“Lockdown” Dogs of the FTSE + Random Shares

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My last update on my Dogs of the FTSE experimental portfolio showed just how badly this strategy can perform in certain markets.

Whatever, I’m still following the strategy as an experiment and I intend to document the bad times as well as the good.

As another reminder, here’s the Dogs of the FTSE strategy:

  1. Choose the ten FTSE 100 shares with the highest yield (subject to my criteria*)
  2. Invest equal amounts in all ten shares
  3. Hold for a year (give or take a week)
  4. At the end of the year, sell the ones no longer in the top ten, replace with new shares with highest yield
  5. Repeat from step 3

[*criteria being that shares already in my portfolio are not included, nor any where a dividend cut has been announced]

Note that this is my ‘fun’ portfolio and represents less than 1.5% of my Future Fund.

New Pooches

Time to set up my new Dogs of the FTSE 2020/21 portfolio!

So, in accordance with the strategy:

Eight Dogs Set Free (Sold):

  • Evraz plc (EVR)
  • Imperial Brands Group (IMB)
  • Persimmon plc (PSN)
  • Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG)
  • Aviva plc (AV)
  • HSBC Holdings plc (HSBA)
  • ITV plc (ITV)
  • BT Group plc (BT.A)

Total received from sales = £1,518.96

Total Dividends received = £185.26

Loss from original investment = £295.78 (14.7% loss) – ouch!

It was horrible pushing the ‘sell’ button to ditch those stocks at a loss but I am committed to the strategy so did it in an ‘unemotional’ way (although in my mind, I was screaming “Noooooooo!”)

Also, it was really difficult swalllowing the 3 x £9.95 trading fees (three of the Dogs were still with AJ Bell).

Ok, next, in accordance with the strategy:

Eight New Dogs Rounded Up (Bought): 

  • National Grid (NG)
  • Rio Tinto plc (RIO)
  • United Utilities Group plc (UU)
  • M&G plc (MNG)
  • Phoenix Group Holdings plc (PHNX)
  • BHP Group plc (BHP)
  • Vodafone Group plce (VOD)
  • Anglo American (AAL)

Hmm…pretty much miners, insurance and utiilities.

The first three are Dogs which made an appearance back in my 2018 portfolio – can these old Dogs be taught new tricks in this current market climate?

So here’s how the Dogs of the FTSE Portfolio 2020/21 looks as at today:

Best of breed or mangy mutts? Pretty much looking like they’re the latter right now but it’s early days yet!

I think I should still manage quarterly updates as before so those interested can see how the portfolio is doing.

At least finally, the entire Dogs portfolio will now be on Freetrade, so I can buy and sell without any fees.

Random Shares

Speaking of which, my Random Share Portfolio is made up of free shares awarded to me whenever someone signs up to Freetrade* via my affiliate link, bagging us both a random free share (worth between £3 and £200) in the process.

Two free shares I received recently

Here’s the full portfolio – it’s gotten a bit too big to do a full copy and paste.

Own a Piece of Tesla!

To celebrate Freetrade’s 200,000th customer, anyone signing up to Freetrade before the end of the month via my link* will get the chance to receive a piece of Elon Musk’s company for free – each share is currently worth just under £1,300!

All you need to do is sign up via my link, fund your account with £1 and complete a    W-8BEN form (to declare you don’t pay US taxes).

Good luck! 🙂

Thanks to all who have signed up via my link in the past – hope you all got a decent free share!

Until next time – hope you’re all keeping well, keeping calm and still investing!

 

21 thoughts on ““Lockdown” Dogs of the FTSE + Random Shares”

  1. Good luck with the mutts!
    I had some National Grid but sold them because Labour said they were planning on nationalising the utilities when they won the election, but that didn’t really pan out too well for them anyway.

    • Cheers Oliver.

      I don’t tend to pick individual stocks (outside of this experiment) but NG is probably one I would have in my main portfolio.

      There might be some more nationalising, even with the current government, if things go the same way as railways!

  2. I will give your freetrade a go – I tried before but the app was not supported by my ancient phone.
    So I bought a new phone for £125 and expect to win a free share worth at least that much!

    • Cheers GFF and good luck – can’t promise a big fat free share but Mr Fu bagged himself T-Mobile through my link (around £85)

  3. Hi. Just wondering….why you don’t simply buy a FTSE tracker instead? Maybe this is just for fun – but surely you could be putting your money to work in a much better way than buying individual stocks? Good luck anyway!

    • Hi memyselfandi

      This is just for fun, an experiment to follow a particular strategy.

      The bulk of my investing goes into more sensible ETFs and investment trusts, which is of course much better than buying individual stocks.

  4. Hi weenie

    Your dogs of the FTSE100 experiment looks interesting. Would you mind sharing the source the info on yields? I guess one way would be to go through the websites of all the companies, but this just seems so time consuming!

    Other than that, thanks for the blog! I come here every now and again and enjoy following your progress.

  5. I have Scottish American as a free too – I wonder if you’re more likely to get some more than others. These free shares are very often the between £2-£5 mark.

    Avast is a great one IMO. I stupidly bought and sold it in quick succession last year for quick penny and regret it. Cybersecurity is a biggy for the future!

    • Hi AMM

      Yes, there’s a weighting system of sorts which means there’s a higher chance of you getting a lower valued share than one of the higher ones. Most of the ones I’ve received have been in the £3-£5 range.

      Unlucky with Avast – win some, you lose some. If you think it’s a great company and Cybersecurity is a biggy, why not just buy again and hold?

  6. £9.95 per trade? It looks insane to pay that money for a single transaction. Must say that the launch of Freetrade in the UK has been very beneficial for us, traders. As it puts other companies under pressure. For instance, Trading 212 wasn’t fee and commission free before, you still had to pay £2 until FreeTrade came around.

    Shame I already have an account with them. The Tesla share is appealing!

    Thanks for keep sharing the dogs weenie 😀

  7. Pingback: The Full English – Tesla doesn’t need advertising – The FIRE Shrink

  8. A very cool idea you are doing here! I currently just hold Rio Tinto out of your dogs. I did have Vodaphone for a short while and have had a fair few National Grid free shares.

    All of my free shares are being sold and converted to Amazon at the minute. 14% up on those just those.

    Always nice to read others reports though, always inspiring

    Thanks Weenie

    • Thanks Sean.

      I still don’t know what to do with my free shares long term, hence just hanging onto them. I’ve sold a few when they’ve gained +40% and also sold a few which were getting close to the £2, which is the minimum transaction with Freetrade.

  9. Hi Weenie,
    Thank you for your article! I admire your ‘unemotional’ action of pressing the sell button. I don’t think that I would ever have been able to make it.
    I guess it is now too late for the Tesla free share, missed it! Also about Freetrade, does it work from non-UK residents? Or do one necessarily needs to have its domicile in the UK or the English nationality?
    Also, I am new to your blog, and I was wondering about this “dogs of the FTSE” strategy if you think that it could also work with top-caps from other countries like the DAX in Germany or the CAC40 in France.

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