Richard Stroud
COPIERS AND FOLLOWERS UPDATE Hi again everyone, another update for you on the back of a change of tack regarding tariffs and some additional changes to the portfolio. To the tariffs first, with Trump yesterday signalling an abrupt U-turn on the recently implemented tariffs. With the exception of China, most other countries now will have a 90 day pause on any "additional tariffs", with only the 10% across-the-board tariffs still in place. Of course the markets reacted in an overwhelmingly positive manner, with big gains seen across the board yesterday. This is on the back of four brutal trading sessions which has seen a 12% drop for the S&P 500 and a 13% fall in the Nasdaq 100 index. I have also taken advantage to re-allocate most of our cash holdings to add to our existing positions, as well as open a new one, $BTDR (Bitdeer Technologies Group) which will hopefully act as a proxy to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is only a small position added, with less than 1% of the portfolio's funds. The rest of our funds were split mainly between financials and small & mid-caps, the latter strengthening our position for when the economy starts to rebound, as well as taking advantage of some large drawdowns in this sector. $V (Visa) and $SPGI (S&P Global Inc) are now larger positions too, so if Trump does stand by his aim of more deregulation, these will stand to benefit. As well as this, we have added to our $GOOG (Alphabet) and $MSFT (Microsoft) positions, as well as Cisco, adding a slightly heavier tech weighting to the portfolio. Lastly, hopefully to take advantage of lower aviation fuel costs I have added more to our Alaska Airlines position. This is not to say we will not at some point reinstate bonds to the portfolio and should interest rates rise back high again this is something I would like to add back to the portfolio as another level of diversity, but for now I am happy now we have added to our positions at lower prices. It is worth saying that we are not out of the woods yet as far as tariffs go, as negotiations have not started yet and once they do there will undoubtedly be positive and negative headlines that the markets react to, so we can certainly expect more volatility to come. Once again, thanks to you all for staying patient and keeping a cool head during a very volatile time for the markets. I will of course keep you updated when there is more significant news to bring, so for now wishing you all a great end to the week! Best wishes, Richard.
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