Playing FTSE

This week, Paul makes a bold prediction about Meta Platforms. Will he be right? Earnings reports are continuing to come in and we’re looking at advertising monster Alphabet, streaming specialist Spotify, and a little bit on recreation vehicle manufacturer Polaris. First up, though, it’s a game. It’s been a while since the three of us got together for a podcast and Steve D has a game to ease us back into the swing of things. This time, we’re thinking about what hedge funds own. Steve’s been painstakingly looking through the top holdings of the top performing hedge funds and he’s noticed some interesting recurring themes. So Paul and Steve W are guessing away at which is the most popular. Then it’s on to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Blink and you might miss it. After that, it’s time for Alphabet’s earnings. Google’s parent company has had an interesting quarter and it’s been catching the eye of all three of our podcasters. A mixed effort from Alphabet as the profit-making segment fared generally well with the exception of YouTube and the loss-making parts of the business generally pushed higher. The market wasn’t impressed, though, so is there something that we’re not seeing? Next is Spotify, which Steve D likes more than Paul or Steve W. Following on from the Netflix report last week, it’s interesting to see how the music streamer has got on. Find out what a MAU is (in case you’ve never seen our show before, or in case you’ve forgotten like Paul). One reason that Spotify is particularly interesting is that it’s successfully been operating with an ad-supported tier. With talk of Netflix moving in that direction, could this be a model to follow? Lastly, via a quick detour on Polaris from Steve W (it’s a cyclical company doing cyclical things) it’s time to see if Paul’s guess about Meta Platforms is on the money…

This week the boys are answering a question from friend of the show Kacper about Peer to Peer lending and giving our thoughts on it. Steve's tried it, Paul has bought a cow before so between them there's something like an answer in there...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. This week on PlayingFTSE, it's a tale of two growth stocks.    With Steve D away this week, Paul and Steve W gamely take on two stocks that have been attracting the attention of growth investors over the past months and years. Both Tesla and Netflix announced earnings this week and they've had contrasting fortunes.    Netflix announced strong revenues and profits, but the headline news is that the company that was forecast to add around 2m subscribers managed to lose 200,000. Worse yet, it's guiding to lose more in Q2. The stock was hammered as a result.    Both Paul and Steve have stocks with exposure to this space. As Briscoe considers the shape of the industry and the state of the competition, Steve thinks about the underlying business at Netflix. Does either of them see the drop as a buying opportunity? By contrast, Tesla reported stellar earnings. Deliveries were at record highs (though short of expectations) as factories in Berlin and Texas came online in Q1. The company also guided strongly for the rest of the year.    As the stock pushes higher, but only slightly higher, is it time for the PlayingFTSE boys to get involved? Also, with Elon Musk continuing to make noises about Twitter, what do Paul and Steve think of the management at Tesla?   Find out on this week's PlayingFTSE show!

In this one we answer Sean's question regarding advice to our younger selves. We cover general advice regarding our savings and investments, how we wish we started earlier, how investing is so much more accessible now and why it's not ok to have a cupboard full of Malbec! Enjoy!

We've got a special one this week, the first ever PlayingFTSE awards with categories like, Best Bank, Best Place For Your Emergency Fund and Best Up & Comer!  First though, we have a game. Steve W has been looking very hard at Stanley Druckenmiller's 13F and has built a game about his holdings! Its a tough one!   Darting onwards we're heading into the first category - Best Savings Account. With this we're thinking specifically about the best place for your emergency fund - there was a clear winner until last month and now it's all up in the air!   Next up is Best Bank. Both Steve's are Monzo shareholders so there's a clear winner here....and it isn't Monzo.   Having recently incorporated PlayingFTSE into a business we're very much on top of the small business accounts available at the moment, the two Steves breakdown the offerings from the NeoBanks and pick their favourite!   So we move onto the ISA's, LISA's and JISA's the Steves pick through each offering discussing merits and opportunities to expand! LISA's is an extremely light category, expect a different winner next year!   We finish with the most promising up and comer, this section is dedicated to apps that don't win an award this time but are looking very promising for the future - there's a couple of favourites in the list and we're struggling to pick a winner!

This week we answer the second part of Kevin's question regarding our best and worst performing stocks - who's 50% down on Teladoc, who's losing their arse on Pinterest, who's lost a bunch on Roku and who bought ASOS at the handles at the top of the slide? Find out on this weeks midweek FTSE!

This week the two Steve's are excited for the new ISA Season, they have four new stocks for you to put on your watchlist! Spoiler - there's two from the UK!  Game this week is a quiz about Disney - a Quiz-ney if you will. Steve W is tasked with answering ten tough questions about the origins of Disney, when they acquired Pixar and how much goodwill they have on their balance sheet!   Moving swiftly on we're onto stock one. Steve D delves into a little known Irish game developer trading on the AIM. Quickly heading towards a billion euros in revenue, this one is profitable, free cash flow positive and pays a little dividend! Something for everyone!   Steve W's first one is also on the FTSE. This joinery outfit has some attractive economics, has weathered the pandemic surprisingly well with improving margins, pays a good dividend and is buying back around 5% of its stock this year!   Switching back to Steve D we're going dating! Steve dives into a US dating conglomerate with it's tendrils in all four corners of the globe. This one is a proven growth story, with attractive margins and a huge dedicated userbase - but there's still risks to consider!   Lastly Steve W has a beaten down juggernaut, a leader in the advertising industry that seems to jump from problem to scandal - we discuss why we think it's now at the sort of price where the reward is worth the risk and the downside is limited.

This week we answer the first part of Kevin's question regarding our best and worst performing stocks - find out each of our top twos and some honourable mentions along the way!

Which is Steve D more excited about: the UK budget, or the Tesla stock split? Find out in this week's PlayingFTSE!   No game this week -- there's no time for that. With Chris Hill on the show last week, we've got too much news to catch up on.    We kick off with the UK budget. Up goes the NI threshold -- what does that mean for people's state pensions? This is something of an important topic for us, since a good part of the reason we're here is that we're all worried about what the state pension will look like by the time we hit retirement age. Here's what we think on the subject.   Then it's the big one. Tesla has announced that it plans to split its stock in a move that hasn't been seen since... 2020. Steve W isn't impressed, Steve D isn't interested. But Paul thinks there's something hiding beneath the surface. Has he been seeing something that the Steves have been missing?   Adobe reported its earnings recently. Guidance was weaker than some were expecting and the stock slipped as a result. Chris called this an "uphill" last week and it's a business that we like very much. But do we like it at these prices? And what does the competition look like? This one's in the wheelhouse of Paul and Steve D, find out what they think.   We finish with news from Steve W on Intel and Nvidia. It's an interesting time for the chip companies at the moment. Intel's attempting to get into manufacturing and Nvidia's CEO has said it would be willing to use Intel's foundries. Looks like a win-win. Nvidia's popular with growth investors and Intel's popular with the value brigade. What does Steve W think?

In this one we go over the key learning s we took from our guest Chris Hill. We reflect on Chris's views on the role luck plays in investing, his stoic view on time horizons and of course why you should definitely buy stocks whilst high!