Shares magazine

13 August 2026

How long do you persist with an investment that isn’t working out. It’s often one of the hardest questions for investors to answer and a conundrum most of us will have wrestled with at some point.

I’m not talking here about periods of short-term volatility or market corrections when there is a strong argument for holding your nerve in the face of...

13 August 2026

Shares in UK housebuilders are sensitive to interest rate expectations and economic activity. When sentiment is in their favour, these stocks can deliver robust returns to investors. The opposite applies when there are economic or interest rate headwinds.

The housebuilding sector is in the middle of arguably its most difficult period since the...

13 August 2026

Global equity fund managers will often argue that it doesn’t matter where a company is listed; all that matters is that they are buying the best companies available regardless of where in the world they happen to be.

This has logic. Large companies are often global in nature and generate revenue from both inside and outside of their domestic market...

13 August 2026

AI chip maker Nvidia is heading into its quarterly results with arguably the most subdued sentiment it has seen since the AI theme got underway – bar perhaps the period around Liberation Day tariffs in April 2025.

As Bank of America (BofA) analysts observe there are four main points of concern for investors. One is the pressure it might face on...

13 August 2026

Diversifying your portfolio and transferring it into less risky assets, like bonds, is the usual advice for a 76-year-old starting to look at retirement.

And Joe acknowledges this, aware that typically, you’d opt to spread your risk. “I don’t do it that way. I’ve got just three shares... I couldn’t advise anyone else to do what I do,” he says.

Thi...

13 August 2026

Ask the experts. Rachel Vahey is here to answer questions on pensions. If you’d like a question considered for a future edition send it in now .

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

I wonder if you could lay out the options for my wife. She has a SIPP worth about £110,000, as well as a...

13 August 2026

More people are thinking about passing wealth on during their lifetime rather than as a legacy in a will. The idea of giving with “warm hands” has gathered pace in recent years and is likely to receive even more attention as we approach April 2027, when unused pension pots are set to become part of an estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes.

Givi...

13 August 2026

Ask the experts. Sarah Coles is on hand to answer your personal finance questions. If you’d like a question considered for a future edition send it in now .

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

My father wants to invest for his grandchildren. I want him to pay into a pension for them, so...

13 August 2026

Ask the experts. Russ Mould is on hand to answer your queries about the financial markets. If you'd like a question considered for a future edition, send it in now .

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

While there is lots of talk about US stocks being overvalued, earnings growth keeps on...

13 August 2026

Ask the experts. Paul Angell is on hand to answer your questions about investments. If you'd like a question considered for a future edition, send it in now.

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

I’m looking to choose some bond funds as I’m heading into retirement. Can I go about it the...

13 August 2026

Current Diageo CEO Dave Lewis is known as a specialist in corporate turnarounds and he certainly has a big job on his hands at his current employer.

Headquartered in London’s West End, the company owns several iconic brands including Johnnie Walker whisky, Smirnoff vodka and Guinness as well as Captain Morgan rum, Tanqueray premium gin and Baileys...

13 August 2026

What is SpaceX today and what are its ambitions?

Answering these questions are key to understanding the investment case behind the newly-listed business.

The successful initial public offering of shares in the Elon Musk controlled company SpaceX, means thousands of retail investors now have a financial interest in the company.

Following the end of...

13 August 2026

The late Charlie Munger may not be as well-known as his close counterpart Warren Buffett, but his track record speaks for itself.

Between 1962 and 1977 his investment partnership Wheeler, Munger & Co generated a compound annual growth rate of 19.8% before fees, compared with 5% for the Dow Jones Industrials Average.

Munger was instrumental in...

13 August 2026

Income may be a key reason to invest, but not all dividends are equal. Knowing what level of income to expect from different industries is a useful way to enhance your research.

We have studied the top 350 companies by value on the UK stock market to see how dividends vary from sector and by company. Multiple industries stand out as decent dividend...

23 July 2026

Robert, 65, is currently enjoying the slower pace of retired life. A keen cyclist, now with more time explore the National Cycle Network routes near – and far – from his home in the northeast, and bond with his first grandchild.

But the foundations of this were set over 40 years beforehand when, at aged 21, Robert got his first job and asked the...

23 July 2026

Ask the experts. Rachel Vahey is here to answer questions on pensions. If you’d like a question considered for a future edition send it in now .

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

I have a question about inheritance tax and pensions. I will be over 75 years old at the time of my death...

22 July 2026

Going against the tide means fighting against our inherent make up. It’s a longstanding tenet of behavioural finance that humans are driven by herd behaviour and we can see this dynamic at play in the markets on a regular basis.

For us as investors, this creates the risk of getting involved in a crowded trade which the US Treasury has defined as...

22 July 2026

Ask the experts. Sarah Coles is on hand to answer your personal finance questions. If you’d like a question considered for a future edition send it in now .

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

I’d like to sell an investment to reduce the capital gains tax. The first sale was for £5,000 =...

21 July 2026

Ask the experts. Paul Angell is on hand to answer your questions about investments. If you'd like a question considered for a future edition, send it in now.

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

It’s hard for me to understand the case for active funds for stock investing. If tracker funds...

21 July 2026

It’s rare that pensions are out of the news, but we’ve seen a sharp focus on whether people are saving enough for a decent retirement and what a decent retirement looks like. The interim report from the Pensions Commission was published in May, estimating a whopping 15 million people weren’t saving enough and we also saw an update to figures that...

20 July 2026

The major UK banks are schedule to report first-half earnings between the back end of July and early August 2026.

Heading into the numbers, bank shares have continued to outperform the FTSE 100 benchmark with HSBC shares up by around a fifth and Lloyds up around 12% while NatWest and Barclays have lagged.

Interest rate expectations, which are...

20 July 2026

Ask the experts. Russ Mould is on hand to answer your queries about the financial markets. If you'd like a question considered for a future edition, send it in now .

Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.

There’s a lot of excitement about the SpaceX IPO but I keep hear people talking about a...

16 July 2026

There’s little doubt about Tesco’s position in the UK grocery sector. It dominates in a way which is beginning to match the high watermark of the 2000s when its share of the market was above 30%. The share price too has surged in recent years to approach levels last seen in the late noughties and early 2010s.

But what is behind Tesco’s competitive...

16 July 2026

Some analysts believe Apple is at risk of falling behind in the AI race due to its slow adoption and the delayed roll-out of advanced features.

Critics point to the recent revamp of its natural language interface Siri, which was unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference and met with a decidedly muted response from investors.

Rather than...

16 July 2026

Markets are full of investment themes, the most popular of late being AI, with debates around robotics and drones abounding in conversations about the next emerging cutting-edge area.

But what actually makes something a long-term, investable strategy versus a flash in the pan frothy fad or trend?

A myriad of exchange traded fund (ETF) and thematic...