What are the UK equivalents of the USA ETFs like VOO, SPY, VTI, VT, QQQ, VTV, SCHD, etc.?

ETFs like VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) and SCHD (Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF) are not available on UK broker platforms such as Trading 212, Interactive Investor, etc.

You may have seen YouTube videos which recommend these ETFs.

Here are some equivalents which are usually available to UK and non-USA citizens.

Whole market Funds

VT & VTWAX

Debugging grub2 menus that won't fully boot (e.g. ArchLinux ISOs)

If you need to construct a grub2 menu, but then find that it does not work, you can add in some extra debug lines. For instance the grub2 read command will wait for you to press the RETURN key before continuing execution and an echo command can be used to track progress and view grub2 variable values.

Here is an example grub2 menu display output screen...

and here is the grub2 menu that was used...

menuentry "Arch Linux with Parameters" {

set iso_path="/_ISO/LINUX/archlinux-2024.12.01-x86_64.iso"

search --no-floppy -f --set=root $iso_path

probe -u $root --set=archiso_img_dev_uuid

loopback loop $iso_path

ls

echo

ls (loop)/

echo

ls /

echo

ls /_ISO/LINUX/

echo

echo archiso_img_dev_uuid=${archiso_img_dev_uuid}  iso_path=${iso_path}  root=${root} 

read

linux (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-linux archisobasedir=arch img_dev=UUID=${archiso_img_dev_uuid} img_loop=${iso_path}

initrd (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/initramfs-linux.img

read

}

This menu sets iso_path to the path of the ISO file we wish to boot.

Should I buy this ETF due to the forthcoming ban on TikTok?

TikTok is set to be banned in US law from the beginning of 2025 unless it changes ownership from the current Chinese Bytedance owners. If banned, will other Western countries follow suit too?

If this goes ahead, there is no similar alternative to TikTok, so advertising businesses and video businesses will then go to Instagram, Facebook (both owned by Meta as well as Threads and WhatsApp) and Google/Alphabet (YouTube).

You could therefore invest in Meta and Alphabet now, but if TikTok's Supreme Court appeal is successful, or Trump somehow quashes the ruling, then you could be looking at a large loss!

The ETF IUCM also has top holdings in Meta and Alphabet and its price has increased recently.

How to prepare for a stock market crash

Warren Buffet is accumulating a great deal of cash at the moment. After selling more of Berkshire's equity portfolio, including massive portions of its stakes in Apple (AAPL -0.52%) and Bank of America (BAC 0.72%), the company ended the third quarter with a record $325 billion in cash and Treasury bills on its balance sheet. That's up $48 billion from the previous quarter.

His trick has always been to buy good companies at a low price and hold. It seems he is getting ready to buy again which perhaps means he is expecting to see a bear run and can buy good companies at a cheaper price.

WB doesn't see much gain in top quality large companies at the moment. They seem overvalued. Small/mid-cap companies are not worth his time and effort (he could buy them all outright if he wanted with $325 billion). So I think he is expecting a bit of a correction but meanwhile is probably earning a nice 5%+ on his cash pile whilst he waits.

So what should we do if the SHTF?

ETFs for AI, Robotics and CyberSecurity

I think technology will pay a big part in modernising industry. Labour is becoming increasingly expensive while AI and robotics now have big advantages. Robots can work 24 hours a day, they don't need toilet breaks or get hangovers or go on strike. They are cheap to run and work really fast.

Self-driving cars are a distraction however. Like NASA developing rockets to get us to the moon when really the super-powers just wanted the technology to develop nuclear ICBMs, with AI and robotics, we develop this technology to then build semi-dedicated robots to replace our human workforce.

AI robots can also be good for the environment. Consider a small robot vehicle with four legs, cameras, GPS, LED lights and pincers for arms. Now train it to recognise wheat plants and weeds and set it down in your newly-planted field of wheat. It will work 24/7 in that field and de-weed it for you without pay! It will have a solar powered charging station to dock with every few hours. No weed killers needed! Now also equip it with an insecticide spray and train it to only spray wheat plants which show signs of infestation. This reduces the use and cost of insecticides and means more environmentally-friendly ones can be used.

