Following a change in my personal circumstances, I am stepping away from publishing investment-related media activity. As a result there will be no new articles or updates on Capital Ledger, and I am no longer able to participate in the Twin Petes Investing podcast. The site will remain live. Capital Ledger has been a part […]
For much of the past two decades, Judges Scientific (LSE:JDG) has been one of the UK’s outstanding compounders with a “buy and build” strategy: acquire high-quality scientific instrument businesses, give talented management teams the freedom to run them, allocate capital carefully, and allow time to compound the returns. The results have been fantastic. Revenue, earnings
Judges Scientific: When Great Businesses Have Bad Years Read More »
“Not every order begins with a purchase. Some begin with a decision.” One phrase appears repeatedly throughout the engineering and technology sectors. “The company has secured several important design wins”. It sounds encouraging and markets often react positively. Management teams highlight the announcements, and investors often add another point to the investment case, but relatively
There are some businesses I own because their appeal lies in my understanding of their products. Concurrent Technologies (LSE:CNC) isn’t one of them. The company designs and manufactures high-performance embedded computing systems for applications in scenarios where failure is an unacceptable event. Think defence, aerospace, and industrial applications; environments where reliability is highly prized. Concurrent
Concurrent Technologies: Becoming a Durable Compounder? Read More »
The first half of 2026 was less about discovering new investment opportunities and more about developing my approach to the stewardship of capital. I exited several long-term positions as my conviction deteriorated, reallocated capital towards higher-quality compounders and introduced a more deliberate framework for portfolio construction. Some of these decisions were prompted by changes in
An investment ledger is more than a record of purchases and sales. Every serious craft keeps records. Merchants kept ledgers, sailors kept logs, and natural philosophers kept journals. Investing is no different. The investor who writes develops memory, while the one who does not is condemned to rely on fragmented instinct and recollection. Records create
There are moments in investing when the numbers aren’t the most difficult thing to interpret. We all have access to data, most of us can spot trends, and the market provides a constant barometer of our decision-making. Sometimes, though, the real challenge comes from our conviction softening, not because a single fact has changed, but
There are periods in markets when safety feels less like a portfolio strategy and more like a rumour. The start of 2026 feels like one of them. The difficulty isn’t simply that share prices are falling. Markets do that from time to time, and any investor with a little experience understands that drawdowns are part
ISA Season Investing: What Safety Really Means in a Falling Market Read More »
It’s 8:30am. The index is down sharply, the headlines are unhelpful, and one of your biggest holdings is suddenly off 7% despite no obvious company news. Volatility has returned. This is the moment a lack of process can destroy you. Volatility compresses time and makes decisions that ought to be part of a long-term strategy
Earlier this month, I sadly lost my last remaining Grandparent – Donato Viola. The moment was a profound loss for our family but a reminder to me personally that love is to be shared, and our time on this planet is uncertain and finite. My Grandfather’s funeral was held in Retford, the town he had
Ciao Nonno: On Love, Legacy, and the Things That Truly Compound Read More »
Scores on the doors…drumroll please…the portfolio this year has return to form with a very pleasing 25.6% return and a 3.9% dividend yield. This has been the best year on record although as a friend pointed out, it was definitely a year to be overweight UK equities with the FTSE strongly outperforming the S&P 500.
2025 Annual Review – A Portfolio Re-Architecture Read More »
Every January, investors conduct the same familiar exercise – an exercise which is rapidly approach again. Twelve months of market activity are compressed into a neat sequence of charts and percentages, then we draw conclusions with an air of finality that the underlying evidence does not support. The problem is not that annual reviews exist.
A new learning from an old lesson. A 0.5% position can treble in value and your bottom line will barely move. If the same thing happens to a 5% position, you’ll be dining out for weeks. Your job as a portfolio manager is to react to reality, not cling onto faint hopes. In the third
Fewer, Better, Bolder — Q3 2025 Portfolio Review Read More »
The Investor Summit 2025, held on the 13th August, will remain in my memory as a remarkable day. Not because of anything I did, but because of the extraordinary effort and commitment of Peter Higgins and the Copia Digital team, who made it all possible. More than 300 attendees gathered under a single roof, creating
Investor Summit 2025 – A Triumph of Vision and Hard Work Read More »
What a six months it’s been! I can hardly believe we’re already in July after what seems like a non-stop whirlwind of events – both personal and geopolitical. We’ll start with the good news, being that in June of this year I officially became the Senior Bid Manager in my team, taking over from a
