The odds of him winning every month, given the reduction in prizes that has taken place over recent years, are huge.
Me too, I think he's had the maximum for maybe 6 years or so. So they aren't recent either which just goes to show you.
Weirdly his Girlfriend has £5k worth (which he sorted out for her about 2 years ago) and she seems to win about 3-4 times a year, even had £100 back end of last year.
He's clearly just got the Midas touch!
I'll be cashing mine soon I expect, no chance with the Wife's though, she loves 'being in the game' as she puts it
2 x £25 for me, 1 x £25 for mrs ltgtr. 17 wins between us this year albeit just £525 in total but nice to get. I’ve had 3 blank months this year, mrs ltgtr 2 blank months. You just hope it evens up over the year, that and get a big prize one day.
Nothing for me, 2x £25 for mrs ltgtr. I haven’t checked which bonds won but i suspect it’s that larger block of bonds she holds that keeps coming up trumps
Interesting comment today in the morning round up. Tech is the new Defensives. Forget BAT and buy Microsoft, Amazon, Paypal, etc. Working for me so far this year.
Markets are just mad at the moment, some of the funds growth has been outstanding. My top 3 performing are up 71.5%, 66% and 48% over varying time periods from 4 months to around 14 months.
That's interesting - high tech growth is the new defensive! I have seen that in the performance YTD.
Watched an online investment seminar yesterday (Waverton) & their defensive strategy is now alternatives & Government Bonds as a last resort. Another one today (Artemis) said holding cash was their last resort instead of Bonds but not for too long as inflation would mean negative growth if held for any length of time.
I just fear for investors who are putting too much into equities because they see the returns from Bonds as negative. You have been warned if markets crash again
That's interesting - high tech growth is the new defensive! I have seen that in the performance YTD.
Watched an online investment seminar yesterday (Waverton) & their defensive strategy is now alternatives & Government Bonds as a last resort. Another one today (Artemis) said holding cash was their last resort instead of Bonds but not for too long as inflation would mean negative growth if held for any length of time.
I just fear for investors who are putting too much into equities because they see the returns from Bonds as negative. You have been warned if markets crash again
I've shifted a bit of mine into bonds the past 4-5 weeks, so I'm at around 18% now. To be fair a Royal London one in my ISA is up 10%.
Any recommendations for Bonds on HL? I do need to up my portfolio allocation, despite it feeling and coming across as boring while pressing the submit button.
Any recommendations for Bonds on HL? I do need to up my portfolio allocation, despite it feeling and coming across as boring while pressing the submit button.
I'm sure Golfie will have better ideas than me, but mine are in (assuming on HL);
BG Strategic Bond B ACC Vanguard Global Bond Index GBP ACC Royal London Government Bond M ACC Royal London UTM Corporate Bond M ACC
BG and the UTM have done OK (up about 7% and 10%), the others not had long, RL Gov is down a bit, Vanguard up a bit.
Any recommendations for Bonds on HL? I do need to up my portfolio allocation, despite it feeling and coming across as boring while pressing the submit button.
Schroder Strategic Bond Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond. MAN GLG High Yield opportunities. Invesco Monthly Income Plus.
Rescued from page 5 of this board......shame on alls of you !!
Anyway.....if you haven't notice the markets today (Monday) have been falling dramatically. In the morning the FTSE100 was d8wn almost 2%, but recovered to just under a 1% drop. Same for the 250, and European markets fared even worse with most falling by more than 2%. In the US, both the Dow and the S&P500 finished almost 2% down too.
I know our comp still has over 3 months left to run but anyone predicting the FTSE100 to finish above 7250 might be out of the money.
Rescued from page 5 of this board......shame on alls of you !!
Anyway.....if you haven't notice the markets today (Monday) have been falling dramatically. In the morning the FTSE100 was d8wn almost 2%, but recovered to just under a 1% drop. Same for the 250, and European markets fared even worse with most falling by more than 2%. In the US, both the Dow and the S&P500 finished almost 2% down too.
I know our comp still has over 3 months left to run but anyone predicting the FTSE100 to finish above 7250 might be out of the money.
FTSE100 has recovered this morning tho'. I'm still confident that I'm gonna beat you -again- in our competition (although this time, if I recall right, there is very little between our respective forecasts).
