anthony bolton
fidelity worldwide investment is to stop paying trail commission to ifas on anthony bolton' s china special situations investment trust .
we’d love your help. let us know what’s wrong with this preview of investing against the tide by anthony bolton .
outgoing manager anthony bolton talks to his successor dale nicholls about the future strategy of the fidelity china special situations investment trust .
as manager of the fidelity special situations fund in the 28 years to 2007 anthony bolton achieved annual returns of nearly 19. 5pc
fidelity fund manager anthony bolton believes chinese airlines will benefit from increasing demands for travel. photograph: str / afp / getty images
fidelity' s anthony bolton is set to retire next year, bringing to an end his 30 - year career in fund management .
uk fund manager anthony bolton is to step down from fidelity' s china special situations. photograph: philippe lopez / afp / getty images
fidelity worldwide investment has cut the annual charge on anthony bolton' s china special situations investment trust ahead of the handover to incoming manager dale nicholls .
the board of the fidelity china special situations trust has moved to keep its discount under control after the announcement of manager anthony bolton' s retirement .
veteran manager anthony bolton said he had
no idea what was coming
when he handed over management of the fidelity special values investment trust in 2007 .
anthony bolton' s fidelity china special situations investment trust has jumped up the performance charts after a stellar year which saw it return three times its benchmark index .
anthony bolton has said he feels his final year in charge of the fidelity china special situations investment trust has' vindicated' his decision to come out of retirement .
fidelity' s anthony bolton has blamed us - listed chinese firms for the poor performance of his fidelity china special situations trust, on top of a falling market .
fidelity china special situations (fcss) has doubled in value in the three years since former star fund manager anthony bolton handed over the investment trust to dale nicholls .
star manager anthony bolton has delivered a blistering attack on the standards of corporate governance in china as he hands over the reins of his fidelity china special situations investment trust .
anthony bolton, head of fidelity’s under - performing china special situations fund, is adamant that his decision to stay on in hong kong is not about salvaging his reputation .
fidelity' s anthony bolton has committed to hold on to his stake in the china special situations investment trust after he hands it over to dale nicholls in april next year .
the annual management charge on anthony bolton' s fidelity china special situations investment trust will be cut from 1. 5% to 1. 2% from 1 april 2013 .
anthony bolton is a fund manager with a strong record of performance so anything he says should be listened to or read, even professional money managers may find the book useful .
fidelity worldwide investment' s anthony bolton has revealed the three pillars of a stock - picking process which helped him become one of the most successful fund managers the country has ever seen .
anthony bolton' s successor dale nicholls has revealed how he plans to make his own impression on the fidelity china special situations investment trust when he takes over on 1 april next year .
anthony joshua can add the wba heavyweight title to his ibf belt when he fights wladimir klitschko at wembley stadium on saturday .
anthony bolton is backing one of his unlisted stocks to make significant returns for shareholders in his fidelity china special situations trust later this year when it lists on hong kong' s main market .
michael berkeley' s guest is anthony bolton, one of the most respected british investment fund managers in recent years. for 28 years from december 1979, he managed the high - performing fidelity special
anthony bolton has urged investors to be
steely
and hold on to their nerve particularly during volatile times, as he talked about his tenure as fund manager of the uk' s largest unit trust .
britain' s best - known fund manager, anthony bolton of fidelity, is to retire next year with his reputation as a legendary investor
tarnished
by the relative failure of his £460m china fund .
second, it was highly geared to conform to bolton’s positive view on markets .
' with a small company i could go to a meeting with the management and come out knowing more about that firm than anyone else,' anthony bolton said.' that' s not possible with a larger business'
for this week' s column, i took a look back at investing against the tide, written by anthony bolton in 2009 after his (first) retirement from full - time investment management. what can private investors learn from mr bolton' s 28 years as manager of fidelity' s uk special situations fund ?
when anthony bolton announced this week that he intended to stay for at least two further years at the helm of fidelity china special situations investment trust, he said he regretted a few of the decisions he has made during the fund' s short life .
bolton was however positive on prospects for china, and said there were great investment opportunities there .
anthony bolton is considered the uk’s most successful stock market investor and fund manager. over twenty five years he delivered a market - beating return of 20% in his fidelity special situations fund. how did he do it, and what can you learn from him ?
anthony bolton steps down today as a fund manager after a distinguished career. as manager of the fidelity special situations fund in the 28 years to 2007, he achieved annual returns of nearly 19. 5pc, turning a £1, 000 investment into around £147, 000 .
