“Having been a subscriber for many years may I take this opportunity to thank you for your sound advice. I remember some time back that you were good enough to list your top ten preferred investments. Having listened of late to your views on the sensibilities of investing in autonomies would it be possible to repeat the exercise with your opinion of "essential investments " of this nature.”

David Fuller's view

Thank you for your kind words and interest in the Autonomies, which I define as world-class multinational companies that have outgrown their countries of origin.  This service’s Chart Library contains a separate listing of Autonomies, which will continue to grow with time.  To see them all, click on the Library’s drop down menu (upper left hand side); then click on ‘International Equity Library’ and when that opens, click on ‘Autonomies’, at the top of the first column.

Some subscribers seldom look beyond the Autonomies in running portfolios of individual shares.  This is a conservative strategy and one could do a whole lot worse.

In running my personal portfolio in my 70s, I increasingly prefer to have investment trusts (closed-end funds), covering markets which I am likely to hold for at least a few years.  For instance, thanks to performance my biggest position, as you probably know, is in the JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust (JII LN), which I started buying in 2003.  If it does what I think it will now do, under Narendra Modi’s organisational and entrepreneurial leadership, I will hold it for at least the next four years.  JII holds a few Indian Autonomies, or companies very close to that somewhat subjective classification.  JII is somewhat overextended in the short term but I may add to this position following the first medium-term correction since Modi’s election victory. 

I will have more to say about Autonomies in investment trusts in a day or two.