Anyway I bought some of your recommended funds on Sunday evening via H-L. Heaven knows what price I actually paid, I think I will find out by about Friday, because, that's just the way it works for mug punters... Although it's worth saying here, the funds you've mentioned have all been delivering hugely impressive performance against benchmarks (and other funds I hold), if people take a quick look "under the bonnet".
So it looks like we (in a market context) now have to worry about Evergrande and gas prices. FWIW the FT Unhedged newsletter reckons Evergrande will not result in lasting global contagion, since the Chinese govt. can, in short, "manage such debt at will'...
Rescued from page 5 of this board......shame on alls of you !!
Anyway.....if you haven't notice the markets today (Monday) have been falling dramatically. In the morning the FTSE100 was d8wn almost 2%, but recovered to just under a 1% drop. Same for the 250, and European markets fared even worse with most falling by more than 2%. In the US, both the Dow and the S&P500 finished almost 2% down too.
I know our comp still has over 3 months left to run but anyone predicting the FTSE100 to finish above 7250 might be out of the money.
Given all the uncertainty across the globe it could end up anywhere.
Rescued from page 5 of this board......shame on alls of you !!
Anyway.....if you haven't notice the markets today (Monday) have been falling dramatically. In the morning the FTSE100 was d8wn almost 2%, but recovered to just under a 1% drop. Same for the 250, and European markets fared even worse with most falling by more than 2%. In the US, both the Dow and the S&P500 finished almost 2% down too.
I know our comp still has over 3 months left to run but anyone predicting the FTSE100 to finish above 7250 might be out of the money.
FTSE100 has recovered this morning tho'. I'm still confident that I'm gonna beat you -again- in our competition (although this time, if I recall right, there is very little between our respective forecasts).
Anyway I bought some of your recommended funds on Sunday evening via H-L. Heaven knows what price I actually paid, I think I will find out by about Friday, because, that's just the way it works for mug punters... Although it's worth saying here, the funds you've mentioned have all been delivering hugely impressive performance against benchmarks (and other funds I hold), if people take a quick look "under the bonnet".
So it looks like we (in a market context) now have to worry about Evergrande and gas prices. FWIW the FT Unhedged newsletter reckons Evergrande will not result in lasting global contagion, since the Chinese govt. can, in short, "manage such debt at will'...
Commentators in the US are saying that September is always a dodgy month and they expect a recovery before the end of the year.......although the Dow could fall further in the short term.
Both the BoE and the Fed are to start looking an the unwinding of QE and although markets are still worried about inflation feeding through they dont think interest rates will be rising anytime soon.
Could I pick your collective brains re selling my house, specifically is it time to change or broaden out the agents I deploy?
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
Could I pick your collective brains re selling my house, specifically is it time to change or broaden out the agents I deploy?
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
I must admit I thought the market was hot but the stamp duty holiday was coming to a close, so may have dampened demand recently? Maybe 0.75% isn't motivating her enough(!)
I'd at least get a second opinion on the price and the market from the agency that sold the other place. Pay 1.5% max or just switch?
Rescued from page 5 of this board......shame on alls of you !!
Anyway.....if you haven't notice the markets today (Monday) have been falling dramatically. In the morning the FTSE100 was d8wn almost 2%, but recovered to just under a 1% drop. Same for the 250, and European markets fared even worse with most falling by more than 2%. In the US, both the Dow and the S&P500 finished almost 2% down too.
I know our comp still has over 3 months left to run but anyone predicting the FTSE100 to finish above 7250 might be out of the money.
FTSE100 has recovered this morning tho'. I'm still confident that I'm gonna beat you -again- in our competition (although this time, if I recall right, there is very little between our respective forecasts).
Anyway I bought some of your recommended funds on Sunday evening via H-L. Heaven knows what price I actually paid, I think I will find out by about Friday, because, that's just the way it works for mug punters... Although it's worth saying here, the funds you've mentioned have all been delivering hugely impressive performance against benchmarks (and other funds I hold), if people take a quick look "under the bonnet".
So it looks like we (in a market context) now have to worry about Evergrande and gas prices. FWIW the FT Unhedged newsletter reckons Evergrande will not result in lasting global contagion, since the Chinese govt. can, in short, "manage such debt at will'...
Commentators in the US are saying that September is always a dodgy month and they expect a recovery before the end of the year.......although the Dow could fall further in the short term.