mr bolton said running a fund successfully was a team effort involving plenty of backup from his analysts .
his appointment has coincided with a bout of strong performance for the trust. its share price is up nearly 90 per cent since he took over, having trodden water under the initial stewardship of anthony bolton, at the time considered one of the uk' s best investment managers .
nvestors in the fidelity china special situations trust have experienced plenty of drama over the portfolio’s short history. its listing in 2010 attracted a blaze of publicity because the trust was managed by anthony bolton, who had made investors in his fidelity special situations fund rich with annual returns of about 19pc .
anthony bolton is feeling the pressure. the 62 - year - old fidelity fund manager and darling of uk investors had wanted to “under - promise and over - deliver” when he launched the china special situations trust two years ago. it is an aim he has failed to achieve on both fronts .
looks like sour grapes. always count your fingers after a handshake in china. bolton should have known that .
despite the pressure and criticism from investors – one leading financial adviser said last week that he always had doubts that bolton could cut the mustard in asia and suggests that investors cut and run - bolton does not seem flustered .
bolton came out of retirement in april 2010 to run the china trust. over that period, it has outperformed the market despite difficult periods, with returns in recent months particularly strong. but bolton acknowledged he had made mistakes .
bolton emphasised that the chinese government would protect the four largest chinese banks, though he expected there would be defaults .
not a lot of people know that... bolton had never taken a finance exam until he arrived in china
anthony bolton was born in 1950. he graduated from cambridge with a degree in engineering and business studies, going on to work at keyser ullman, then schlesinger investment management, before being recruited in 1979 by a former colleague to manage fidelity’s special situations fund. he ran the fund for 28 years, stepping down in 2007 .
' it was a well - planned transition,' he says.' i worked with anthony for 12 months and all the changes that were made we agreed upon. valuations have moved in my favour.'
after his retirement in april 2014, bolton will continue as an adviser to fidelity and a trustee of its charitable foundations .
but the reason mr bolton gave for needing a team was deeper than that – and carries a lesson for private investors .
anthony bolton, the uk’s most successful stock market investor, tells the story of his contrarian approach to managing money. he provides invaluable lessons on the factors that really matter in picking a stock: the need to identify good managers, how to run a portfolio, the importance of value investing, reading charts and how to trade successfully .
anthony bolton is passionate about music. he composes in his spare time, and cites benjamin britten as a major influence on his own work. his choices for private passions include the elegy from britten' s serenade for tenor, horn and strings, sung by ian bostridge. there is an opportunity to hear one of bolton' s own pieces, a newly - recorded carol called a kiss for the baby, sung by oxford voices, directed by mark shepherd .
in investing against the tide, anthony bolton tells the story of his contrarian approach to managing money. he provides invaluable lessons on the factors that really matter when investing: how to pick a stock, the need to identify good managers, how to run a portfolio, the importance of value investing, reading charts and how to trade successfully .
this authoritative and accessible investment classic promises rare insight into what it really takes to run money in a top - performing investment fund. anthony bolton, the uk s most successful stock market investor, tells the story of his contrarian approach to managing money. he provides invaluable lessons on the factors that really matter in picking a stock: the need to i
bolton said china was badly in need of reform, describing the chinese financial landscape as dominated by inefficient chinese state - owned companies .
bolton cut china integrated energy, whose shares had fallen by 90pc, from his portfolio and sold the vision opportunities fund, too .
those concerns have returned and bolton hints that he will buy another put option soon to protect the trust in the short - term .
bolton, 63, will step down in april 2014 and be replaced by dale nicholls, currently manager of fidelity' s pacific funds .
worth reading mainly because of who bolton is, and because professional investment memoirs are rare, rather than because the book is especially carefully crafted .
sanjeev shah, who succeeded one of britain' s few star fund managers, anthony bolton, when he took over two years ago, has continued the fund' s outperformance: while it has lost 4. 22% of its value, that is better than the 12. 32% drop in the stock market and puts him within the top 10% of funds in the uk all companies sector .
one such stock was china integrated energy, which produced ethanol. bolton, having been impressed with the company after a meeting, bought some shares .
for long - term investors who want to stick with bolton and china this volatily in the difference between share price and asset value should not be troubling .
