Comments on: Personal Assets Trust: Bear Turned Up To 11

By: ITinvestor

ITinvestor — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:18:14 +0000

In reply to Chris. It was the AIC site: you can click on 'More data' to display additional funds. Trustnet charting does something very similar.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:01:53 +0000

Hi, what website do you use to plot PNL against the Life Strategy funds?

By: ITinvestor

ITinvestor — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:25:57 +0000

Thanks, Dan and Bill. Glad you both liked the write-up.

I must admit to only really skimming a few, recent quarterly letters while researching this, but I suspect I will read them more thoroughly when I get the time to do so.

I didn’t make too much of Angus and Buchan retiring in the article, but long-term shareholders will probably have a better feel than me of how significant it might be.

And I do wonder if, as these type of management teams age, they generally get more bearish and conservative with their investments, as many of us do! That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but something to be mindful of.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 22:15:27 +0000

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts about Investment Trusts. They are very useful and help me make sense of some of my IT holdings built up over the years. I hold CGT and PNL, for instance, and whilst I have not analysed them in the same depth as you have, I have been thinking of selling PNL and doubling my holding in CGT. In the past I have found the quarterly shareholder letters from PNL interesting and amusing, but when it comes to common sense investment thinking they are not in the same league as Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letters. In addition, the forthcoming retirement of Robin Angus and Hamish Buchan, following the passing of Ian Rushbrook, makes me wonder whether PNL can retain its rather special investment mystique. It is a question I also ponder when looking at the eventual succession at RIT Capital Partners which has been dominated by Lord Rothschild ever since it started. The Rothschild name seems to be one of the main reasons why RCP trades at a constant healthy premium, whilst the wealthy Cayzer family’s Caledonia Investment Trust trades at a 15% discount even though its NAV performance over three and seven years has been better than RCP.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 14:03:33 +0000

Nice one! Was looking into Personal Assets earlier this week and then you go and publish this great write-up. Excellent and appreciated.

By: ITinvestor

ITinvestor — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 12:19:09 +0000

In reply to The Rhino. Thanks, Rhino. I was a little surprised when I looked at the numbers on that. Previously, I would have guessed that the company picks these trusts made might have compensated for their greater weighting in cash/short-term bonds, but it would appear not.

By: The Rhino

The Rhino — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 11:29:56 +0000

I think the PNL vs Lifestrategy plot is very interesting. Thanks for presenting it! The distribution yields are also very similar.