Image source: Getty Images The shares, trusts, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in my porfolio cover all four corners of the globe. But my exposure to Europe was looking a little light, so I decided to remedy this by investing some tax relief in my Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). Interest in European shares has rocketed in 2025 as investors look for better value than US shares currently offer. The FTSE 100 is up 14% in the year to date, slightly outpacing the S&P 500‘s 13.8% gains. Germany’s DAX has risen an even-more impressive 21%, though performance has been mixed in places.…
Author: user
Image source: Getty Images The Taylor Wimpey (LSE:TW.) share price has been a huge disappointment to me, plunging 38% in the last year. That wasn’t what I expected when I added it to my Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) a couple of years ago. At the time, the shares looked cheap, trading on a price-to-earnings ratio of around seven and offering a 7%-8% dividend yield. I thought I was locking in great value from one of the most reliable income stocks on the FTSE 100. The stock jumped soon after I bought it but the fun didn’t last. Sticky inflation, higher interest rates, the…
From October, our popular equity mutual fund screener (thousands of our readers use it) will include the Ulcer Index as a parameter along with rolling returns, downside capture, upside capture, trailing returns and standard deviation.The Ulcer Index is a measure of downside risk in actively managed mutual funds. It is a simple way to find out how stressful it is to hold a fund compared to a benchmark.The standard deviation (volatility) is a measure of deviations from an average (monthly) return. Both positive and negative deviations are accounted for. The Ulcer Index is defined similarly to standard deviation, but is…
Image source: Getty Images Barclays‘ (LSE: BARC) share price has experienced a sharp pullback in recent weeks. Back in September, it was hovering around 390p, yet today it’s near 360p. Is there an opportunity here for investors? Let’s take a look at what’s going on. The shares look dirt cheap At first glance, the shares do look very cheap at present. Looking at the earnings forecast for 2026, Barclays currently trades on a forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about seven. That earnings multiple is well below the UK market average (the average FTSE 100 P/E ratio is about 13). It’s…
Recent headlines have highlighted how large language models (LLMs) perform well and quickly on the CFA exam. These attention-grabbing headlines should not be viewed as a “death sentence” for a certification renowned for its rigorous curriculum and challenging pass rates. Rather, they serve as another illustration of artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) expanding capabilities and offer an opportunity to reflect on competency standards within the financial industry. When AI Passes the CFA Exam First, AI proponents should breathe a sigh of relief. This scenario is precisely where AI is expected to excel: a well-defined body of knowledge, abundant homogeneous training data, and…
Image source: Getty Images When things go well, dividend shares can provide investors with a reliable stream of cash through the year. And that might be helpful if the stock market crashes and shares suddenly become cheap. Everyone wants to be able to ‘buy the dip’ but waiting for a crash is a risky business. But dividend stocks might offer the best of both worlds – being in the market while having cash available. The dilemma If you think share prices – especially in the tech sector – are looking a bit high at the moment, you’re not alone. A…
Image source: Getty Images There have been almost 150 dividend cuts across the FTSE 100 over the past decade. It’s not a problem that long-term investors in Coca-Cola HBC (LSE:CCH), BAE Systems, or Alliance Witan have had to endure. At the Coca-Cola bottler, shareholder payouts have risen each year since 2014. BAE’s annual dividends have grown consistently since before the millennium. But investment trust Alliance Witan blows both companies out of the water. Annual dividends have risen every year for more than 50 years (58, to be precise). Dividends are never, ever guaranteed. Despite their strong records, even these FTSE…
Image source: Getty Images Rolls-Royce (LSE:RR) has been the biggest FTSE 100 success story of the last five years. But there are a few names I’m expecting to be even better investments between now and 2030. One is Croda International (LSE:CRDA). The company’s been under pressure since the end of the pandemic, but I think it’s in a similar position to where Rolls-Royce was five years ago. Cyclical upswing Things really started to take off for Rolls-Royce in the second half of 2022. And the biggest reason for this is clear – travel demand came back with a vengeance after…
Image source: Getty Images It’s almost unbelievable, but Diageo (LSE:DGE) shares have gone nowhere in 10 years. From October 2015 to now, the share price is flatter than a pint left out overnight. Granted, there have been rising dividends along the way. But even these can’t disguise the fact that this FTSE 100 stock has turned into a seriously disappointing investment. It’s down 55% since the start of 2022! Yet, the market is famous for overselling stocks, as well as for zealously bidding them up. Let’s take a closer look to see if the pessimism might have gone too far.…
Image source: Getty Images Standard Chartered (LSE:STAN) shares are up 69% over the past 12 months. That means £20,000 invested one year ago is now worth £33,800. Clearly, that’s a very strong return over a short period of time. And investors will have received dividends during that period. However, it’s worth noting that while I’ve generally been rather bullish on the bank, there was one point when I was a little nervous. With Donald Trump back in the White House, his renewed push for tariffs — particularly around the so-called Liberation Day — made me uneasy about Standard Chartered’s heavy exposure…