7 Circles

Monthly Meetings

Save yourself

This page has all the information about the monthly meetings that I organise in London.

Current arrangements

I organise three groups, with aspirations to monthly meetings:

  1. London Passive Investing Club, which focuses on ETFs
  2. Big Picture Investors, for more experienced active investors, and
  3. Quality Value Investing, a group I took over recently, which does what it says on the tin.

Meetings are announced on this page, and attendance is managed at the moment through Eventbrite.

I’ve created a new membership tier on my Patreon page for attendees of the groups – https://www.patreon.com/7_Circles

  • This membership will allow you to attend any or all of my groups.

I have good news for people who are already supporting my site at a higher membership level – you can attend meetings for free.

  • The bad news is that the meetings won’t go ahead unless there are ten people subscribed to the membership of the meetings. 

So if you want there to be meetings, head over to Patreon and sign up – https://www.patreon.com/7_Circles

London Passive Investing Club

Save yourself

Here’s the description: of the group:

This group is for passive DIY investors, and for those who want to become passive DIY investors.

We are primarily concerned with ETF portfolios, but people who use OEICs are also welcome.

Topic we discuss include:

  1. What is an ETF (exchange traded fund)?
  2. What’s inside an ETF?
  3. How do I invest in ETFs?
  4. What does it cost to invest in ETFs?
  5. What does a good ETF look like?
  6. What are the risks of investing in ETFs?
  7. How can I research ETFs?
  8. How do I decide on an asset allocation strategy, and construct a suitable ETF portfolio?
  9. Are lazy portfolios as good as properly diversified ones?
  10. Should I use smart beta / factor ETFs?
  11. How and when should I rebalance my portfolio?
  12. How does the UK Tax system affect ETF portfolios?
  13. Are the problems of living off my portfolio in retirement (decumulation) the same as those of building up my portfolio in the first place?
LPIC Previous meetings
  1. At the first meeting in February 2019, I tried to answer as many of those questions as possible.
    • You can find the notes here.
  2. The March meeting was organised around a presentation on how to build your own ETF portfolio.
  3. The April meeting looked at Portfolio Rebalancing.
  4. The May meeting examined Lazy Portfolios (constructed from just a few funds.
    • The slides are here.
  5. The June meeting looked at UK Tax for ETF Investors.
    • The slides are here.
  6. The July meeting examined Decumulation & Retirement, and How To Spend Your Money.
    • The slides are here.
  7. The August meeting looked at factor investing and smart beta ETFs
    • The slides are here.
  8. In September I put together a (massive) slide deck covering all the lectures to date.
    • Those slides are here.
Big Picture Investors

Big Picture Investors

Here’s the description of this group:

Most investment clubs show you one piece of the jigsaw, such as:

– Crypto, Oil & Gas, Gold miners, Growth / AIM stocks
– Vanguard Index Trackers
– Buy to Let, Care Homes, Parking Spaces, Graveyards, Crematoria

Big Picture Investors look at the whole puzzle.

– The group is aimed at experienced long-term investors
– Who are targeting (or already have) a £1M+ portfolio.

______________________________________________________

Some things we aren’t about:

– Trading “secrets” | Stories that a little bird told me
– A nice day out (with wine and canapes) | A good chat with no takeaways
– War stories from when we were all Big Cheeses
– Cuddles with Co. Directors | Rubbing shoulders with ”the in crowd” or the 1%
– Posing with Lambos, watches and rooms full of cash.
_______________________________________________________

What we offer instead:

– Knowledge exchange | Best practice framework | KPIs | Model portfolios
– Job division | Sharing the load | Mentoring and coaching
________________________________________________________

What we talk about:

– Macroeconomics | Market tone and timing
– Platforms, brokers and Robo Advisors | Products (SIPPs, ISAs, VCT, EIS)
– Asset Allocation, factors and smart beta
– Trend following | Long & Short | Psychology & Behavioural finance
– Decumulation strategies (allocation, SWRs, withdrawal order) |
– Tax | Myths & False prophets | Book reviews

I don’t always prepare slides for this group, but I did for the August meeting.

  • The topic was The Role of Active Investing, and you can find the slides here.
Previous arrangements – Meetup

The idea of holding these meetings dates back to January 2019, when I took over the organisation of a Meetup group with more than 350 members.

  • The number of group members continued to drift upwards, but the meetings themselves were sparsely attended.

Meetup charges hundreds of pounds a year to Meetup organisers (the exact amount depends on the $/£ exchange rate), but it doesn’t let you set a subscription fee in order to recoup those costs (it does in the US, but not in the UK).

  • The result is that people join lots of groups for free, but they never participate.

The three groups that I ran had more than 1,000 members between them, but I’ve never had more than a dozen people turn up to meetings in any given month.

  • Those that do attend usually book in the last few days before an event, which makes sensible planning impossible.

This is the opposite of what I want – I’d like small groups of people committed to turning up every month.

  • So I moved the meetings back to my blog.