Your Portfolio (13 Viewers)

CCFCSteve said:

Agree bitcoin won’t be that solution but I think others could take a chunk out the banking system in the future

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There’s definitely a place for a decentralised payments system.

If anyone wants to go down the traditional route of savings Chase current account offers 1.5% on savings accounts. Also offer free £20 atm via referrals. (PM Me)

Also as a current account it pays 1% cash back on most spending.

SBT said:

I think blockchain technology will have its uses (although I would be worried about advances in the cryptography/cybersecurity sector suddenly making it obsolete). But the last few weeks have made me very dubious about crypto’s long term value - it’s too volatile to be a genuine digital payment system, and if it is going to be an effective inflation hedge, it’s not showing any signs of it right now, when inflationary pressures are their greatest for decades. If it can’t do either of those then it’s essentially just a gambling instrument, which regulators are going to crush the moment they get a sniff that there’s systemic risk involved.

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Rightly or wrongly, the way I look at it is the ‘crypto currency’ is really an asset and tokens are kind of a share in that specific project. If you think someone’s got a decent project then you might buy a share/token

Agree they aren’t inflation hedges, although something like Bitcoin could potentially be in future. Who knows. At the moment Crypto appears closely correlated to the Nasdaq as I mentioned. I’ve always been told that gold was an inflation hedge and have some in my SIPP…that’s not been budging much either recently. Basically everything I’ve got is turning to shit

Just to be clear I’m not some kind of ‘all cryptos great’ weirdo. I own some and understand it’s a high risk, volatile asset as I’ve mentioned. These drops have happened before, I’m just hoping the bounce back also happens at some point in the coming months !

We live in strange times though, central banks have allowed inflation to get out of control with excessive money printing, ridiculously low interest rates for too long (together with pandemic and war) and their recent change of tack is impacting pretty much every investment market.

hyper inflation is needed to bring the debt down quickly - once that is more manageable inflation and interest rates will fall and stock will go back up - it is not a short term win
the challenge is to get returns @ > inflation

skybluesam66 said:

hyper inflation is needed to bring the debt down quickly - once that is more manageable inflation and interest rates will fall and stock will go back up - it is not a short term win
the challenge is to get returns @ > inflation

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Not quite hyper inflation but wouldnt surprise me if there’s an element of governments being happy to inflate away some debt…they’ll be collateral damage with that stance though

stay_up_skyblues said:

Now the house purchase is all sorted I’ve just opened up a stocks and shares ISA with Moneybox. Planning to keep it long term so gone for the adventurous fund. Let’s see what happens.

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Did you invest a lump sum or is it a regular savings plan?

dutchman said:

Did you invest a lump sum or is it a regular savings plan?

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Both mate. £500 lump and adding each month.

stay_up_skyblues said:

Both mate. £500 lump and adding each month.

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Also on that. Certainly beats a regular saving account

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Also on that. Certainly beats a regular saving account

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From what I’ve read, it looks that way. If you’re in it for the long term (this money would be earmarked for going towards the kids’ cars/uni/house deposits) it seems you can make quite a bit*

*Investments can go up and down and you may get back less than you put in

My £150 in crypto is dropped to £60 and is now £75. If it gets to £120 I think I will cash out !

in other savings news

We have our holiday money (need to pay balance next month) in my chase account. was nice to actually see £'s worth of interest rather than pennies. When we do spend it will get cash back on it yay.

For instant access Chase seams to be the best at the moment. Esp with the £20 referral bonus for both. Thats more than my ISA has paid in years haha.


My premium bonds do jack sh*t each month !

My colleague has invested roughly 6k in crypto that had risen to 47k two weeks ago and he was talking about packing in work soon and doing crypto full time, yesterday it was worth 7k after a big crash it had been going down for a week or so and then boom.

Terry Gibson's perm said:

My colleague has invested roughly 6k in crypto that had risen to 47k two weeks ago and he was talking about packing in work soon and doing crypto full time, yesterday it was worth 7k after a big crash it had been going down for a week or so and then boom.

