James J. McCombe

I would not be better off playing the National Lottery compared to investing in the UK stock market

Millions play the UK’s National Lottery. Few win. In fact for every pound spent on the lottery its reckoned players get about 50p back. Since players lose money on every ticket on average, playing the lottery is not a rational use of hard earned cash. Nor is gambling. But, are those hours spent dreaming of…More

At 42p the Lloyds share price is still not cheap enough for me

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) stock has history, and not all of it is good. The company can trace its roots back to 1765. It ended up listed on the London Stock Exchange in a roundabout way. TSB, another bank listed in 1986, and in 1995 merged with Lloyds. A series of mergers and acquisitions…More

Here is why I would buy Scottish Mortgage shares and why I would avoid them

Given that I still own shares in Scottish Mortgage (LSE: SMT) I have already decided that any reasons can find to avoid the stock are outweighed by the points in favour of holding stock in this high-tech and growth focused investment trust in my portfolio. The thing I keep coming back to with this stock…More

Last week it was Marks and Spencer stock, now it’s the Card Factory share price that’s down after a positive trading update

Last week I wrote about the price action of the stocks in two companies after they issued trading updates. The stocks were Marks and Spencer (LSE: MKS) and Burberry (LSE: BURB). The price moves somewhat confused me. Today Card Factory (LSE: CARD) has issued a trading statement, and again the price action after it has…More

Here are my bull and bear cases for Games Workshop…I’m still bullish

Games Workshop (LSE: GAW) is a stock I like to talk about. After being range bound for over a decade, it tuned into a high flyer from 2017 through to 2021. The it dipped and the game was over, only for it to swing around and take the campaign to a fourth stage. There are…More

A tale of two trading updates: Burberry versus Marks and Spencer

Yesterday, I wrote about my confusion around Marks and Spencers (LSE: MKS) trading update. The tone of the report was fairly upbeat. The results, save for the international division, were good. Although there were concerns about challenging conditions ahead, the report made it clear that full year results would be consistent with market expectations. The…More

Avoiding bad stocks boosts investment returns more than increasing good stock hit rates

A Podcast and a Substack I read both made mention of a book called “What I Learned About Investing from Darwin” by Pulak Prasad. In particular they both chewed over a section about investment success rates and how to improve them. In an investors universe of stocks there are good ones and bad ones. Good…More

Marks and Spencer stock price down 5% after what seems to be a positive third-quarter update

Marks and Spencer (LSE: MKS) released its Christmas trading report for the 13 weeks to the end of 2023 today at 7am. At the time of writing the Marks and Spencer share price is 264.7p, which is 4.70% below yesterdays closing pice of 277.7p. A slump in price suggests the report was bad, or at…More

December has been a good month for the FTSE 100 lending credence to the idea of a Santa Claus rally.

The Santa Rally is said to lift stock markets in the run up to Christmas. Does the FTSE 100 benefit from the season of goodwill? More

For the second week running, Petrofac is the UK’s most shorted stock

It’s probably not a good sign if a stock is shorted. Find out which UK stocks are the most heavily shorted as of Friday, 8 December, 2023More