LM portfolio as at 18/07/2025:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM055 LM055-2 LM055-3 |
General Financial | 11/01/2023 02/05/2023 20/12/2023 |
£3850 | £9120 | 137.08% |
| LM079 LM079-2 LM079-3 |
No specific Industry | 22/02/2024 16/10/2024 03/12/2024 |
£4310 | £5380 | 24.87% |
| LM084 | Food Producers | 21/10/2024 | £1520 | £1480 | (2.59%) |
| LM086 LM086-2 |
Banks | 02/12/2024 10/02/2025 |
£3040 | £3710 | 21.80% |
| LM087 | Fixed Line Telecommunications | 02/12/2024 | £1520 | £1850 | 21.55% |
| LM089 | Investment Services | 06/01/2025 | £1530 | £1620 | 5.89% |
| LM090 LM090-2 |
Aerospace & Defense | 06/01/2025 23/04/2025 |
£3040 | £4450 | 46.11% |
House update - it's been on Rightmove now for three weeks, zero viewings... maybe it's on at too high a price. But when to drop the price? When do you amend the asking price downwards without looking too desperate?
Everyone wants to think their house is worth more than nextdoor or the one that just sold down the road, it's natural. Ours has been priced at a little more than the one nextdoor sold for at the end of last year. Ours has a larger garden but does that translate to £15k more? I'm not convinced.
The Estate Agent said to give it a couple more weeks then perhaps drop it 2%. They are the experts so I guess we will defer to them.
It's Not AI
All this so-called-AI hype makes me laugh.
The Sunday Times last week in the Business and Money section was a great case in point. The big story was about the AI bubble and how it is bringing back memories of the dot com crash. Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerburg has apparently been throwing money at people who have been programming this alleged "artificial intelligence" - the big headline being a $100m sign-on bonus for one coder.
All these new AI companies are promising all kinds of things SOON... always soon. It is invariably about "jam tomorrow"; it's a promise which is never likely to materialise.
If I was an "AI" coder and was being offered 9 figure sums to switch companies I would be out the door before you could blink. Go get that money and don't look back. These investors are so enamoured with the promise of "AI" that now is the time to take them for as much as you possibly can.
Underneath the big story on page 2 was some comment piece that I began to read and then started to shake my head. "Rapid advances in AI present a chance to take bold action..." said the mouthpiece writing it.
OK, ok...
Advances like what exactly?
What marvelous advances have there been?
An example perhaps?
Please can you provide some proof of these "rapid advances"?
No? Nothing?
You can claim anything in the paper but if, like in this Sunday Times piece, there's no proof it just sounds like you THINK it's all going to be jam tomorrow. In all reality it could be that you are STILL messing around with LLMs but they have just enough polish to wow some of the more gullible out there.
That's not artificial intelligence. Far from it.
I read the rest of the article and wasn't impressed. Then I saw the little bit in italics explaining who had written it - it was some Facebook employee - the same Facebook which is currently throwing stupid amounts of money at any coder who can use the right buzzwords. Ergo: safe to completely disregard everything he said.
FTSE 100 at 9000
25 years of very little growth and now we get past 8000 and then 9000 within 15 months.
We haven't seen the index close over 9000 yet but it's gone over that level twice in the last week intraday so surely we'll see that level breached soon.
The LM portfolio is yet again at an all-time high profit-wise after the close on Friday; see the table above for the good news.
I put this down to the excellent performance of the UK stock market but also the fact that I have perhaps over-invested in the positions I have and therefore reaped the benefits.
Despite the withdrawals I made last year I didn't change the value of a "unit", it's still the same as it was when the portfolio sat at more than £30k - £1500 per unit.
Strictly speaking I've should've reduced it when the value went below £30k but I didn't. My feeling is that I've been doing this long enough to know that the risk isn't particularly large.
I've yet to lose my full stake on any one position, the worst so far being a 50% loss of one unit and I'd like to think I won't ever lose that much again. Therefore the probability is that using a £1500 unit size I am really risking about £750 if it becomes a really bad trade. In all likelihood that's more like £300 as I have a strict 20% stop loss.