anthony weston assures us. step outside at dawn and catch the mere snippet of a bird’s song, and you are instantly transported back into this primal oneness with the world. it is only a matter of letting “the soft animal of your body love what it loves. ”
this authoritative and accessible investment classic promises rare insight into what it really takes to run money in a top - performing investment fund. anthony bolton, the uk' s most successful stock market investor, tells the story of his contrarian approach to managing money. he provides invaluable lessons on the factors that really matter in picking a stock: the need to identify good managers, how to run a portfolio, the importance of value investing, reading charts and how to trade successfully. it' s not easy to continually buy low and sell high. this book gives clear directions for doing well in the stock market, and doing well consistently. investing against the tide shows you how to make the right decisions at the right time. anthony bolton is considered the uk' s most successful stock market investor and fund manager. over twenty five years he delivered a market - beating return of 20% in his fidelity special situations fund. how did he do it, and what can you learn from him? in investing against the tide, anthony bolton tells the story of his contrarian approach to managing money. he provides invaluable lessons on the factors that really matter when investing: how to pick a stock, the need to identify good managers, how to run a portfolio, the importance of value investing, reading charts and how to trade successfully .
anthony bolton is a celebrated investment fund manager who has recently apologised for the recent heavy losses on his fidelity china special situations fund, which he runs from hong kong. however, he is still a legendary figure in the investment world with 28 years running the hugely successful fidelity special situations fund and has been given the rubric “god of stocks” by chinese tabloids. investing against the tide passes on much of the wisdom he has accumulated during 35 years in the indust
not surprisingly, bolton has upped the due diligence stakes, employing several independent firms, and even has a team of private detectives scouring local newspapers to unearth anything untoward .
mr bolton' s book is a decent legacy to leave after a stunning career in money managent and investing. there' s a lot in this book that is useful
bolton likes the investment trust structure because many of the chinese companies he wants to buy are medium - sized or smaller, and their shares can sometimes be difficult to trade .
anthony bolton left cambridge university with a degree in engineering to begin a career in the city. he started as a graduate trainee working for keyser ullmann in 1971 before taking up a full time position as an assistant in their investment department. in 1976 he moved to schlesingers where he became, for the first time, an investment manager. in 1979, aged 29, he was recruited by fidelity, the international fund management group, as one of its first london - based investment managers, a move that proved to be the launch of a long and successful career. in surveys of professional investors, he is regularly voted the fund manager most respected by his peers. he retired from full - time investment management at the end of 2007, but continues to work at fidelity as a mentor of the analysts and younger fund managers as well as being involved in overseeing fidelity’s investment process. his hobby is composing classical music. anthony bolton is married with three children and lives in west sussex .
that said, bolton admits that he still holds stocks that he has reservations about because this comes with the territory of investing in small and mid - sized companies – and china .
and, worse still, because private investors often withdraw their money when markets fall, bolton might find himself in the position of having to sell shares at the most disadvantageous moments .
anthony bolton is perhaps uk' s most successful stock market investor. in surveys of professional investors, he is regularly voted the fund manager most respected by his peers. in this book he talks about his contrarian approach to managing money. the book reveals a surprising simplicity in his methods. it has useful insights about picking a stock, the need for good managements, how to construct a portfolio, the importance of financial parameters as well as charts. his style is value - based, with a
but those who hoped that mr bolton could conjure up similar gains from china were left disappointed, and he quit the trust four years later with the share price barely above its flotation level .
yes, hargreaves landsdown and bolton owe all investors an apology and much more. quite incredible that bolton can go public with what can only be seen as an admission of mega - lack of due diligence on his part. lots of companies (non - chinese as well) tell lies when speaking to investors but it' s not difficult to sit outside a factory gate and discover the truth! but that would mean bolton had to get out of his chair and do some work i suppose. my failing was that i thought he was going to do that... .
paul bolton, pamela surkan, amber gray, marine desmousseaux. the mental health and psychosocial effects of organized violence: a qualitative study in northern haiti. (in press, transcultural psychiatry) .
from december 1979 until end of 2007, anthony bolton ran the fidelity special situations fund. over this 28 year period the fund achieved a remarkable annualised return of 19. 5% , outperforming the market by 6% per annum while the funds under management grew from c. £2m to £6. 5bn before the fund was split. £100, 000 invested with his fund in 1979 would have been worth £14. 7m by the end of 2007, compared to £3. 4m in the market. he retired from active fund management in 2007, returning in 2010 to launch the fidelity china special situations fund which he currently runs from hong kong. anthony will end the conference with a special q & a session during which he will answer delegates questions on his lifetime of investing experience, china and other topics. he is the author of “ investing against the tide: lessons from a life running money ” .
bolton is not expecting china to have a hard landing and says it “will not collapse tomorrow”. he has learnt some harsh lessons and is betting on the consumer growth story to resurrect his fund’s fortunes .
