UK Index

For the UK Index fund (FTSE 100), Slack Investor is IN!

Slack investor has a “soft sell” approach when I gauge that the market is not too overvalued. Even if there is a stop loss breach, I will not sell against the overall trend but monitor my index funds on a weekly basis.

Slack Investor has been running his “index-timing” strategy since 2004. Although, till recently, the method has proved to be an improvement on the “buy and hold” strategy, the benefits work out to be a few percent per annum for the UK Index (i.e. 1.3% p.a outperformance for Slack market timing strategy over the FTSE100).

These relatively small gains might have been offset by share dividends if I was using the alternative “buy and hold” strategy. Market timing works well when there are sustained periods of bull and bear markets and the changes between the two are not too rapid. The short transitions and the recent speed of market fluctuations has forced a bit of a rethink on Slack Investor’s timing the markets strategy – and have decided to keep the experiment going till 2024 – then probably go for the more appropriate Slack Investor method of doing nothing and adopting a “buy and hold” technique for index funds.

Monthly Chart and Monthly Updates for the FTSE 100 Index (Click on chart for a much better resolution – from Incredible Charts)

DATE ACTION FTSE100 MONTHLY STOPLOSS FTSE100 CYCLE CHANGE VALUE OF $10K SLACKINV sinceJUN04 VALUE OF $10K FTSE100 sinceJUN04 SLACK INV OUTPERF SLACK INV OUTPERF (p.a.)
                 
29-Nov-24 LATEST 8287 7793 13.0% $23,260 $18,564 25% 1.2%
31-Oct-24 LATEST 8110 7793 10.6% $22,763 $18,168 25% 1.2%
30-Sep-24 LATEST 8237 7793 12.3% $23,120 $18,452 25% 1.2%
30-Aug-24 LATEST 8376 7793 14.2% $23,510 $18,763 25% 1.3%
31-Jul-24 ADJUST SL 8367 7793 14.1% $23,484 $18,743 25% 1.3%
28-Jun-24 LATEST 8164 7302 11.3% $22,915 $18,289 25% 1.3%
31-May-24 LATEST 8275 7302 12.8% $23,226 $18,537 25% 1.3%
30-Apr-24 LATEST 8144 7302 11.0% $22,859 $18,244 25% 1.3%
28-Mar-24 LATEST 7952 7302 8.4% $22,320 $17,814 25% 1.3%
29-Feb-24 LATEST 7630 7302 4.0% $21,416 $17,092 25% 1.3%
31-Jan-24 LATEST 7630 7302 4.0% $21,416 $17,092 25% 1.3%
29-Dec-23 LATEST 7733 7302 5.4% $21,705 $17,323 25% 1.3%
30-Nov-23 LATEST 7435 7302 1.4% $20,868 $16,655 25% 1.3%
31-Oct-23 LATEST 7321 7302 -0.2% $20,549 $16,400 25% 1.3%
30-Sep-23 LATEST 7608 7302 3.7% $21,354 $17,043 25% 1.3%
31-Aug-23 LATEST 7439 7302 1.4% $20,880 $16,664 25% 1.3%
31-Jul-23 LATEST 7699 7302 5.0% $21,609 $17,247 25% 1.3%
30-Jun-23 LATEST 7531 7302 2.7% $21,138 $16,871 25% 1.3%
31-May-23 LATEST 7446 7302 1.5% $20,849 $16,680 25% 1.3%
28-Apr-23 LATEST 7870 7302 7.3% $22,089 $17,630 25% 1.3%
31-Mar-23 LATEST 7631 7302 4.0% $21,419 $17,095 25% 1.3%
28-Feb-23 LATEST 7876 7302 7.4% $22,106 $17,643 25% 1.4%
31-Jan-23 ADJUST SL 7771 7302 6.0% $21,812 $17,408 25% 1.4%
30-Dec-22 LATEST 7451 6707 1.6% $20,913 $16,691 25% 1.4%
30-Nov-22 LATEST 7573 6707 3.3% $21,256 $16,965 25% 1.4%
04-Nov-22 BUY 7334 6707   $19,911 $15,892 25% 1.4%
                 