Such devices have already been developed!

ETFs

So I am picking two ETFs for my 'risky but high returns' experimental portfolio:

Is now a good time to buy UK FTSE shares?

The FTSE 100 index stands just 15% higher than its level of 31 December 1999, representing a compound annual gain of barely 0.5% per annum. 

UK investors, insurance companies and pension companies have started to see the light and are leaving UK stocks for the shinier US market. A few UK companies are even starting to de-list from the FTSE and move over to the New York/NASDAQ stock exchanges.

However, if you discount the USA's 'Magnificent Seven', the UK has still performed quite well. Good UK companies are well diversified and pay good dividends. The UK also has some solid top performers as shown below (gains in 1 year):

• RR      Rolls Royce 67%
• NWG  NatWest Group 63%
• SMDS Smith(DS) Group 51%
• HL       Hargreaves Lansdown 49%
• BARC Barclays 48%

Which core ETF should I pick?

Many people like to have a core+satellite approach with their portfolio.

A popular choice for a core ETF is either:

1. MSCI global index ETF (SWDA or HMWO)
2. MSCI global Quality index ETF (XDEQ)
3. S&P 500 index ETF (VUAA or VNRA or CSPX)

For the past 5 years, the S&P 500 has shown much better returns than the MSCI global index (SWDA) however.

If we look at the performance over the last 5 years, the S&P 500 ETF VUAA has consistently performed better than SWDA or XDEQ and CSPX is slightly better.

ETFs better than EQQQ or S&P 500 in Q4 2024!

Amazon does not feature much in high-performance Tech and Comms ETFs such as IITU or IUCM and comprises only 5% within the Nasdaq EQQQ ETF.

Some Consumer Discretionary ETFs hold a large proportion of Amazon (30%) and also Tesla (15%) such as XUCD (or XSCD for GBP). If you think Amazon and Tesla will do well next year when Trump takes over, this may continue to show good gains. I think Amazon will continue to show good performance next year although import tariffs and tightening advertising regulations in the EU and UK may adversely affect the Amazon online retail business.

Note: The ETF IUCD is very similar to XUCD and is available on Trading 212.

Consumer Discretionary (blue) has shown good gains recently, mainly due to Tesla (and Amazon).

Here are the top holdings of XUCD/IUCD:

Compare holdings:

EQQQ is a compromise, but as there is not too much overlap between XUCD and my two favourite top Tech S&P 500 ETFs IITU (60% in Apple, NVidia, Microsoft) and IUCM (30% Alphabet A+C) you could also add XUCD or IUCD to these two Tech ETFs - see below.

Top stock tips (2024/11/24)

Here are some stocks/funds which seem to be performing well which you may like to research further for investment in the near future.

Raymond James Financial  (RJF)   least risky, 17 P/E

Aberdeen International   (AAB)    

Victory Capital Holdings (VCTR)  currently overvalued?

WisdomTree Inc           (WT)             

Royal London Global Select      

AMD      (AMD)                   cheap buy at present - hold for future gains

Nvidia   (NVDA)                  for 2025 - buy on dip?

Palantir (PLTR)                  risky as has very high value and P/E ???

Nvidia and Victory have ex-dividend in early Dec.   RJF is least risky

Also keep your eye on ASML which seems very undervalued at the moment.

Are Tech stocks safe?

Tech and Financials should both show good performance.

I have favoured XDEQ for world quality stocks with less in the USA and which hold approx 30% Tech but less than 10% in finance. I also have some EQQQ which performs very well when Tech is bullish. However, the Vanguard FTSE ETF VNRG is strong on Tech and Financials and may perform better in the mid-term and has outperformed XDEQ and EQQQ recently.

Please do your own research. This is not financial advice. Most of these are very volatile.

How to invest in Crypto?

Many people are tempted to trade in the cryptocurrency sector.

You could just buy some crypto currency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum from a broker such a Coinbase (COIN) or CRYPTO for Bitcoin. You need to also bear in mind that any crystallised gains made on a sell transaction of cryptocurrency may be a taxable event (e.g. Capital Gains Tax in the UK) and should be declared. Coinbase will inform HMRC of any large crypto inflows (I think around £5k+/yr going into crypto assets).

