, and often bad performers.
We can also add ‘mean’ to the list, with the launch of the latest UK Government backed GEB.
The world’s stock and debt markets originated with individuals (often farmers) going to others to raise money for their ventures.
Originally such deals took places in private houses, coffee shops, and even on the roadside.
Over time these early markets matured and were formalised and regulated. Together with the invention of limited liability companies, we got the financial system we enjoy (or otherwise!) today.
So why would a company want to set back 700 years of history to offer its own bonds directly to the public? And who want to buy them?
Some interesting financial and investing posts I ran across this week, plus a few decent articles from the newspapers.
