Woodford Concerns

AnotherJoe

Yes but Woodford seems to have gone ***** out to do that in spades

Thrugelmir

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Yes but Woodford seems to have gone ***** out to do that in spades

The TV programme Dragons Den is a consumer version of the real world that does exist. Facebook, Amazon, Apple etc would never have existed without people with deep pockets.

iglad

WPCT tonight at 32.5p I expect it to go below 30p quite soon.

Thrugelmir

iglad wrote: »

WPCT tonight at 32.5p I expect it to go below 30p quite soon.

Depends on the performance of the underlying investments. Only takes one to IPO or generate a spin off company. There's some interesting activities undertaken buried within the portfolio. Once the shareholdings in WEIF are digested. Then no reason why the share price won't improve. Though unquoted companies will result in a permanently high discount.

AnotherJoe

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The TV programme Dragons Den is a consumer version of the real world that does exist. Facebook, Amazon, Apple etc would never have existed without people with deep pockets.

And ? No one would dispute that, however most that do invest in startups, and I did once meet one of the top people in the US that do that (Tom Perkins) do have the ability to pick some moonshots. Woodford seems have specialised only in rockets that blew up spectacularly on the launchpad

Agile01

Just trying to understand why investors didn’t had any concerns after 2 years when fund was launched.
Was underlying holding was completely different than what is it now?

Brian65

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The TV programme Dragons Den is a consumer version of the real world that does exist.

.. and Lesson 1 is don't invest in things you don't understand.
How much does Woodford understand about Cold Fusion :doh:

Brian65

Agile01 wrote: »

Just trying to understand why investors didn’t had any concerns after 2 years when fund was launched.
Was underlying holding was completely different than what is it now?

A scientist who bought WPCT at launch said he would never have invested if he knew Woodford was going to invest in Cold Fusion. But he didn't look at the underlying investments because he assumed Woodford knew what he was doing.

Thrugelmir

Brian65 wrote: »

.. and Lesson 1 is don't invest in things you don't understand.
How much does Woodford understand about Cold Fusion :doh:

Buy a share and attend the AGM. You can then ask questions of the investment team. .

AnotherJoe

Agile01 wrote: »

Just trying to understand why investors didn’t had any concerns after 2 years when fund was launched.

Many simply wouldnt have had the capacity to understand, thats why you choose a manager with a name and a record to do it for you. If he and his team think that Circassia or Prothena are hot companies in biotech why woudl you disagree.If he thinks there's something in AI, again how qualified are most to even understand that. Its only in teh past couple of years, especially after some spectacular failures pumping money in just weeks before the company went bust that it became clear how inept they were ... and then came IH :eek:

Agile01 wrote: »

Was underlying holding was completely different than what is it now?

Not for WPCT. But it wasn't clear at the point how poor nearly all the startups he'd invested in were. And then came the £32M into IH, the jumping the shark moment for many with even a slight clue. BUt to be fair to the general public most wouldnt. I'm sure they woudl think his team of highly skilled analysts knew more than, say, yours truly, especially after his highly paid independent* valuers uprated it 3.5x on the basis of "good results"
Yes for Equity Income which started as a standard high income fund and then became stuffed with startups that didn't pay dividends (and in contrast needed capital putting in) not really a great fit for an income fund.




* :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: