Slack Investor Report Card Part 2 … and Financial Year 2024

This continues the series of judgement – on a few calls by Slack Investor in recent blogs. The good and the bad are presented – to illustrate that you don’t have to get everything right to be a successful investor.

15/01/2023 & 15/05/2023 –Nuns Know Best & Alignment

I tried to make the case that the ASX 200 was both undervalued and showing signs of momentum in the charts. At the the publishing dates, the ASX 200 was trading at 7328 and 7267. At 30/06/24, it is 7767, up 5.9 % and 6.8%. In the meantime, the US S&P 500, which Slack Investor thought was overvalued at the time, is up 32% for the same period. Could do better, Slack Investor – 5/10

01/07/2023 – Advice for a young man

I went through a whittling down process for a few stocks that might be suitable for my nephew who was just starting out on his investing journey. I wanted to gather a basket of well known, growing companies that were not outrageously over priced- I generally don’t like the predicted P/E Ratio to get above 40 when I’m buying, as this indicates the current price of the company is 40 times its predicted earnings (expensive) . The yield (dividend) is not that important to a young investor, it is the total growth that counts.

Looking at the figures, even Slack Investor is surprised with the success of his suggestions after only 12 months – an average 1-yr growth of +34.2%.

Again, Coles Group (COL) is the only dud. Despite COL having a high Return on Equity (ROE), I should have considered the competitive retail environment, its lack of history of growth and how it was spending most of its profits – returning to shareholders as dividends, rather than growing the business.

I hope that my nephew took this advice and is now a convert to stocks as a way to make your money grow. A top effort Slack Investor 9/10; Nephew ?/10

15/09/2023 – Buying Shares the Slack Way

I went through the Slack investor buying process and I had to narrow things down to the one new share that I would buy at the time with a limited amount of funds. I selected Computershare (CPU). In hindsight, I should have trusted my gut here – I have never liked their confusing website! At the the publishing date, CPU was trading at $25.85. At 30/06/24, it is $26.34, up 1.8%. I had sold out of this stock, at a loss, 5 months after I bought it as I didn’t like the way that the chart was heading. A dud trade Slack Investor – 1/10

15/10/2023 – Alphabet … Google It

Slack Investor went a bit in depth here as to why Alphabet (NASDAQ : GOOGL) was such a major portion of his portfolio. At the the publishing date, GOOGL was trading at $137.36 USD. At 30/06/24, it is $182.15 USD, up 35%, A good trade Slack Investor, is this all your own work? – 9/10.

15/05/2024 – Slack Investor vs Centrelink

I am delighted to report that Centrelink have sent me a Commonwealth Seniors’ Health Card (CSHC). I have yet to make use of it … but I am excited that my perseverance with the forms (with the help of very generous new annual income limit rules) has paid off. You really tried hard here Slack Investor 8/10; Centrelink 3/10 – The application process is confusing and tedious. The turn around time for the application was about 2 months – but, I don’t blame the workers at Centrelink here – there has been chronic underfunding in staff and processes for years.

Financial Year 2024

A quick review of how the Slack followed markets fared in FY 2024 – pretty well I might say!

ASX 200

After a solid 2023, FY 2024 could be described as a slow start – but big finish. In raw figures the Australian Index rose 7.8 %. When accumulated dividends are re-invested, the ASX 200 Net Total Return, the yearly returns are more impressive, up 12.2%.

FTSE 100

This bad boy has shown great improvement. The UK Index rose 8.4 %. When accumulated dividends are re-invested, the FTSE 100 Total Return was up 11.4%.

S&P 500

That crazy country, the mighty US of A, has done it again. the US Index rose 22.7 %. When accumulated dividends are re-invested, the S&P 500 Total Return was up a mighty 24.2%.