It’s fair to say Mike Piper has made oblivious investing his own over on his Oblivious Investor blog.
Having coined the phrase, he had a head start, of course!
And with the publication of his new book Oblivious Investing: Building Wealth by Ignoring the Noise
The Alternative Investment Market (AIM for short) was set-up in 1995 as a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.
AIM enables smaller companies to obtain a public listing for their shares at a fraction of the cost and with less regulation than on the main market.
Over 3,000 companies have been listed on AIM since it opened.
AIM can be a rich hunting ground for private UK investors looking for bargains, since shares listed on AIM are less well researched than on the main market, and many are too small for fund managers to bother with.
This is part of a series on why borrowing to invest isn’t really a great idea.
The first article in this series saw me admitting that even though I hate debt, it isn’t hard to see the apparent attraction of:
The rest of these articles are going to pop that balloon.
Firstly, let’s start with the cost of your debt.
My weekly commentary followed by my weekend news and blog links round-up.
Back in January 2009, I wrote how it could be time to invest in corporate bonds, saying:
To cut to the chase, I think if you’re ever going to add corporate bonds to your portfolio, circumstances such as those following a panicked credit crisis may offer a window. The extreme fear in the market creates imperfect pricing, and so opportunities for the brave.
This turned out to be a good observation, not to blow my own trumpet (always painful!)
Some UK corporate bond funds are up 40% since March and it’s been the same story in the US. The Telegraph said last week that:
Corporate bonds have seen the most explosive rally in nearly a hundred years since the markets touched bottom last winter.
Morgan Stanley said none of the previous bond recoveries going back to 1925 had been as dramatic as this.
“Credit rallies are historically fast and fierce, but this one has become unusually rapid. Levels are almost back to where they were in the first quarter of 2008, but equities are still a long way off that.”
The question is should investors still be chasing corporate bonds?