nthony bolton' s stellar reputation as a fund manager took a dip when tens of thousands of small investors piled £580m into his fidelity china special situations fund three years ago – and then lost a quarter of their money. but after a rally in the shanghai and hong kong stock markets, the fund has made up nearly all its losses. will 2013 be the year when bolton finally starts to deliver ?
david holder: following a recent meeting with dale nicholls, fund manager of the fidelity china special situations trust (fcss), we' ve upgraded the morningstar analyst rating from neutral to bronze. the key driver of our increased confidence is the quality and assuredness of the management of dale nicholls. whilst his tenure here is relatively short - he formally took over from fidelity legend anthony bolton in april 2014 - his investment experience with the chinese market goes back to 2003 when he began managing the successful fidelity pacific fund, which has a significant exposure to chinese equities .
“it found nothing was going on, ” says bolton. “but the next day, when an investor tour turned up, everything ramped up and started working again. a day later everything stopped again. ”
it was a hugely popular launch, attracting £460 million in 2010 from investors fascinated by bolton, a veteran uk and europe fund manager, coming out of retirement to try his hand at investing in china .
and for new investors wanting to back bolton, it is certainly cheaper to do so today (the discount is around seven per cent) than at almost any time in this fund' s volatile history .
investing against the tide (anthony bolton) it' s one of few books that recounts investing from the perspective of an european fund manager. the book is in form of small, easy to read chapters. there is a summary of all the chapters at the end of the book. it include all the major rules of investing as well as some ideas specific to the author. major ideas from the book include: 1) look for anomalies in intrinsic value and market price. 1a) every stock you own should have thesis. 2) look for out of f
antony bolton' s £610m fidelity china special situations trust returned 8. 42% in the three months to 31 december, compared to the msci china return of 1. 5% , according to latest figures .
paul bolton, laura murray, judith bass. ‘school based intervention improves ptsd symptoms in children affected by political violence (commentary). evidence based mental health 10 / 3 / 09 15: 43: 34 .
he gave as an example a company whose initial public offering document stated that it had 1, 000 stores. bolton found that was far from the truth. ‘it seemed to have only 500, ’ he said .
much of the book regards mr bolton' s wealth of preparation for choosing stocks. one simple takeaway is the necessity of having historical valuation charts that pass through an entire business cycle. ideally, the investor desires a chart of a period longer than 10 years showing the price / earnings ratio or other valuation measure alongside the straightforward share price chart. that' s important, mr bolton says, because an investor should ...
bolton will have plenty of time to compose when he clocks - off for good but he is too captivated by the buzz and energy of china to do so just yet, despite the polarised view on the country .
not that bolton is getting too carried away. last year he bought a put option (a protection against falling share prices) on the korean kospi stock index to protect against rising tensions between north and south korea .
mark dampier, head of investment research at hargreaves lansdown, which was among the promoters of the fund, said :
anthony has had a fantastic career; he is rightly regarded as one of the best active managers of recent decades. his china fund' s performance in recent years has tarnished this record slightly, though it has shown signs of recovery in the past year .
though nicholls is modest enough to acknowledge the great platform left by bolton – and that timing has worked in his favour – there is no doubt that the 49 - year - old australian has licked the trust into good shape .
unlike bolton, who moved to hong kong to run the trust having spent his life focusing almost exclusively on uk stocks, nicholls has worked most of his life in the far east – tokyo, singapore and now hong kong .
with a small company i could go to a meeting with the management and come out knowing more about that firm than anyone else ,
mr bolton said .
that' s not possible with a larger business .
bolton stayed on to stabilise the situation, however, with the nav recovering 13. 3% in 2012 and by 35. 9% the following year. in 2014, when nicholls succeeded bolton, the portfolio rose by nearly a third, with dividends included in the total return, and in the following two years advanced 12. 4% and 17. 5% . in the first five months of 2017 the nav has surged 18. 7% .
known as the kingmaker in several multibillion pound city deals, bolton shot to fame in 2003 when he orchestrated the sacking of michael green, then chief executive of carlton communications, earning him a title he loathes: the quiet assassin .
but bolton had his very own annus horribilis in 2011 and the trust’s value plunged by 30pc. although the trust has held its own over recent months, investors who bought shares exactly two years ago have yet to make a penny .
paul bolton, wietse a. tol, judith bass. ‘introduction to special issue: combining qualitative and quantitative research methods to support psychosocial and mental health programmes. ’ intervention 2009, volume 7, number 3, page 181 – 186 .
in 1979, aged 29, he was recruited by fidelity, the international fund management group, as one of its first london - based investment managers, a move that proved to be the launch of a long and successful career. in surveys of professional investors, he is regularly voted the fund manager most respected by his peers. he retired from full - time investment management at the end of 2007, but continues to work at fidelity as a mentor of the analysts and younger fund managers as well as being involved in overseeing fidelity' s investment process. his hobby is composing classical music. anthony bolton is married with three children and lives in west sussex .
speaking at an event yesterday to mark his last day in charge of the trust, bolton claimed that in his four years at the helm he had ‘met some of the best companies i have ever seen, and also some of the worst’ .
bolton notes that a contrarian needs a good grasp of psychology to be able to go against the consensus – as he once wrote in the daily telegraph: “know why you own a stock, know what’s discounted in the price and know yourself” .
bolton has also found time in his “relentless” schedule (an analyst report is rarely out of his sight) to compose music on his computer for a collection of eight chinese poems. he will hear the final recording in two weeks' time .
judith bass, bhava poudyal, wietse tol, laura murray, maya nadison, paul bolton. ‘a controlled trial of problem - solving counseling for war - affected adults in aceh, indonesia. ’ social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology (in press) .
however, the bit of china we see most in the west – its enormous export machine – is about the worst place for investors, says bolton .
the exporters are being squeezed by a stronger currency and higher wages ,
he warns .
anthony bolton is perhaps uk' s most successful stock market investor. in surveys of professional investors, he is regularly voted the fund manager most respected by his peers. in this book he talks about his contrarian approach to managing money. the book reveals a surprising simplicity in his methods. it has useful insights about picking a stock, the need for good managements, how to construct a portfolio, the importance of financial parameters as well as charts. his style is value - based, with a touch of technicals. the book is short and easy to read, and would be more useful for people who are new to investing rather than the seasoned investors. however, all his ideas are thought provoking .
mr bolton said two things were important when choosing which shares to buy: the fundamentals of the company and stock market sentiment .
ideally you get both right ,
he said .
i would avoid buying even a good company when sentiment is poor .
the quintessentially british bolton appears content on foreign soil but he has made no secret of his desire to return to the uk once he hands over the reins of the china fund to a colleague. he has a shortlist already, but won’t reveal who is on it .
but he added that timing the market was difficult, as his fidelity china special situations fund showed. it lost about 30pc of its value in its first 18 months, before recovering all its losses and more recently .
markets always overreact ,
mr bolton added .
“it was as bad as i have ever seen, ” he says in an interview in shanghai. liquidity in the hong kong market dried up and his portfolio, which was positioned for a bull market, had nowhere to run to. several of bolton’s holdings plunged 10pc overnight .
bhava poudyal, judith bass, theodora subyantoro, abraham jonathan, theresia erni, paul bolton. ‘assessment of the psychosocial and mental health needs, dysfunction and coping mechanisms of violence affected populations in bireuen, aceh. ’ torture 2009: 19 (3): 218 - 226 .
the latest full - year results show nicholls has generated a 101. 8% total return from the highly geared portfolio of chinese stocks since he took it over from bolton in april 2014. over the same period the msci china stock market index has gained 60. 6% .
in this account of financial accomplishment, bolton reveals the secrets of his success. it' s not easy constantly to buy low and sell high and this book gives clear directions for doing well in the stock market, and doing well consistently. chapter by chapter investing against the tide shows you how to make the right decisions at the right time and featured key lessons show you how you really can learn from a life running money. investing against the tideis an authoritative guide for investment professionals, offering them a rare insight into what it really takes to run money in a top - performing fund, as well as providing amateur investors the chance to learn the stock - picking strategies from a leading money - manager. about the author anthony bolton left cambridge university with a degree in engineering to begin a career in the city. he started as a graduate trainee working for keyser ullmann in 1971 before taking up a full time position as an assistant in their investment department. in 1976 he moved to schlesingers where he became, for the first time, an investment manager .
the launch story for the fund in 2010 was seductive. bolton was convinced a consumer revolution would follow china' s industrial revolution, and invested in the type of consumer - friendly stocks that would benefit. but after an initial surge, which took the share price from £1 to £1. 25, his fund fell to a low of 70p, a drop of over 40% and a significantly worse performance than the china index. in perhaps the most embarrassing failure, one of bolton' s investments, china integrated energy, lost 90% of its market value .
according to morningstar, that leaves the £1. 2 billion trust with an annualised three - year return to the end of may of 29. 6% . this is a a bit more than the five - year 27% annualised return which includes some of bolton' s period in charge .
interesting how mark dampier of hargreaves lansdown was dissing the fund prior to launch - headline in moneymarketing :
dampier repeats concerns over closed - ended launch for fidelity' s bolton
. that was before they learned h - l would have their palms crossed with 0. 5% commission of course .
addressing concerns that debt to gdp in china has spiralled to around 230% , bolton said that most of this was corporate debt, and that the debt had been investment led rather than consumer led, unlike what happened in the west in the run - up to the 2007 - 08 credit crunch .