Both the BoE and the Fed are to start looking an the unwinding of QE and although markets are still worried about inflation feeding through they dont think interest rates will be rising anytime soon.
The US analysts I follow have been cautiously bullish but with health warnings since July due to poor market breadth. On Friday they said that if the S&P fell below the 4370 support and stayed there more than an hour, that was bad news; if it closed below there, worse news. So, both warnings triggered.
The other analysts I follow correctly called this dip and are now saying wait for the bounce before selling again. But, ultimately, will be the buy the dip opportunity.
I'm just holding tight because I never get the timing right!
Could I pick your collective brains re selling my house, specifically is it time to change or broaden out the agents I deploy?
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
I must admit I thought the market was hot but the stamp duty holiday was coming to a close, so may have dampened demand recently? Maybe 0.75% isn't motivating her enough(!)
I'd at least get a second opinion on the price and the market from the agency that sold the other place. Pay 1.5% max or just switch?
0.75% was her own suggestion...I'd be happy to pay 1.5% if someone shifts it fairly quickly.
Get a second opinion. The agent who sold down the road a good place to start as they will have a note of viewers. A good letting agent often not a good sales agent. The South East Market still OK.
Could I pick your collective brains re selling my house, specifically is it time to change or broaden out the agents I deploy?
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
Go with an agent that advertises on Rightmove & Zoopla.
Just made contact with the agent that sold the other house. A different kettle of fish to be sure, and talked a good game about how they will go about it, so I have given them sole agency at 1%. I know estate agents are what they are, but they seemed very on the ball generally compared with the letting agent. The new one is Winkworth which is a big operation, whereas the other one I think has just the one office.
Just made contact with the agent that sold the other house. A different kettle of fish to be sure, and talked a good game about how they will go about it, so I have given them sole agency at 1%. I know estate agents are what they are, but they seemed very on the ball generally compared with the letting agent. The new one is Winkworth which is a big operation, whereas the other one I think has just the one office.
check out KT6 6HR .. Zoopla says between £470,000 to £480,000 .. and a 50 grand discount for modernising ? .. well over estimated i m o
Just made contact with the agent that sold the other house. A different kettle of fish to be sure, and talked a good game about how they will go about it, so I have given them sole agency at 1%. I know estate agents are what they are, but they seemed very on the ball generally compared with the letting agent. The new one is Winkworth which is a big operation, whereas the other one I think has just the one office.
check out KT6 6HR .. Zoopla says between £470,000 to £480,000 .. and a 50 grand discount for modernising ? .. well over estimated i m o
Too much or not enough? It was bad enough for Kingston Council to order me to modernise kitchen, bathroom and new boiler just to get an HMO renewed A family would want to completely remodel both rooms plus new fitted units in the bedrooms. Garden’s a state too. Property is well above whatever you have been looking at. Very mixed properties around there from small flats through to £1.3m detached houses, all in my street.
Could I pick your collective brains re selling my house, specifically is it time to change or broaden out the agents I deploy?
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
Something that agents won't always tell you right now is how COVID has effected what people want. 3 bed semi's, flats etc are all low down the pecking order. We took quite a while to sell our 3 bed semi that 4-5 years ago literally flew off the shelf. I know a few people with flats in good, once popular areas who are only achieving offers of 15% less than they paid 3-4 years ago. Whereas add detached and 4 bed/2 bathroom and it's a bidding war.
Hard to tell without knowing the exact house, but ultimately if it's advertised on the internet and you've not had many/any viewings and no offers it's almost always down to price. Almost everyone looks online now, no one gives a hoot what agent you are with (assuming they answer the phone/email etc).
Could I pick your collective brains re selling my house, specifically is it time to change or broaden out the agents I deploy?
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
Something that agents won't always tell you right now is how COVID has effected what people want. 3 bed semi's, flats etc are all low down the pecking order. We took quite a while to sell our 3 bed semi that 4-5 years ago literally flew off the shelf. I know a few people with flats in good, once popular areas who are only achieving offers of 15% less than they paid 3-4 years ago. Whereas add detached and 4 bed/2 bathroom and it's a bidding war.
Hard to tell without knowing the exact house, but ultimately if it's advertised on the internet and you've not had many/any viewings and no offers it's almost always down to price. Almost everyone looks online now, no one gives a hoot what agent you are with (assuming they answer the phone/email etc).