14-Oct-22 SELL 6858 6989 19.0%

$20,585

$15,363 34% 1.9%
30-Sep-22 SELL ALERT 6983 6989 21.2%

$20,960

$15,643 34% 1.9%
31-Aug-22 LATEST 7284  6989 26.4%

$21,863

$16,317 34% 1.9%
29-Jul-22 LATEST 7423 6989 28.8% $22,281 $16,629 34% 1.9%
30-Jun-22 LATEST 7169 6989 24.4% $21,518 $16,060 34% 1.9%
31-May-22 LATEST 7607 6989 32.0% $22,833 $17,041 34% 1.9%
29-Apr-22 LATEST 7554 6989 30.9% $22,644 $16,900 34% 1.9%
31-Mar-22 LATEST 7515 6989 30.4% $22,557 $16,835 34% 1.9%
28-Feb-22 LATEST 7485 6989 29.9% $22,467 $16,767 34% 1.9%
31-Jan-22 ADJUST SL 7464 6989 29.5% $22,404 $16,720 34% 1.9%
31-Dec-21 LATEST 7384 6813 28.1% $22,164 $16,541 34% 1.9%
30-Nov-21 LATEST 7059 6813 22.5% $21,188 $15,813 34% 2.0%
29-Oct-21 LATEST 7237 6813 25.6% $21,722 $16,212 34% 2.0%
30-Sep-21 LATEST 7086 6813 23.0% $21,269 $15,874 34% 2.0%
31-Aug-21 ADJUST SL 7119 6813 23.5% $21,368 $15,948 34% 2.0%
30-Jul-21 LATEST 7032 6263 22.0% $21,107 $15,753 34% 2.0%
30-Jun-21 LATEST 7037 6263 22.1% $21,122 $15,764 34% 2.0%
31-May-21 LATEST 7022 6263 21.8% $21,077 $15,730 34% 2.0%
30-Apr-21 LATEST 6969 6263 20.9% $20,918 $15,612 34% 2.0%
31-Mar-21 LATEST 6713 6263 16.5% $20,149 $15,038 34% 2.0%
26-Feb-21 ADJUST SL 6483 6263 12.5% $19,459 $14,523 34% 2.0%
29-Jan-21 LATEST 6407 5525 11.2% $19,231 $14,353 34% 2.0%
31-Dec-20 LATEST 6460 5525 12.1% $19,390 $14,471 34% 2.1%
30-Nov-20 ADJUST SL 6266 5525 8.7% $18,808 $14,037 34% 2.1%
30-Oct-20 LATEST 5577 5351 -3.2% $16,740 $12,493 34% 2.1%
30-Sep-20 LATEST 5866 5351 1.8% $17,607 $13,141 34% 2.1%
28-Aug-20 LATEST 5963 5351 3.5% $17,898 $13,358 34% 2.1%
31-Jul-20 LATEST 5897 5351 2.3% $17,700 $13,210 34% 2.1%
30-Jun-20 LATEST 6169 5351 7.0% $18,517 $13,819 34% 2.1%
29-May-20 LATEST 6076 5351 5.4% $18,237 $13,611 34% 2.1%
01-May-20 BUY 5763 5351   $17,298 $12,910 34% 2.1%
                 
29-Feb-20 SELL 6580 7079 -9.6% $17,298 $14,740 17% 1.1%
29-Mar-19 BUY 7279 6536   $19,136 $16,306 17% 1.2%
                 
31-Dec-18 SELL 6728 6866 -7.4% $19,136 $15,072 27% 1.9%
13-Apr-18 BUY 7264 6866   $20660      
                 
29-Mar-18 SELL 7056 7196 4.9% $20,660 $15,806 31% 2.2%
29-Jul-16 BUY 6724 5788   $19,688.19 $15,063 31% 2.5%
                 
30-Jun-15 SELL 6521 6693 17.6% $19,688 $14,608 35% 3.2%
31-Oct-11 BUY 5544 4868   $16,738 $12,419    
                 
31-Aug-11 SELL 5394 5644 27.1% $16,738 $12,083 39% 5.4%
30-Apr-09 BUY 4244 3460   $13,170 $9,507    
                 
31-Jan-08 SELL 5879 6026 31.7% $13,170 $13,170 0% 0%
30-Jun-04 STARTBUY 4464 4291   $10,000 $10,000    

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Below are the legacy charts – for historical record! – when Slack Investor used the ISF.UK ETF as a proxy to base his buy/sell decisions on the UK FTSE 100 Index … I have now started using the FTSE 100 directly (see above).

DATE ACTION ISF ~ FTSE MONTHLY ISF (CYCLE) VALUE OF 10K VALUE OF 10K SLACK INV SLACK INV
    (GBp) 100 STOPLOSS GAIN/LOSS SLACK INV sinceJUN04 INDEX sinceJUN04 OUTPERF OUTPERF (pa)
                   
30-SEP-17 LATEST 727.6   660 9.4% $21,570 $16,351 32% 2.4%
26-Feb-17 Adjust SL 721.4   660 8.5% $21,386 $16,211 32% 2.5%
31-Dec-16 LATEST 701.2   570 5.4% $20,787 $15,757 32% 2.6%
29-Jul-16 BUY 665.1 6724 570          
30-Jun-15 SELL 650.7 6520   17.7% $19,717 $14,622 35% 3.2%
31-Mar-15 Adjust SL     666          
29-Aug-14 Adjust SL     652          
28-Feb-14 Adjust SL     637          
31-Oct-13 Adjust SL     630          
28-Jun-13 Adjust SL     602          
31-May-12 Adjust SL     523          
31-Oct-11 BUY 553 5544 483          
31-Aug-11 SELL 539.1 5394   26.5% $16,756 $12,115 38% 5.3%
30-Jun-11 Adjust SL     564.7          
31-Mar-11 Adjust SL     523.1          
30-Jul-10 Adjust SL     481          
30-Jul-09 Adjust SL     411          
30-Apr-09 BUY 426.2 4243 376.8          
31-Jan-08 SELL 589.5 5879   32.5% $13,247 $13,247 0% 0.0%
30-Nov-07 Adjust SL     609.2          
31-Aug-07 Adjust SL     589          
30-Jun-06 Adjust SL     550          
31-Aug-04 BUY 451 4459 412          
30-Jun-04 STARTBUY 445   412   $10,000 $10,000    

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