“stock markets are like a pendulum, ” says bolton. “they swing from the bottom of a bear market, when investors are very cautious and valuations are low, back up to the middle of the cycle, when stocks are fairly valued, and then to the top, when stocks become overvalued .
as an investment trust the share price of fcss does not merely reflect the value of the trust' s underlying holdings. it is a reflection of how the market views the fund and its prospects. and since the fund' s launch in april 2010, that sentiment has swung brutally against bolton .
such was his reputation as the manager with the midas touch, he could never under - promise, whether he liked it or not. it was taken as read that following bolton would make you money. it is why tens of thousands of people rushed to snap up shares when the china trust listed in april 2010 .
bolton makes a valid point. the european trust returned 1, 802pc - turning £1, 000 into £19, 024 - while he was in charge between 1985 and 2002 and was consistently a top performer. it is a track record that gives his loyal band of followers’ hope that he can orchestrate a rescue of his china trust .
in april 2010 bolton hailed china as the
investment opportunity of the next decade
but the performance of the country' s stock market has been poor almost ever since. the china fund sector is the worst performing of all sectors in the past three years, registering a loss of 0. 6% . this compares, for example, with gains of 40% for uk equity funds, 39% for us equities and 35% for european equities .
worse still is that bolton' s trust has significantly under - performed many other chinese funds ,
said patrick connolly of advisers chase de vere, adding
we never recommended it to our clients .
last year bolton said he would extend his time in hong kong in a bid to reverse the losses suffered by small investors in his trust. in recent months, the performance of the trust has improved, rising from a low of 71p in september 2012 and even touched its launch price of 100p before falling back again as markets worldwide have dipped .
the blow - up at china integrated energy has not deterred bolton from investing in power companies. he reckons that a difficult time for power companies, which have been unable to pass on rising costs of coal and other raw materials, may now be over. he likes huaneng power international, which he believes will benefit from recent falls in coal prices. he is also investing in what china hopes will be a shale gas revolution akin to that in the us – but bolton prefers the companies supplying services to the explorers rather than the explorers themselves, investing in anton oilfield services and spt energy group. since october last year, the share price of spt has doubled while anton is up 150% .
this enviable record was tarnished by a weak performance when he launched the fidelity china special situations investment trust in 2010, but its fortunes are now bouncing back. the portfolio is up by 22pc over the past year, compared with a 9pc fall in the msci china index. mr bolton has written several investment books and will remain an adviser at fidelity .
ii. members present: dean sweet jr. , steve plemmons, mike wood, dan schultz, carl chaffee, nancy hawkins, walter pett (arrived at 7: 04 p. m .) members absent: none staff present: superintendent susan bolton business manager jon pechette high school principal greg wieman middle school principal melody hasselback elementary school principal kathleen senita
a. professional development days superintendent susan bolton presented information regarding professional development days as required and directed by the state, the bath education association contract, federal and / or state program (s) or law. b. additional opportunities superintendent bolton mentioned that other opportunities for professional development include curriculum related training at conferences and workshops, professional organization conferences, etc. c. technology - related training technology coordinator doug murphy addressed the technology portion of the professional development. he gave board members copies of pages off the bath community schools' web site. he pointed out the tuesday afternoon meetings currently running to address problems that staff is having. he stated that he has had up to five teachers stay on tuesdays to attend the workshops .
investing against the tide (anthony bolton) it' s one of few books that recounts investing from the perspective of an european fund manager. the book is in form of small, easy to read chapters. there is a summary of all the chapters at the end of the book. it include all the major rules of investing as well as some ideas specific to the author. major ideas from the book include: 1) look for anomalies in intrinsic value and market price. 1a) every stock you own should have thesis. 2) look for out of favor companies. 3) takeover targets, recovery stocks might offer value. 4) find out the ratios and metric that are relevant for the industry / company. 5) think in terms of level of conviction rather in terms of prices, buy / sell in increments. there are many small things that have been touched upon by the author. however, if you had read other books on investing and especially value investing you can skip this one .
