FIRE v London

April 2021 – a silver medal month

2021-05-01 FIRE v London2 Comments

April news saw a lot of stuff’n’nonsense about decorating the PM’s flat. This is silly-season stuff, even though it isn’t silly season. In the meantime, covid-19 vaccination progress in the UK has been excellent; my London borough now has fewer than 40 cases, and nationwide numbers are dropping by 30-40% a week. Shops are open again. Socialising/pubs/restaurants are open but outdoors only, which sounds useful but the weather has been simply too cold – especially in the evenings – to make the most of the opportunity.

In the markets, April started well. And continued doing well. And ended exceedingly well. Unless you were unfortunate enough to buy shares in Deliveroo, of course.

Continue reading →

ISA $millionaire

2021-04-102021-04-10 FIRE v London7 Comments

What an amazing twelve months it has been. And what an amazing month March 2020 was.

March 2020 saw global equities down 25% on peak, just a few weeks earlier. VWRL dropped to £57, a level it hadn’t been at since 2016. That left my ISAs feeling very down in the dumps.

Since March 2020, VWRL has climbed to £83, almost 14% above its previous cycle’s peak. My ISAs are looking very plump indeed.

Continue reading →

2021 Q1 – the camel’s head appears

2021-04-03 FIRE v London15 Comments

My portfolio went up over 3% in January. But then came down again.

The same happened in February. I concluded the month feeling somewhat ‘humped’ by the market, twice. Hence my post about two-humped camels (Bactrian camels, as it turns out – ahem).

So as the end of March approached, with my portfolio again up about 3%, I kept expecting a correction. But as at the time of writing, no correction has yet occurred.

Meanwhile, the news in March seemed full of vaccines. The UK has now vaccinated over half its adults. The US, about a quarter. The EU, is bringing up the rear, with about half of that. The headlines were full of vaccine wars, blood clots, second doses, you name it.

The other key story in London was the horrible news about 30-something Sarah Everard who was abducted and killed on one of the popular green spaces, Clapham Common, by a stranger – a policeman no less. The story hit the headlines because of how rare this sort of stuff is these days. There are only around 20 women killed in the UK every year by strangers, which suggests 5 or fewer per year in London.

Continue reading →