Reply To: ITV vs WPP

[Stephen Bland]

On your first point on switching from SKY to ITV, the default HYP position in the great majority of bid situations like this is to do nothing, a policy that on balance, in my opinion, will deliver the optimum long term benefit for HYPers rather than switching. A similar case could have been made when the first bid for SKY at 1,075p arose back in December 2016. Doing nothing has paid off handsomely with the sharply increased bid and in addition, SKY resumed dividends after a hiatus. Note also that HYPing, my style, in any event involves no trading for the same reason that I believe, for most, that doing nothing delivers the optimum long term rewards.

On your second point, the dividend schedule in each edition of TDL shows my latest Buy or Hold status for every share I have ever selected that still exists in any earlier portfolio, to enable readers to check such status or perhaps make selections of their own from them. When adding a new share to the current portfolio under construction, I do not look back at the old completed ones to capture shares or sectors because each new portfolio selection is based on my view of the share and market at the current time with no regard to the past at all.

I specifically wish to avoid being influenced in my current selections by any past selections, so as to prevent emotional attachments to shares. As I usually say with new selections that are repeats, this is due merely to coincidence in that the share is still attractive on a current view – good HY shares can remain so for years in some cases – and not in any way because I picked it before.

Incidentally the old portfolios are not forgotten, I publish an annual review of all completed ones each January.

Thanks for your kind words of encouragemement Birwa.