little is known of bolton' s own personal fortune. as an employee, he has shared in the income stream from the funds, which in the case of the china fund is worth around £5 - 6m a year. but his personal wealth is much greater, and tied up in his holdings of' career shares' in the group. fidelity is a privately held company, still effectively controlled by the johnson family, who founded the firm in the us in 1949. bolton joined fidelity' s uk operation in 1979, and was among the few senior managers to be invited to buy shares in the company, which will now be worth many millions of pounds. these do not vest in their entirety until the senior manager departs .
having made hay while the chinese sun shined, why do all these pundits and fund managers like bolton now have to rubbish chinese economic prospects - it' s reminiscent of a certain mr ratner' s famous statement that the products he sold were c * * p. all business communities have their share of' great liars' (including the uk' s). live with it !
much of the money, annoyingly, goes straight to fidelity, the manager contracted to run the portfolio. in return for - well, what? fidelity is paid an unusually steep annual management charge (amc) of 1. 5 per cent of the trust' s assets, plus an additional (and generous) performance - related fee. the commission - whether fidelity chooses to pocket it or pass it on elsewhere - comes out of the 1. 5 per cent amc. turn the clock back to the launch of this investment trust last spring. china was a rather more dazzling investment prospect back then, so interest was high. the portfolio was to be managed by the much - hyped fidelity manager anthony bolton, right. money poured in. it is highly unusual for investment trusts to saddle themselves with the extra expense of commission (the unit trust industry does it, routinely, which is why' financial advisers' tend only to promote unit trusts - and also why cost - conscious investors often prefer investment trusts). critics immediately asked: what was the commission for? fidelity' s head of retail investments, rob fisher, answered that the commission was to pay intermediaries, such as financial advisers, to give advice. in his view the potent combination of' star' bolton and the high - risk chinese asset class could mean that naive investors would get sucked in. the answer, apparently, was to charge these naive investors more.' we want to ensure a mechanism by which investors can pay for advice,' said fisher, pictured .
bolton' s selections begin with the gorgeous trio soave sia il vento from mozart' s cosi fan tutte, and end with the act ii love duet between miranda and ferdinand from thomas ades' opera the tempest. in between he has chosen an extract from the presentation of the silver rose scene from strauss' der rosenkavalier, part of mahler' s resurrection symphony, and joni mitchell singing the silky veils of ardor .
in this account of financial accomplishment, bolton reveals the secrets of his success. it’s not easy constantly to buy low and sell high and this book gives clear directions for doing well in the stock market, and doing well consistently. chapter by chapter investing against the tide shows you how to make the right decisions at the right time and featured key lessons show you how you really can learn from a life running money .
paul bolton' s main areas of expertise are program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. his work treats all four elements as part of an integrated whole in which applied research methods play a core role. he uses this approach to conduct needs assessments and to plan and evaluate programs with service providers including major ngos. this work has encompassed programs dealing with physical health (including infectious diseases) and more recently psychosocial problems in north america, latin america, sub - saharan africa, central and southeast asia, eastern europe, and the caribbean. much of this work has been with refugees and internally displaced persons during the disaster post - emergency phase, persons affected by violence, and other adults and children living in difficult circumstances. dr. bolton has also conducted program evaluations of psychosocial interventions in africa and asia in the form of randomized clinical trials .
the poor run has played a key part in bolton’s decision, announced last week, to extend his stay in hong kong until at least 2014 – he originally said that he would manage the trust until 2013. but he is adamant that he is not staying on to salvage his reputation – the cambridge engineering graduate turned an outlay of £1, 000 into £148, 200 during his 27 - year tenure managing fidelity uk special situations fund .
bolton stuck to his contrarian value approach, thus dodging the tech bubble in the late 1990s. this hurt his returns in the run up to the crash, but greatly enhanced them during the slump. he also controversially but successfully invested in airlines, hotels and insurers after september 11. but his most famous moment was when he used his shareholding in itv to prevent michael green of carlton communications becoming its chief executive in 2003, earning him the nickname “the quiet assassin” .
c. approval of purchase of bus moved by sweet, supported by pett that the bath community schools board of education adopt the resolution authorizing superintendent susan bolton or her designee to solicit and accept financing bids for the purchase of a bus. aye: wood, pett, schultz, plemmons, sweet, chaffee, hawkins. nay: none. motion carried. vii. adjournment moved by sweet, supported by schultz to adjourn at 9: 29 p. m. motion carried unanimously .
