10 Most popular UK Value Investor blog posts of 2017

2017 is drawing to a close. I’ve already published my year-end FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 market reviews, so now it’s time to round up the most popular blog posts of the year.

These are the blog posts that attracted the highest number of comments during the year, so hopefully there’s some correlation between how many comments a post received and how interesting, enjoyable or thought-provoking it was.

Hopefully.

Anyway, here’s the list.

If you find yourself with nothing to do over Christmas and New Year, perhaps something in these articles will help you pass the time and prepare you and your investments for 2018 and beyond:

  1. My journey to a million-pound portfolio (June)
  2. Is Unilever a buy, hold or sell? (October)
  3. Has Neil Woodford lost it? (September)
  4. FTSE 100 Valuation and forecast for 2018 and beyond (December)
  5. Important lessons from the collapse of Carillion’s share price (August)
  6. Standard Chartered and the importance of a strong bank balance sheet (March)
  7. Halfords PLC has a 5% dividend yield but its go-faster stripes have fallen off (February)
  8. Selling Braemar Shipping Services: Important lessons from a volatile investment (September)
  9. FTSE 100 forecast for 2017: Up, but not by much (January)
  10. 39 Lessons from my 3 favourite investment books (August)

Before I sign off for the year, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who read one (or more) of my blog posts in 2017, especially those who left comments. The nature of a blog means it’s mostly me doing all the talking, but I do enjoy the feedback and debate of the comments section as well.

Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and I’ll be back in 2018. Unless I get bored eating mince pies, in which case you’ll probably hear from me next week.

Author: John Kingham

I cover both the theory and practice of investing in high-quality UK dividend stocks for long-term income and growth.

7 thoughts on “10 Most popular UK Value Investor blog posts of 2017”

  1. John — comments inserted >>

    My journey to a million pound portfolio (June)

    >> This time next year Rodney!!

    Is Unilever a buy, hold or sell? (October)

    >> Buy, sit wait and see it grow, don’t worry about the swings in value, collect the divi and reinvest them.

    Has Neil Woodford lost it? (September)

    >> He’s lost it, few of his stock selections make sense and analysis skills amongst his team seem strange at best. 129 investments in a single fund is off the scale of understanding or availability of analysis time.

    FTSE 100 Valuation and forecast for 2018 and beyond (December)

    >> — Wet finger in the air to determine the wind direction and strength of it.

    Important lessons from the collapse of Carillion’s share price (August)

    >> Don’t invest in construction, the contracts are all cancellable and the operating margins are tiny, revenue recognition policies are all over the place — lots of pain avoided by such an action.

    Standard Chartered and the importance of a strong bank balance sheet (March)

    >> Banks — aaahhhh the sheer transparancy of the balance sheet, the instant insight into the leverage and exposure, the mystical guesswork into the underlying investment quality, the vague risk assessments as set by dubious regulators justifying their salaries.. You could write poetry to it.

    Halfords PLC has a 5% dividend yield but its go-faster stripes have fallen off (February)

    >> There’s no money in car parts or bicycles and the Haynes manual pictures have very little alignmnent with the text.

    Selling Braemar Shipping Services: Important lessons from a volatile investment (September)

    >> A sailors lot is not always a happy one – Mutiny on the Bounty!

    FTSE 100 forecast for 2017: Up, but not by much (January)

    >> Dry finger in the air to determine the wind direction and if it has moisture content and the strength of it.

    39 Lessons from my 3 favourite investment books (August)

    >> Lesson 1 – Never lose money — other 38 lessons, “never forget lesson 1”

    LR

    1. Eloquent as always LR, and mostly in line with my own thinking. The only exception is your last entry. I always thought Buffett’s “never lose money” rule was daft and essentially meaningless. He’s lost a whole heap of money on countless investments over the years, as will any non-risk-free investor. The only way to stick to the rule is to stay in cash, which I’m pretty sure is not what he means.

      1. John, Merry Christmas — I agree is just one of those, in a way rather catchy, and yes meaningless statements, as no one surely sets out to lose money intentionally.

        That’s it I’m done — it’s been my best year yet, so I’m off down to the pub soon to close off. I better make it a Greene King pub John, as this was one of my worst ideas, well so far anyhow — I think they need my custom. You did warn me though — ahh well – back to rule one (lesson one) I suppose.

        I aim to read Greenblatt’s little book over the festivities.

      2. Thanks John for that down to earth response. Most readers will have experienced losing positions, and how the investor responds, sensibly or otherwise, may define their ultimate success or sorrow. Thanks also for all the hard analytical work achieved over the past year and wishing you continued prosperity for 2018.

  2. Happy New Year, John and all the best for 2018.

    Thanks for this, I appear to have missed a couple of these blog posts so only catching up now!

    I don’t think I’d be too upset if the markets were ‘unkind’ this year – it’ll make a mess of my graphs but they will look interesting…

    1. Hi weenie, actually an “unkind” market is a good thing for long-term investors, so really I should wish for a huge crash this year so that we can hoover up the bargains. I guess bear markets are a bit like medicine when you were a kid – it’s good for you but it still leaves a bitter taste in your mouth!

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