Playing FTSE

Join the gang this week as they delve into Michaels question about the brightest battery companies and battery metal miners in the industry, no long-shots, we go for the ones actually doing the business...because after all, who doesn't think EV's, Hydrogen or Hybrids are the future of transport?

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Appreciate the show and want to offer your support? You could always buy us a coffee at: 

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We get a small cut of anything you buy which will be reinvested back into the show....COMPOUNDING! (you read that in Svens voice right? Did Briscoe mention he got Sven on the show!?)  

Show Notes:  Things we mentioned in the show!  

Svens Free Course: https://sven-carlin-research-platform.teachable.com/p/stock-market-investing 

Sven Carlins Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/InvestwithSvenCarlinPhD 

Aswath Domodarans Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AswathDamodaranonValuation/videos 

Psychology of Money Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychology-Money-Timeless-lessons-happiness/dp/0857197681 

Tim Hales Smarter Investing Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/ 

Motley Fool Investment Guide Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Motley-Fool-Investment-Guide-Streets/dp/1501155555/

What is Vestas? What does Steve W plan to do with his premium bonds? And what do we think about podcasts that are better than ours? Find out on this week's Playing FTSE Podcast!  

We start this week's show with a game from Steve D. Paul and Steve W try to guess how long different CEOs have been in post. Jamie Dimon, Lisa Su, and Mark Zuckerberg all make an appearance, along with some other business leaders that you might not have heard of. Twenty questions means that Paul doesn't have a chance. Or does he...?  

Next is the Motley Fools' restructuring. We're big fans of the Motley Fool (the US one, not the UK one) and we've often cited their podcasts as a source of knowledge, ideas, and facts that we use on our own show. They've restructured their show portfolio, though. Out with the Industry Focus/Market Foolery/Motley Fool Answers and in with a daily Motley Fool Money show. The Steves have been having a listen. Find out what they think of it.  

Following this, we've got exciting news from Trading 212. Stocks that were once available in an ISA and then weren't available in an ISA are available in an ISA again. Some of them, anyway. We point out some of our favourites -- Paul and Steve D discuss wind turbine company Vestas and Steve W gives us his take on nothing at all but suggests that JD.com looks like it's at something of a discount to its historic levels. Keep an eye out for Newcrest Mining though -- a rare mention of a gold miner on the show.   

Lastly, it's a segment that Steve W *does* have something to say about. His own money. Having discovered that he owns some Premium Bonds that haven't been making much of a return, Steve's hunting for somewhere to redeploy his capital. He's looking at the REIT sector and thinking about how he measures the success of his investment and his returns. Paul and Steve D pile in with their thoughts.

This week, we’re all about BONDS. What does the price of bonds have to do with the price of stocks? Are bonds attractive investments? And what does the FED’s stance on bonds have to do with anything?  

Instead of a game, we kick off this week with Steve D’s news that he’s rearranged the way he thinks about his portfolio. Instead of having a core and satellite model, where some stocks form a solid base with riskier investments layered on top, Steve’s transitioning to a portfolio-and-penalty-box model, where some stocks get the silent treatment for a period of time. What does this mean and which stocks are currently on the sidelines? Steve explains.  

The game is shortly behind, though, and this one is a cracker. Since Paul hasn’t had a chance to play a game by himself (the Steves each did one at the end of October) this week’s game is called Steve, Steve, Steve and Steve, or Not Steve. The Steves offer out a variety of statements and Paul’s job is to figure out whether it applies to Steve D, Steve W, both Steves or neither Steve. Did Steve D once own Citibank? What was Steve W’s first stock investment? Who has more shares in Monzo? Find out by playing along with Paul!  

After a quick pivot into a not-ad (this week our show is not-sponsored by Wise Alpha), it’s into a discussion of bonds. We don’t talk much about bonds. But it’s good to be aware of them and know what the opportunities and the risks that they present are. Steve W explains why he thinks that a certain kind of dividend investor might be well advised to look at bonds as part of their investment strategy and how preferred stocks represent a kind of mid point between common stocks and bonds.   