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So many thought it was free money. Some crafty people sold at the top.

skybluesam66 said:

So many thought it was free money. Some crafty people sold at the top.

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I have to be honest I don’t really understand it all, it seemed like easy money while it was rising probably to easy.

Terry Gibson's perm said:

I have to be honest I don’t really understand it all, it seemed like easy money while it was rising probably to easy.

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Sorry for the long post but my mate text me this…made me feel a bit better about current investment shitstorm (I also hate the big boys who short stuff). I put my favourite part in bold


Melvin Capital goes bust.

Turns out, investing isn't so easy when the free money faucet turns off.

The fund that lost $7B shorting #gamestop (GME) is giving up and announced yesterday it will be shutting down permanently.

Melvin Capital, founded in 2014 by Gabe Plotkin, famously got caught with its pants down last year when retail investors from the Wall Street Bets (WSB) Reddit board piled into GME stock.

At the time, GME short positions made up an impossible 140% of GME's float. Meaning, more shares were being sold than the company had outstanding. This indicated so-called naked shorting was happening which is technically illegal.

Large hedge funds like Melvin Capital were allegedly short selling GME stock they didn't actually own, driving prices lower & pocketing the difference, then taking out more short positions to drive prices even lower.. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Once WSB started aggressively buying up GME stock this drove prices up for the first time and forced shorts to cover their positions by buying GME stock and closing their short positions.

Only problem, with 140% short interest there wasn't enough GME stock to go around. This caused shorts to outbid each other and triggered an epic squeeze that made GME pop from $17.25 to almost $500 per share - that's 30X!

Melvin Capital got destroyed and was ultimately bailed out by parent funds Citadel and Point72.

This meant a severe loss for Plotkin's Melvin Capital. Typically, a fund that’s in the red has to claw its way back to a “high water mark” - or make investors whole on their losses - before it can start collecting performance fees again.

Plotkin however had a novel idea... Last month he wanted to switch into a new fund and reset the high water mark so he could start collecting fees again. Investors reacted with outrage and Plotkin shortly after apologized in a letter, calling the plan "tone deaf".

The final straw came when Melvin Capital was caught wrong footed again by tumbling markets this year, losing an additional $2.3B. Ironically, a fund that was famous for its shorts missed out on potentially the very best time to short the market.

This was the death blow for Melvin Capital and looks like it might signal the end of the WSB and GME saga.

So the diamond hands loons were right?

shmmeee said:

So the diamond hands loons were right?

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No, loads got stung I think. Just checked and current share price is at $96 so it would’ve been very painful for those late to the party

CCFCSteve said:

Large hedge funds like Melvin Capital were allegedly short selling GME stock they didn't actually own,

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Literally the definition of shorting

robbiekeane said:

Literally the definition of shorting

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They owned more shorts than stock available apparently.

I saw a certain bond issue which has been in the news recently being described online as a Ponzi scheme. The ones at the top of the scheme seem to be doing well out of it, whilst the ones at the bottom are struggling to get their money back.

Well, they say investing is S&S is long term

I've gone from 18% in December to about 0.8% this morning thanks to the war in Ukraine and seemingly the crypto crash earlier in the week

No doubt it will recover but it's a long game!

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It’s painful across the board at the moment, it feels like just trying to pick the least worst option. For example I expected gold to be increasing more by now and even that’s struggling to get to a decent level

It’s more than a perfect storm; war, rampant inflation, growth already slowing/negative and trying to unwind all of the ridiculous amounts of QE in the western world. I don’t envy central banks/governments…even though they have had a part to play in all this mess

As long as people are in no rush then most positions should return, it’s just an uncomfortable period in the meantime….and also a potential opportunity in respect of certain assets for the brave…or the stupid (or bit of both)

Good luck all

CCFCSteve said:

It’s painful across the board at the moment, it feels like just trying to pick the least worst option. For example I expected gold to be increasing more by now and even that’s struggling to get to a decent level

It’s more than a perfect storm; war, rampant inflation, growth already slowing/negative and trying to unwind all of the ridiculous amounts of QE in the western world. I don’t envy central banks/governments…even though they have had a part to play in all this mess

As long as people are in no rush then most positions should return, it’s just an uncomfortable period in the meantime….and also a potential opportunity in respect of certain assets for the brave…or the stupid (or bit of both)

Good luck all

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We’re in for a rocky rocky ride, this is just the beginning.

