It is difficult to describe the madness that has followed the “mini-budget” in the UK. The pound tanked and the stock market crashed. The FTSE 100 has fallen over 500 points. I’ve been reading posts from private investors on the forums, most of whom are Tory voters; they are not happy. I had to take action like other investors.
eToro
My holdings on eToro are in USD but I mostly invested in UK companies, which was confusing with the dollar going up against a GBP that was tanking. I decided to sell all my UK stocks on that platform and send the cash back to my UK account and so benefited from the low value of the pound. My return worked out better than 10% so that wasn’t too bad. I’ve still got $150 invested in US stocks on that platform.
Taking profits
The oil price has been dropping for a while and so I decided to sell both BP and Shell and take my profits. I bought those during the pandemic and so roughly doubled my money. I also sold Barclay’s and will watch and buy back in at some point. Of course, everyone has looked at defensives rather than growth stocks this week. I decided to buy GSK because they make a lot of their money in USD. I considered buying Unilever and RKT; both are down today. I think investors are looking for bargains among the growth stocks today. I think having cash ready to invest is a good option now. The government haven’t finished trashing the economy yet. I still have three banks in my portfolio and STAN is exposed to Asia where things are looking up.
Energy Bills
Your average Tory voter who quite possibly voted Truss in is likely to have a mortgage that will become more expensive and they will likely be concerned about their energy bills too. They might have a small portfolio of stocks that have just been trashed too. They are not likely to be happy and tomorrow will bring even higher energy bills. When the Bank of England increases interest rates will it stem inflation? I don’t think it will but at least those that voted for this chaos will be the ones to suffer. I’ll be OK, I’m in credit with my energy supplier and my winter energy costs are already paid.
Banks
I bought Barclays during the pandemic for 90p. I should have sold when they hit £2.00 but I hung on and decided to sell at 149 this week. It is still a decent return but not as good as it might have been. I now hope my other banking holdings such as Lloyd’s will come good. Higher interest rates should see profits and share prices rise. I might have to wait until after the 2024 election though. I can see the madness continuing for a while.
A Zillion Ideas 
Leave a Reply