Many people invest in MicroStrategy (Nasdaq:MSTR) which loosely follows Bitcoin's performance (though you would be hard pressed to know what it does from the description!). MSTR uses investors money to buy Bitcoin and they will own approx. 4% of all Bitcoins soon. However, the share price has gained x4 more this year than Bitcoin has! It seems mad to me! It can be bought inside a ISA or SIPP unlike bitcoins or Ethereum, and so is popular with crypto investors.

There is also LON:ARB and Coinbase (COIN):

Another alternative is to buy a crypto ETF such as VanEck Crypto and Blockchain Innovators UCITS ETF (DAPP/DAGB). This can be bought within an ISA and thus gains are free of all tax.

The VanEck Crypto and Blockchain Innovators UCITS ETF seeks to track the MVIS Global Digital Assets Equity index. The MVIS Global Digital Assets Equity index tracks companies from around the world that are active in the blockchain industry.

 

The ETF's TER (total expense ratio) amounts to 0.65% p.a.. The VanEck Crypto and Blockchain Innovators UCITS ETF is the only ETF that tracks the MVIS Global Digital Assets Equity index. The ETF replicates the performance of the underlying index by full replication (buying all the index constituents). The dividends in the ETF are accumulated and reinvested in the ETF.

 

The VanEck Crypto and Blockchain Innovators UCITS ETF has 233m GBP assets under management. The ETF was launched on 30 April 2021 and is domiciled in Ireland.

I have added a few ETFs below from Justetf.com. The 'Trump effect' around Nov 4th is easy to see:

Trump Trades (stocks to buy now)

Trump stocks sectors that should show good performance in next 2 years are (with example ETFs):

• Crypto - e.g. DAPP, BLKC, CRYPTO
• Finance - e.g. IUFS 
• Industry (esp. Tech and Tesla) - e.g. IUSU, IITU or XLKQ, IUCM
• Oil/Energy - e.g. IESU
• Defense - e.g. DFNS  
• S&P 500 and Nasdaq - e.g. EQQQ, HSPA

Personally, of these, I am just investing in only some of them: EQQQ, IUFS, IUSU, IITU, IUCM and also some IESU (2%).

The Trump effect (and what should I buy now?)

My core ETFs (80+% of portfolio) over the last 6 months to 1 year have been (in descending order of value):

• SWDA MSCI Global ETF
• XDEQ World Quality Factor ETF (may change to XDEM soon as includes financials)
• Royal London Global Equity
• XLKQ Xtrackers MSCI World Quality ETF (better perf. at 46% than SWDA 26%, XDEQ 25%, EQQQ 30%, XDEM 31% in last year!)
• IITU    iShares S&P 500 Info Tech Sect ETF GBP
• IUCM iShares S&P 500 Comm Sect ETF USD
• IUFS   iShares S&P 500 Financial ETF USD
• EQQQ Invesco NASDAQ 100 (I will be increasing this soon)

Following the USA election results, the 'Trump effect' has given all of these a boost of between 2%-5% in the last few days.

My core ETFs

Should you keep your emergency 'cash pot' inside a Flexible ISA?

In the UK, we can put up to £20K into a tax-free ISAs each year and any capital gains are completely tax free.

Emergency cash pot

Many people (and particularly the self-employed) will have an emergency 'cash pot' which they can withdraw cash from should an emergency arise, such as if being unable to work due to accident or health, loss of job, unforeseen expenses, etc. 

If you need to withdraw funds (e.g. due to temporary loss of income) it is best to withdraw from your emergency cash pot which typically holds at least 3-6 months of income rather than sell your high-gain stocks/ETFs and be out of the market.

Unless you are retired and are drawing a good pension, you may need an emergency pot that is large enough to support you for at least 6 months or so, especially if you don't have any other 'cash' resources.

This pot should not be invested in volatile assets because it needs to be available at all times - if you invested it in the S&P500 and the stock market went down 50% just when you needed the cash, you would only have half the emergency funds you thought you had!