I think it might be a worse recession than 2008.

Double digit inflation, central bank rates are going to end up going through the roof, which means mortgage rates will skyrocket and property prices will fall on their arse.

I dont think that’s the right way to manage it because a good amount of the inflation is due to rising input costs from external shocks but I’m not sure what choice they have really

OK then where do we think interest rates will get to ,if they should or why they should?

For instance on fuels/energy demand appears met is this due to the absorbitant price suppressing it.
If demand is met what is the comparative level compared to pre pandemic or is it down to a bunch of scummy speculators?.

robbiekeane said:

We’re in for a rocky rocky ride, this is just the beginning.

I think it might be a worse recession than 2008.

Double digit inflation, central bank rates are going to end up going through the roof, which means mortgage rates will skyrocket and property prices will fall on their arse.

I dont think that’s the right way to manage it because a good amount of the inflation is due to rising input costs from external shocks but I’m not sure what choice they have really

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Tax or interest ,both inflationary in their own ways.

You been on the beers lad?

I purchased loads through the pandemic at heavily discounted prices, so I still seem to be doing alright at the moment (touch wood), quite heavily in Shell and Aviva, had a decent payout from Aviva in the past week or so.

robbiekeane said:

We’re in for a rocky rocky ride, this is just the beginning.

I think it might be a worse recession than 2008.

Double digit inflation, central bank rates are going to end up going through the roof, which means mortgage rates will skyrocket and property prices will fall on their arse.

I dont think that’s the right way to manage it because a good amount of the inflation is due to rising input costs from external shocks but I’m not sure what choice they have really

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Hard to disagree with you on the timing of rate rises, it’s awful, but interest rates should never be as low as they are. Its basically been free money, which has helped cause the housing bubble and fucked the market for younger generations.

Central banks won’t be able to get rates too high as they’ll cripple the economies, however, I reckon there’s more rises to come in the short term. Hopefully the natural squeeze on disposable income will help suppress demand/inflation a little, then we need some luck regarding the other areas like energy, oil etc (im not hopeful in the short term) which can lead to central banks to stop rises later in the year.

The yanks haven’t helped with their pandemic cheques all round which fuelled demand , meaning their inflation is a bit different to ours I think, fed then aggressively raise rates, dollar gets stronger and we’re fucked as imports, especially energy I guess, get more expensive..worsening our inflation !

Over the top/continued QE* and low interest rates have been a big part of the problem, together with pandemic and war obviously. We’ve been living in an artificially created bubble for a long time.

*fair enough for financial crisis and I’m guessing needed to cover pandemic costs but they should’ve probably stopped/unwound inbetween and stopped quicker after pandemic.

I can't see house prices dropping. Think they will level off but in this country there are too many buyers but not enough houses to go around

You're looking at 20 viewings per average house at the moment, even with everything going up

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Brighton Sky Blue said:

Also on that. Certainly beats a regular saving account

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Same here. Been on it for a while. Doing round ups plus a one off deposit each month. It’s gone from 13% down to -2% as the funds I’m in are very low so I’m putting more in to get value. Started using eToro 6 months ago too. That’s easy to use and you don’t have to invest big money in one lump.

Can recommend both but would suggest Moneybox first. Simple way to introduce yourself to investing and won’t notice the small round ups going out of your account.

skyblue1991 said:

I can't see house prices dropping. Think they will level off but in this country there are too many buyers but not enough houses to go around

You're looking at 20 viewings per average house at the moment, even with everything going up

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Mark my words they will drop. In the long term property value will always rise but higher interest rates means it’s more expensive to finance the purchase of property which means less demand, and prices will fall