Spot on. I'm living in Surbiton right now and there must be a dozen or more estate agents there and their offices are empty and half of them don't even bother to answer the phone. Just about every agent uses Rightmove and/or Zoopla to market their properties. Maybe Prague has chosen the one agent that doesn't! However, keeping the client informed is imortant and if they can't do that I'd definitely change but agree there's little need to use multiple agancies in today's market.
The rental market in the area is ridiculous though with flats and smaller houses being picked up as soon as they're on the market. I was lucky to be the first viewer of the flat I'm now living in or I might still be in the Travelodge or a dump!
I like the area and it's a bit closer to The Valley than Phuket!
Comments
Weirdly his Girlfriend has £5k worth (which he sorted out for her about 2 years ago) and she seems to win about 3-4 times a year, even had £100 back end of last year.
He's clearly just got the Midas touch!
I'll be cashing mine soon I expect, no chance with the Wife's though, she loves 'being in the game' as she puts it
I just fear for investors who are putting too much into equities because they see the returns from Bonds as negative. You have been warned if markets crash again
BG Strategic Bond B ACC
Vanguard Global Bond Index GBP ACC
Royal London Government Bond M ACC
Royal London UTM Corporate Bond M ACC
BG and the UTM have done OK (up about 7% and 10%), the others not had long, RL Gov is down a bit, Vanguard up a bit.
Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond.
MAN GLG High Yield opportunities.
Invesco Monthly Income Plus.
Why would you keep the money in?
I'm going through the process at the moment.
Just depends on what type of pension its currently in.
Anyway.....if you haven't notice the markets today (Monday) have been falling dramatically. In the morning the FTSE100 was d8wn almost 2%, but recovered to just under a 1% drop. Same for the 250, and European markets fared even worse with most falling by more than 2%. In the US, both the Dow and the S&P500 finished almost 2% down too.
I know our comp still has over 3 months left to run but anyone predicting the FTSE100 to finish above 7250 might be out of the money.
Anyway I bought some of your recommended funds on Sunday evening via H-L. Heaven knows what price I actually paid, I think I will find out by about Friday, because, that's just the way it works for mug punters... Although it's worth saying here, the funds you've mentioned have all been delivering hugely impressive performance against benchmarks (and other funds I hold), if people take a quick look "under the bonnet".
So it looks like we (in a market context) now have to worry about Evergrande and gas prices. FWIW the FT Unhedged newsletter reckons Evergrande will not result in lasting global contagion, since the Chinese govt. can, in short, "manage such debt at will'...
Both the BoE and the Fed are to start looking an the unwinding of QE and although markets are still worried about inflation feeding through they dont think interest rates will be rising anytime soon.
My house is in Surbiton, its a 70's 3-bed terrace in a row of 12 similar. It has not been significantly modernised since I bought it in 1985 and latterly has been rented to students.
I gave it to the letting agent as sole agent since as a letting agency they've done a good job, but I think they are a bit old school when it comes to sales. When it came to pricing we had the advantage that another one in that terrace had just been sold for close to asking price. However that was apparently fully modernised so my agent proposed a price £50k less, which seemed reasonable for new kitchen, bathroom and upgraded CH. It went on the market late July. But she has not exactly been proactive in keeping me informed of progress and as far as I can tell she has not had a single viewing. So I asked by mail how she sees it and just now she came back with a proposal to reduce the price by 4%. She claims that there are a lot of houses not moving at the moment, however that doesn't tally with what I read in today's FT.
The exclusive agency was for 6 weeks at 0.75%. I know which agency sold the other house in the terrace so they would be the obvious alternative choice. Would you approach them now, and on a joint agency basis, which I guess means both would be asking around 2% ?
I'd at least get a second opinion on the price and the market from the agency that sold the other place. Pay 1.5% max or just switch?
The other analysts I follow correctly called this dip and are now saying wait for the bounce before selling again. But, ultimately, will be the buy the dip opportunity.
I'm just holding tight because I never get the timing right!
The South East Market still OK.
Hard to tell without knowing the exact house, but ultimately if it's advertised on the internet and you've not had many/any viewings and no offers it's almost always down to price. Almost everyone looks online now, no one gives a hoot what agent you are with (assuming they answer the phone/email etc).