When the s*it hits the fan...

Should you pick a currency-hedged ETF if you don't live in the USA?

Some ETFs are 'hedged'. This usually means they are currency-hedged.

Currency-hedged ETFs are designed to protect investors from currency risk. They are a simple, cheap and effective way for small investors to access currency management techniques that were once the preserve of major financial institutions.  

Currency risk affects you negatively when your home currency strengthens against a foreign currency – reducing the value of your assets held in that foreign currency. That means UK based investors are exposed to currency risk on all non-hedged ETFs that trade in overseas securities.  

Currency-hedged ETFs are useful because they remove the uncertainty of exchange rate fluctuations. They sterilise your portfolio against the effect of currency so that your overseas investment doesn’t gain when the pound falls or lose when the pound rises.  

Let us look at the US Dollar versus the GB Pound.

This Android phone tip may save you $THOUSANDS one day!

So picture this - you have an android phone (e.g. android 14 or 15) and you are happily using it in your favourite pub or eating house. You are checking your emails, reading Reddit, playing a game, talking to someone or reading a text message - just the usual stuff.

So, of course, at this precise moment your phone is unlocked simply because you are using it.

You have taken the precaution set up a SIM card PIN however, so that even if someone steals your locked phone and puts your SIM card into their own unlocked phone, they will not be able to steal from you by using your phone number to receive SMS password reset messages or call premium rate numbers. You think you are pretty safe...

But now, all of a sudden, someone snatches your phone out of your hand and since they now have your unlocked phone, they can easily access your SMS messages and emails. This means they can now reset your bank PINs and email passwords which then locks you out of your own accounts and gives them full access instead of you! Google will helpfully fill in any of your passwords! Two factor authentication is not a problem because the second factor is your phone!

Best long-term ETFs for UK investors (and retire with £3 million)!

If you just want to invest in the stock market, say with £100 each and every month (called 'dollar cost averaging') automatically taken from your bank account a few days after your pay day, what ETFs should you buy?

US investors, including the famous Warren Buffet, say to just invest in the S&P 500 but UK investors may also want to diversify outside US stocks because we are affected by foreign exchange rates as well as a 15% dividend withholding tax applied to US dividends.

However, US stocks have performed much better than UK or even EU stocks, even allowing for exchange rates and foreign taxes, so we have a difficult decision.

Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11

You may be familiar with https://www.windowsafg.com/ which helps you to generate unattend.xml file to automate Windows installations. Easy2Boot also includes a utility XMLtoE2B which can be used with WAFG.

There is also a site at https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ which you may find useful.

These can be useful if you are installing Windows using Ventoy or Easy2Boot.

My eBook sale was 'hacked'! (only 3 days left!)

My eBook sale has only 3 days left.

You can get between 15% and 25% off with multibuys, however, some enterprising customers seem to have been able to get 30% off by combining multiple discount offers!

Store

If you found my eBooks useful, why not get another before it is too late?

My shop front is here,

P.S. If you like the idea of earning income from a side hustle, why not get my 'How to make $1000 a month from the internet' eBook!  - recently updated to v1.10. If you think you can write and sell eBooks or have a product or business idea, this eBook should save you a lot of time and prevent you from losing money! My own real and truthful sales figures are included + useful hints and tips on how to get started, etc, Surely that is worth a few $ ;=(

Here is an example of how to set up a simple website to sell Digital Products by Hostinger, but read my eBook for hundreds of tips and Gotcha's first!

Are Dividend ETFs performing better than other ETFs?

The last 6 months have been rather weak for Tech ETFs such as IITU and even Global tracker ETFs like the benchmark SWDA.

I see that dividend ETFs show better performance as well as paying dividends.

It expected that we will continue to see volatility during October/November 2024, so it may be better to switch some funds into dividend and value ETFs during this period.

The table below shows some of the best ETFs available in the UK and for comparison IITU and SWDA. Some Dividend ETFs are accumulating funds and some pay dividends.

A 6-month chart is shown below:

Should I Buy Commodities ETFs?

Everyone needs commodities such as coffee, sugar, natural gas, etc. Their value will depend on their availability and future demand.

