Dealing With Down Markets (Portfolio Buy)

 "Prices can go down as well as up" - the standard disclaimer for investors in securities. It's all fun while prices are rising...but sobering when markets are heading southwards.

After a pleasing Santa Rally in December, January and February have been horror stories, with a worldwide pull-back in share prices. The DIY Income Investor portfolio is back to the value it was a year ago.

How to deal with this kind of knock-back?

High Yields in London

For DIY Income Investors able to access it, Shares magazine has an interesting article on investing for income: 'Give yourself an income boost with stocks and funds yielding more than 5%'

Of course, yield is not everything and the article goes on to discuss some of the pitfalls and problems associated with high yield investing.

In Search Of Utility (Portfolio Buy)

Economists use the term 'utility' to explain behaviour - essentially it relates to the benefit you gain from buying or selling something. People are simply expected to 'maximise their utility' - in other words, do things that make them feel better off.

That basic principle works pretty well - but when it comes to investing, the new discipline of behavioural economics has found that it is all a lot more complicated.

Goodbye 2017

Source

Happy New Year to all DIY investors!

The DIY Income Investor portfolio has done OK during 2017 - but a number of poor investment choices held back the overall total return.

So - how to make better choices in the New Year?