shah remains a fan of the banks, arguing they are now well capitalised and well positioned to take advantage of an economic recovery. he has just half the fund bolton ran: the other half was converted into a global special situations fund three years ago and is run by jorma korhonen. the fund is close to the bottom of its sector over three years, with a 12. 1% fall in value, but has gained 31% over the last year, well ahead of rival funds .
each investment should have a clear, explicable investment thesis, and should only be sold if that thesis has been changed. don' t sell just because the price has fallen, mr bolton says. at the same time, if information undermines the original thesis, the investor is advised not to stay in it in an attempt to make the money back, to prove the original idea. sell if the thesis has changed, if you find something better, or if the valuation target is hit .
another excellent read on money management. bolton' s style is value - oriented yet acknowledges that unlike private investment companies like berkshire, mutual / hedge funds are measured against the market - - and his style and analytical techniques - - fundamentals with a technical overlay - - reflects this. a few specific comments reflect his bias to fundamental stock picking - - e. g. he finds it easier to manage macro risk via stock selection, rather than blunter instruments. also, he doesn' t really
nearly all mr bolton' s bad investments in this period involved companies with poor balance sheets. it is an area of analysis he feels is underserved by brokers and underestimated by fund managers. investors should consider not just bank debt, the debt profile and the covenants in place, but a company' s bonds and other liabilities. the author used companywatch' s' h' score (' z' scores and other metrics are available) to gauge the likelihood of financial distress at a company in question .
but the last three months have been kinder to bolton. china special situations' share price has jumped from 70p in september last year to touch 98p in recent trading, or just a whisker from its 100p initial price three years ago. his biggest holding, tencent, an internet company that has more than 700m active users of its instant messaging service and up to 145m on the system at any one time, has seen its share price rise from hk $ 200 to hk $ 280 over the past year .
bolton is probably best described as a contrarian value investor, looking out for “cheap” (trading on a low price / earnings ratio, for example), unloved stocks that he believed the market was overly pessimistic about. like peter lynch, who also worked at fidelity, he took a “bottom - up” approach, conducting extensive research on a company’s business model and prospects. he particularly liked small firms, and “turnaround” situations – troubled stocks where improving performance or skilled new management was not yet being recognised by the market .
hardly ever would i buy a share where i believed the valuation appeared correct ,
writes the ex - fidelity manager. investing in shares that are historically cheap on a certain valuation metric provides a margin of safety, it is argued, against price falls. mr bolton invested on a timeframe of one to two years, and did not have a favourite valuation measure: he would use a range from pe, to price - to - book, to cash flow return on investment, depending on the industry .
from december 1997 to december 2007, the special situations fund returned 19. 5% a year, compared to 13. 5% for the ftse (including dividends) during the same period – enough to turn a £10, 000 investment into more than £1. 4m. however, his chinese comeback was far less successful. the fund was down 30% at one point and investors left in droves. bolton blamed poor corporate governance and rampant fraud in china. however, even here he beat the market during his time in charge .
mr bolton says his ideal number of holdings - were he not compelled to hold more according to the liquidity demands of a large open - ended fund - would have been 50. this should represent, as far as possible, a' start from scratch' portfolio, and each month he would track his conviction for those holdings under headings from' strong buy' to' reduce'. every quarter, he would review his watchlist of potential buys to explore those where the investment case had strengthened, and cull those where it had weakened.
anthony bolton ( born 7 march 1950 ) is one of the uk 's best known investment fund managers and most successful investors , having managed the fidelity special situations fund from december 1979 to december 2007 . over this 28-year period the fund achieved annualised growth of 19.5 % , far in excess of the 13.5 % growth of the wider stock exchange , turning a £ 1,000 investment into £ 147,000 . until april 2014 he managed fidelity china special situations plc , a london stock exchange listed investment trust . 
anthony bolton (born 7 march 1950) is one of the uk's best known investment fund managers and most successful investors, having managed the fidelity special situations fund from december 1979 to december 2007. over this 28-year period the fund achieved annualised growth of 19.5% , far in excess of the 13.5% growth of the wider stock exchange, turning a £ 1,000 investment into £ 147,000. until april 2014 he managed fidelity china special situations plc, a london stock exchange listed investment trust.
anthony bolton (born 7 march 1950) is one of the uk's best known investment fund managers and most successful investors, having managed the fidelity special situations fund from december 1979 to december 2007. over this 28-year period the fund achieved annualised growth of 19.5% , far in excess of the 13.5% growth of the wider stock exchange, turning a £ 1,000 investment into £ 147,000. until april 2014 he managed fidelity china special situations plc, a london stock exchange listed investment trust.