Current market carnage - anyone selling or buying?

Gadfium

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

But what of those who did not reinvest the dividend?

That sound that everyone hears is the sound of a set of goalposts lurching sharply to the left.....

Regardless of whether the divis were reinvested or not, they were still received. So just pointing out that the FTSE is at the same level as some other point in time is a red herring.

lawriejones1

Glen_Clark wrote: »

You are forgetting the Navy, but then Churchill tended to do that too - particularly the Merchant Navy who had the worst job of the war on the Arctic Convoys, but were denied medals and ignored in Churchill's VE Day Speech, (just like Bomber Command) because by then their carrying out his orders in supporting Stalin (who by then he wanted us to fight) had become an embarrassment to him.
Someone asked how war affects markets. Well I think that depends on your politicians. If they stay out of it like Switzerland it can be positive. Wheras if your politicians want to get involved in every war going like Britain seems to have done, then its likely to be negative.

I wasn't intentionally missing them out, it's an incredible effort they put in, under incredibly tough circumstances. Guess it's coming from an army/RAF family!

Agree about the negative impacts of war. Look at what happened post WW2, shackled with an obscene debt to the States. What's even more fascinating is the rise of those who had lost the wAr - most notably Germany and Japan. Our commitment to help them both rebuild was incredible, even after the horrors of war. Ironically for both of their economies, losing was the best thing for them!

Glen_Clark

lawriejones1 wrote: »

What's even more fascinating is the rise of those who had lost the wAr - most notably Germany and Japan. Our commitment to help them both rebuild was incredible, even after the horrors of war. Ironically for both of their economies, losing was the best thing for them!

It can be like when a farmer burns his fields, gets rid of all the dead wood, so the fresh new growth comes back stronger.
Maybe if we could get rid of our hideously large, over complicated and expensive hereditary Monarchy, Government, Legal System, Tax system, Planning system etc etc and start again with a clean sheet of paper where people are promoted and rewarded on merit rather than parentage, Britain would recover as Germany did

Thrugelmir

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Like the Establishment press you are presumably getting your views from, you are (conveniently?) forgetting the following by election which resulted in a swing to Labour which, if replicated at the General Election, would give Jeremy Corbyn a resounding overall majority.

Unfortunately the wider electorate has I suspect little faith in the Labour party's ability to manage anything at the the current time. Judging by Beckett's honest and open report that has been published. Spin is best left to washing machines.

Gadfium

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Unfortunately the wider electorate has I suspect little faith in the Labour party's ability to manage anything at the the current time.

They are struggling mightily (and failing) to manage themselves, nevermind the country. This is a massive detriment to the country as it allows the Tories to rampage through decades of social equality and care almost unheeded.

themanfromamarillo

Back on topic that's the FTSE and Nikkei both past the (arbitary) -20% bear market mark. That makes ith 5/7 of the G7 countries having bear markets (USA and Italy are the only ones that still don't).

Kendall80

themanfromamarillo wrote: »

Back on topic that's the FTSE and Nikkei both past the (arbitary) -20% bear market mark. That makes ith 5/7 of the G7 countries having bear markets (USA and Italy are the only ones that still don't).

The DOW bounced a bit towards the close. Hopefully the others will start on the up in response. I've just shovelled an extra £1500 into my various equity funds in hope/anticipation. Fortunately i'd de-risked a bit with property/bonds before christmas. I'm 4% down this calendar year so far so not overly concerned just yet.

JohnRo

My next scheduled rebalance isn't while April which is annoying because I've a pretty good idea what's going to happen the last week in March if not sooner.

grey_gym_sock

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

i topped up my holding in the vanguard developed europe (incl. UK) ETF (VEUR) yesterday, using dividends accumulated within my SIPP.

this was a purely mechanical decision. i have target allocations for each holding, and rebalancing bands. no holding had moved outside its bands, but VEUR was the nearest to falling under its lower rebalancing band, so it got topped up.

my non-SIPP portfolio is not so mechanically run. no action taken there this year yet.

and yesterday i used small bit of cash in my shares ISA (a mixture of dividends and fresh subscription) to top up my holding in SSE. the dividend yield over 6% (and hopefully safer than BHP's or shell's dividends ) was too tempting.

not a major move - i will be adding small bits of cash like this most months.

meanwhile, i got a much larger amount of cash back for some of my shares in Axa Property Trust - a company which is gradually winding itself up. that's in a taxable account, and i'm keeping it in cash for now.

Glen_Clark

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

to top up my holding in SSE. the dividend yield over 6% (and hopefully safer than BHP's or shell's dividends ) was too tempting.
.

Stay diversified is my advice. If the last by election swing is replicated at the general election Jeremy Corbyn will be in with a strong majority, and he has talked of re nationalising the utility companies. They have also borrowed heavily - not a problem with interest rates currently on the floor, but how long will that last?