Checking up on England (loafers on the ground)

I’m in England currently for a shortish family trip full of family things. So this will be brief.

Markets: the inflated parts have continued deflating somewhat, such as semiconductor stocks, space stocks, and the Korean market. (See here and here for earlier notes flagging the risks.)

This is where markets can get dangerous for the unprepared.

Momentum investors hit their stop losses as prices drop, potentially triggering further selling and further price falls.

Leveraged investors can become forced sellers as their margin loans are called in by their brokers.

Indices can be sold off across the board as investors pull out of index funds and fund managers sell indiscriminately to raise cash funds to pay the redemptions.

We’ll see how it evolves. Over soon or about to get really serious? Only time will tell.

I was recently interviewed by Jeremy McKeown and Mark Atkinson. This followed my latest book-in-progress Chapter 16: How to decide when to buy or sell stock investments.

What to do in different circumstances depends on a number of factors. Not least, the type of investing strategy that you are pursuing.

You can listen to the discussion here (lasting about 50 minutes), and it’s worth reading the summary that Jeremy wrote underneath as well.

Incidentally, in there I mention that I do about 50 trades a year. This isn’t normally the case, but I’ve been changing a lot over the past couple of years due to the influences of wanting better geographical diversification (including less exposure to UK earnings); US tariff and trade policies; the potential effects of AI on various companies; and most recently the risks caused by the Iran conflict.

Usually I’d expect to trade far less. Perhaps 20 or so times a year, and usually in groups, with little activity in between. This is because I prioritise which stocks I think have the most future potential. It would be perfectly okay to do virtually no trading at all, other than making sure no single position becomes too big.

England is warm and sunny. This makes a nice change from most of my trips here, which are usually during winter (when my kids are enjoying their long southern-hemisphere summer breaks from studies).

I’m in London with the family for a few days. We went to Hampstead in north-west London. It was the first time I’d ever been there, despite living in London for a total of 12 years in the past. My excuse is that London is a big place.

See the bad photo of the City of London above, taken from Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath. It’s from one of the very few elevated vantage points from which to view London. Unfortunately, most of the “view” was blocked by trees. I’d bet that earlier generations kept the foliage trimmed to a much lower height. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought the Milei chainsaw over from Argentina.

After that we wandered over to Hampstead village. All in all, a really pleasant area. Many old buildings and a lot of trees lining the streets. The sort of place where champagne socialists live. Where they vote for economic and social destruction whilst safely nestled in civilised comfort.

We also had a day trip to Oxford, which I hadn’t been to for about three decades. Well worth it, in our case for a potter around Christ Church college, lunch on a terrace above the Ashmolean Museum, a gentle bob in a punt, and a pint by the riverside before returning to “town” (i.e. London).

Now it’s time to head out again. This time into central London for the rest of the day. With plans to escape to the beautiful and ancient town of Arundel in Sussex - castle, cathedral and all - for several days over the weekend. It’s where my mother grew up.

England - the UK really - may be in obvious decline. But there are still many wonderful things to see and do.

Please send comments or questions to the email shown below.

I will reply!

Until next time,

Rob Marstrand

email: ofwealth@substack.com

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