Share Picks 2022

Wouldn't investing in an ETF be the "safest" option for an inexperienced investor? A lot of people say to avoid them because of the extra 8% tax and deemed disposal rules, but if you factor in the reduced risk from such a diversified portfolio, surely it's warranted for some? Unless you're willing to dedicate a significant amount of time into researching companies, I would guess that your returns from ETF's are on par with investing into individual stocks.

Stock didn't grow at all really, IPO day closed at $49, Musk bought it for $54. It was an awful return for 9 years as a public company

That's exactly the problem with Twitter. Everyone loves it, most people use it, and loads of people get value from it, but Twitter never charged anyone. Dorsey always saw it as a "public town square", a place everyone could go to be heard. He never really set out to make money the way other Social Media companies did.

I was a shareholder, it annoyed me when Kim Kardashian and Beyonce were being paid $1m to put out a tweet, Twitter provided a means for her to make that transaction, but didn't see any of the money.

Old Twiter had huge costs and little revenue. He's already attacking both sides of that problem with the layoffs and the $8 fee to be verified

The tax headache is one problem. But the part nobody talks about - you cant offset gains and losses, even within the same ETF.

ETFs are a complete and utter disaster for regular investors and should be held by nobody buying regularly. A real shame, as it’s so awkward/expensive to get diversified exposure without them.

Funnily enough I said this to lots of people back in 2020/21 and people weren’t fussed cause stocks only go up.

Now that they’re holding onto 60% losses for their 2021 purchases with no ability to use those against potential future gains, they are utterly sickened. I’d sooner regularly invest in random penny stocks than be part of such a ridiculous tax regime.

I'm glad you mentioned that. Another big negative. Massive in fact.

I think that’s very optimistic given what we’ve seen in the past and that tech indexes are down 35% the last year. Sure on average you’ll be up with regular investing. But to assume you have no chance of catching a few peaks and then your 8 year deemed disposal catching a trough…Nasdaq took 14 years to pass its 2000 peak again. It was roughly half the value 8 years later, just when deemed disposal would force you to crystallise your losses.

Also throw in fact, who truly knows when they might need to liquidate some cash for unforeseen events.

41% tax does have some advantages as you can roll up income instead of having dividends paid out and taxed at 52%.

I really don't agree with your efforts to put people off ETF's. Buying and Holding ETF's have been proven repeatedly to be the single greatest creator of wealth. To go through your arguments....

1. Onerous tax returns for Deemed Disposal - someone contributing to an ETF monthly, and holding them for 8 + years has a tax return to do once a year after that, that should be 12 transactions to calculate. It's max 1 hour work. Stockpickers who sell their stocks in less than 8 years (most) have the same tax returns.
2. 41% tax versus 33% - Markets (ETF's) prove to outperform most stockpickers, so you pay 9% more tax on the profits versus individual stocks. For Context, if you make 11% return on ETF (proven average), you and make 9.5% return in stock, the net profit is the same. You're banking on yourself beating the market, which rarely happens.
3. Can't write off losses - Buying and holding ETF's rarely results in a loss if you're holding over the long term (8+ years seems to be your timeframe based on your concern on number). losses can't be written off but rarely exist.

ETF's are great vehicles and are the ones 99% of investors should be using. There's 1% of investors that can beat them.

When Google starts cutting head count then it will be a buy, way to bloated now heading into a very painful downturn.

I was thinking about them during the week. Twitter introducing the $8/mknth charge - apple collect 30% of that from iOS users. It’s a great model

I've been dipping my toes into cable laying companies since the "bursting" of the nordstream gas pipeline a month or two ago. Nexans SA (FRA | NXS) is one I've invested in.

I think any escalations in conflicts and these undersea cables will be huge targets. And even if they aren't, they need to be replaced every 20-25 years due to wear/tear and advancements in cable technology.

Contrary to popular opinion - there is no future in satellite communications. They've been around for what 70 years or so now and have less than 1% share of communications market. Cables are going nowhere.

Yea so true, feel sorry for Elon Musk his big mouth forced him into the purchase of Twitter had a huge valuation . It's cost him many billions