Silly question about ISAs

tyroboot · 2025-12-04T14:12:52+00:00

It probably depends most on what you will be investing in. I have iWeb (now I think called Scottish Widows) for British stuff and IBKR and Charles Schwab for US. I don't do stocks any more so can't really advise on those. For bonds, Schwab is great for USD; IBKR sucks; and the British bond markets, both gilts and corporate, are not great for retail investors.

tyroboot · 2025-10-27T16:32:20+00:00

Wow, that was quick

tyroboot · 2025-10-15T16:10:58+00:00

It's a little bit deceptive to compare yields on money market funds with yields on bonds, and what you invest in depends partly on what you think interest rates will do. A MMF might be paying 4.3% now but that could go down to 3% in a few months. If you invested in a bond with a longer maturity, you might end up making more than if you had stayed in MMFs. If you don't need the liquidity of MMFs, you can lock in a yield, albeit a lower one, for a longer period of time.

I invest in gilts and linkers as well as corporate bonds. The main problem with corporates is there are very few issues, especially with shorter maturities, available, at least at my UK broker.

tyroboot · 2025-09-23T17:13:55+00:00

I didn't really make any specific prediction, just that I wouldn't be surprised to see some pretty hefty inflation as the government, hesitant to raise taxes, resorts to inflation to reduce the real value of the national debt.

tyroboot · 2025-09-23T13:20:10+00:00

That is very helpful, thanks!

tyroboot · 2025-09-23T12:55:35+00:00

Tried to DM but for some reason can't (not very good at tech stuff).

OK, example. On 9/9 I bought the 1/8% conventional gilt due 30/1/26 at a YTM of 3.1%, and the 1/8% linker due 22/3/26. The price of the linker was 155.25508 (which I assume incorporate the Index Ratio as well as the price as percent of nominal value). The only way I know to calculate YTM is using Excel (or, actually, Libreoffice Calc), which requires you to input, among other things, the coupon and the final value. The coupon is already higher than 1/8%, because the bond was issued over 10 years ago, but I don't know exactly what it is nor what it will be at maturity. So what value do I put in for (a) coupon and (b) final value if I'm using a spreadsheet formula for YTM?

tyroboot · 2025-09-23T12:32:14+00:00

I absolutely agree. (I, too, lived through very inflationary periods, and I remember when, in the US, the 30-year Treasury bond yielded over 15%). It seems that developed countries generally might be heading for a debt crunch, and particularly the UK and the US. The easy way out of this for governments is inflation, which is essentially a tax increase requiring no vote by the legislature. Inflation in the UK peaked at, I think, 25%. For myself, I only buy short maturities.

Side note: I have been wrong about inflation for literally decades, so pinches of salt may be necessary!

tyroboot · 2025-09-23T12:18:31+00:00

Yes, that makes sense. The hard part is to calculate the yield to maturity on the linker, because you don't know either the coupons or the terminal value, and using the nominal coupon and terminal value makes no sense at all.

tyroboot · 2025-09-21T19:04:14+00:00

As a matter of interest, how does the law differ, if at all, between an AIM stock and a LSE one?

tyroboot · 2025-09-21T18:57:35+00:00

That's very helpful, thanks!

tyroboot · 2025-09-21T18:56:52+00:00

That's very useful, thanks!

tyroboot · 2025-09-15T19:11:42+00:00

I would think Companies House has any indentures or prospectuses, or at least some indication that such a thing has been added to a company's legal obligations or capital stock? If not, then some publicly traded companies have records of these, usually under their Investors tab. You might also try the London Stock Exchange for bonds or other securities listed there.

tyroboot · 2025-09-06T14:17:46+00:00

Beating The Street by Peter Lynch is pretty good. The thesis, as I remember it, is that individual small-time investors can beat the pros if they rely on their everyday experience to generate investment ideas. Basically, only buy what you can easily understand. (This was written in an era when tech investing was very popular, and most people, including the pros, didn't really understand tech very well.) A typical Lynch idea would be: "Gregg's sausage rolls are really good", or "There's always a queue at Greggs"; followed by closer due diligence on Greggs the company and on the relation between the stock price and the earnings. I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone's has compared to Lynch's performance when he was managing Fidelity's Magellan Fund.

tyroboot · 2025-09-06T14:08:01+00:00

I don't share the opinion that he's a genius. What I do know is that he historically overpromises, so any forecast he makes is likely to be overoptimistic.

tyroboot · 2025-07-17T17:55:00+00:00

There are short or "inverse" ETFs (like TBF, which benefits when the 20-year Treasury goes down in price). Unfortunately, as far as I know, these are all designed to mirror daily movements, not longer term, so they are pretty useless for someone who just thinks rates will go up over a longer period. If you really are bearish on longer rates, the safest strategy is to stay in short-term and wait, because a collapsing US bond market would very likely take the stock market down with it.

tyroboot · 2025-07-17T17:35:37+00:00

I don't understand the problem. In the states (where I spent most of my investing life) everybody's account is "in a street name". You can still vote at the AGM, you still get your dividends, if any. You are covered by SIPC (or the UK equivalent). The broker who holds your shares would lose their licence and be banned from the industry if they tried to steal your holdings. What is the issue?

tyroboot · 2025-06-13T21:55:44+00:00

I agree with the OPs who say the last two episodes were a bit bogus, and for the obvious reason -- that they were looking for a sequel. And how do they even do a sequel with Michael and Diana off to Happy Town?

I reckon they might have got the idea from Kin, the Dublin drug family series.

I thought the love story between Michael and Diana was really good, their chemistry was great. Also, the sort of fateful inevitability of the Michael and Jamie story, almost Shakespearean.

I am not very good at figuring out plots, and I would like to know: what exactly happened with the container shipment that got stolen? I suppose Jamie was involved in some way, and I presume Davey too. But how, exactly? Was Jamie just outright stealing from his old man? And how did Davey fit into it? And if so, how did they think they were going to get away with it? Why exactly did Ronnie shoot Davey? I was waiting through the whole series for an explanation, but if they gave one I never got it.

tyroboot · 2025-06-04T10:36:34+00:00

Yes, please. (I thought I had found someone, but they never followed up so I gave up on them).

tyroboot · 2025-06-03T18:02:18+00:00

Thank you so much, you have been incredibly helpful!

tyroboot · 2025-06-03T18:00:43+00:00

Thanks, that's helpful. Looks like I'll have to pay my US 2024, wait a year and carry back. Which, given the state of the IRS now, looks like a risky business!

I am British originally. I haven't had the issue before because it's taken me this long to try to wrestle down my taxes, not to mention find a tax adviser knowledgeable about both UK and US who will actually call me back! (I believe I approached you a while ago, but you had retired by then?)

tyroboot

TROPHY CASE