I have now fully recovered from Covid-19, assuming that is what I have had over the past week. The main symptoms were severe fatigue and shortness of breath. This was debilitating enough to excuse me from doing any work or household chores but almost imperceptible if I remained completely immobile, say reading Twitter or watching Netflix in bed. My lungs felt like they took a pounding but have recovered quickly. So all in all not the worst virus I’ve had the pleasure of hosting by any means. I’m thankful to be getting off relatively lightly.

Given the extraordinary times, I’ve updated again below with my latest thoughts on the economic outlook and what this means for my game plan. I’ve also updated on my purchases from last week.
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Last week was one to remember! After a big fall on Monday led to comparisons with the October 1987 crash, we had another massive fall on Thursday after markets were unimpressed by Trump’s response of restricting flights from Europe. The result is that we’ve now had the fastest ever market crash by some margin – just 20 days to fall 20% from the highs. Exciting stuff, but a little harrowing if you are fully invested as I am. Continue reading →

Well the market has certainly woken up to possible risks from the Coronavirus contagion since my last post! We now seem to be in the midst of a full-blown market panic, with the market yoyoing up and down (well mostly down) several percent every day, as investors overreact to news about the virus, its effect on businesses and the government’s response. To top that we now also have to contend with news of a collapse in oil prices, which have fallen almost 30% over the weekend following the break down of OPEC agreements.

All my gains from what had previously been shaping up to be a good year have been eroded and my portfolio is now squarely in the red. Continue reading →