What’s in the news?
Talking about the news in March, give nwhat’s been happing on the tariff front over the last few weeks, seems a bit pointless.
We entered March with a lot of drama about Ukraine, and some notable ‘ceasefire’ activity on the diplomatic front.
We finished March waiting for ‘liberation day’, April 2nd, when Trump unleashed a basically bonkers cocktail of tariffs on every country in the world – except Russia, of course.
What’s going on with me?
In the meantime, life goes on.
I attended a funeral of a long time friend and neighbour in north London.
I visited a rather bizarre concert in the Royal Festival Hall.
And I visited hospital for my first MRI scan, participating in a clinical research programme at University College London Hospital. I was impressed, I have to say, and grateful that I live within relatively easy reach of this excellent hospital.
I also visited Dorset – Studland to be precise – and went yomping up to Old Harry Rocks, the start of the Jurassic Coast. It’s a beautiful part of the world, and less than 3 hours from London Waterloo.
Markets in March
Markets generally drooped in March, particularly the US’s S&P500. Enthusiasm/animal spirits from Trump’s election win are being replaced by trepidation / concern about Trump not being good for the US economy after all. The dollar, and the AUD, fell against the pound.
My portfolio in March
My weighted benchmark fell almost 4% on a constant currency basis; my overseas currencies fell 1.3%, so my benchmark dropped over 5%. Against that I fell ‘only’ 3.8% which, considering my leverage, is surprisingly modest.
.I was quite active with my portfolio in March.
I have been buying on the dips. Google, Microsoft, Adyen and Wise all are being topped up slightly.
I have been releasing some funds for a ‘dip into savings’ holiday trip. Generally selling overweight things like European equities.
And I have been hoarding cash in anticipation of the new ISA tax season starting early in April.
Lastly, in a completely meaningless ‘rage against the machine’ I have shifted out of some USA-run ETFs into their European-run (UK, in fact) ETFs with HSBC. This is easier to do with equity trackers than fixed income – there are no obvious European-run ETFs equivalents of IGLT or VGOV for instance.
I finished the month a little overleveraged, significantly overweight European/International equities and somewhat underweight on US equities. But I’m comfortable with this tilt for the moment
Appendix – press clips