Sticking with bonds, the next item on our agenda is the FED. Earlier this week, the minutes of the FED meeting from December were released and the markets took a dive. The minutes revealed discussions of decreasing the FEDs balance sheet and raising interest rates in light of the US economy running hot. But what does all this mean? Paul and the Steves talk about hawks, doves, selling bonds, buying bonds, interest rate rises, treasury yields, and the great irrelevance of it all for investors.

This week we tackle Toms query - how important is the New Year to us? Do we change strategies? Alter weightings? Or adjust to the new market conditions? You'll only know if you listen through to this weeks midweek FTSE ;)

New Year, same old Playing FTSE. But stay tuned to the end for a BIG REVEAL from Steve W.

In this week’s show, we look both backwards and forwards. Backwards at how our portfolios have performed over the last year, what we’ve learned, and what has and hasn’t worked for us. Forwards at what we think will happen in 2022, what our ambitions are for the podcast, and how we plan on going about doing things differently to how we’ve been doing them so far.

But first, we start with a game of REIT or Not-REIT. Steve D’s design sees Paul and Steve W talking about REITs and their ticker symbols. Watch Steve try to mislead Paul on a ticker symbol that both of them know perfectly well, and then on a ticker symbol for a REIT that neither of them has ever heard of. Find out along the way which REIT Steve W mishandled last year and which Paul has been doing very well indeed on.

After that, it’s time for us to review our portfolio performances over the past year. One of us has slightly outperformed the S&P, one of us has slightly underperformed the S&P, and one of us finished a long way back. Who did what? We reveal all. Along the way, Paul tells us about how pleased he is with himself, Steve D gives us a blow-by-blow account of his battle with the indexes and Steve W reflects on the amount of work he’s put in to achieve very little in comparison to the broader market.

Next, it’s the exciting bit of the show. We list our predictions for 2022. What outrageous prediction is Steve W making about a US tech company getting acquired? What is Paul expecting to blow its top off? And what does Steve D think about the likely performance of ARK for the next 12 months? Find out as we make our predictions for 2022 about macroeconomics, individual stocks, and the general direction of the market.

Lastly, find out what Steve W is looking forward to in 2022 outside the markets…

This week the boys tackle who they think is the best investor ever, with a bonus round of what books they'd recommend. Who's going to win Lynch, Buffett, Wood or even Ackman? Find out in this weeks PlayingFTSE!

Merry Christmas Everyone! In this special episode of the Playing FTSE show, Paul and the Steves discuss their festive plans, their favourite stories from this year, and some of the things that they got right and wrong. Find out Steve D’s special plan for avoiding hosting Christmas, why Steve W is making travel plans, and which of us has a ridiculous amount of plates.  

Fear not, though, this isn’t one of those cheap review shows with no original content. We’ve got a brand new festive-themed game called “The 12 Days of Brismas”. Designed by Steve W, this one is a laugh-a-minute as Paul and Steve D attempt to remember the names of obscure companies such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks.  

Next we move on to talk about our favourite stories of the year. Find out what Steve D’s favourite way of describing an inability to sell stuff is, what Steve W identifies as the moment where the momentum came out of the SPAC movement, and what Paul’s favourite Twitter feed is. We also talk about our hits and misses from the last year. Steve D talks about being wrong about bottomless money pit Kirkland Lake, Steve W recalls losing his mind and buying Coinbase, and Paul discusses his failing beach body.   

We finish off with some quick highlights from the year for us. We’re a new podcast and we’ve been finding our way. It’s been a great fun ride so far, we’ve had a lot of fun messing about, thinking about financial things and we’re looking forward to more in the New Year. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and we’ll see you all on the other side with more games, more nonsense, more stocks, more learning, and more laughter.