Wisdom Tree have many ETFs which allow you to 'gamble' on the futures price of some commodities such as Coffee (COFF) which has shown 100% gain in this last year.

Do you want to get free shares worth up to £100?

 Do you want to get free shares worth up to £100 (£8-£100 randomly allocated)?

Join Trading 212, invest with my link and we will both get free shares.

https://www.trading212.com/invite/17tLB1ol6b

Trading 212 will pay 5.1% (UK) interest on cash in your T212 accounts, no monthly charge and no share buy/sell transaction charge (apart from Stamp Duty on UK company shares and Foreign Exchange charge of typ. 0.15% on non-GBP conversions). You can also get a debit card with your account to give you a debit card account paying 5.1% on your T212 balance (check spending/ATM withdrawal limitations).

Stock market tip September 2024 (after Fed reserve rate cut 0.5%)

The USA federal reserve cut the rate by 0.5%. I am taking a cautious approach to large (magnificent 7) US stocks however and especially Tech stocks.

This means I am reducing my USA Tech exposure (XLKQ and IITU). I see finance companies (esp. credit card/lending) doing well in next 6 months and also Energy companies seem quite cheap just now. I am DCAing into world index instead of USA tech.

I have updated my ETF tip blog article with this note:

Update 21/9/2024 - Fed 0.5% rate cut happened which gave approx 1% rise to S&P. Smaller companies should now begin to do better as they will pay less interest on borrowings and can expand. The S&P600/small cap is a good bet now - e.g. ISP6 (2 divs/yr) or USSC (acc - heavier in financials which is good) or invest in both as their top 10 don't overlap. Also Financials (WFEG or XLFQ or UIFS) and Energy (IESU) seem good.

My core ETF XDEQ holding has not performed very well this last 6 months compared to the benchmark SWDA (XDEQ 1yr performance was better than SWDA), however, XDEQ has top holdings in Visa, Mastercard, Nordisk, Costco and ASML, so I expect XDEQ to outperform SWDA in this next 6 months.

N.B. This is not investment advice and I am just a random guy on the internet! Please do your own research before investing.

P.S. On 20 August I tipped gold (SGLN) as perhaps a good hedge, it is currently up 2% (probably more good luck than judgement though!).

P.P.S. I sold SGLN in early October as I don't see it going up much more compared to finance/energy/world quality/small market.

eBook SALE IS NOW ON (15%-25% off this week!)

Store

Even though my eBooks have an average review rating of over 4.5 Stars and only cost $5 (+10% less if you buy more than one), I have now reduced the price by 15% for a week (finish 30 September) so you can get 25% off if you buy two or more!

If you found my eBooks useful, why not get another?

My shop front is here,

P.S. If you like the idea of earning income from a side hustle, why not get my 'How to make $1000 a month from the internet' eBook!  - recently updated to v1.10. If you think you can write and sell eBooks or have a product or business idea, this eBook should save you a lot of time and prevent you from losing money! My own real and truthful sales figures are included + useful hints and tips on how to get started, etc, Surely that is worth a few $ ;=(

Here is an example of how to set up a simple website to sell Digital Products by Hostinger, but read my eBook for hundreds of tips and Gotcha's first!

Add DOS benchmarks to your Easy2Boot USB drive

DOS and DOS-based programs will only work if you legacy/BIOS boot to E2B.

Here are a few tools with instructions.

Phils Computer Lab DOS benchmark tools - download the zip file and extract the contents to a new folder named \DOSBENCH on the large NTFS Partition 1 of your E2B USB drive.  Then legacy boot to the E2B DOS menu and select the  'FreeDIS (from a floppy image)' option. This boots to FreeDOS - select the first 'with NTFS support' option. Now type  CD \DOSBENCH to change to the DOSBENCH folder and type DOSBENCH to run the menu.

The menu also allows you to play DOOM and a Quake demo!

Phils 386 Benchmark Pack

How to prepare your investment portfolio for these volatile times

Stock prices can go up and down a lot within a month. The value of your investment portfolio  will also go up and down too. When it goes up you will feel happy but when it drops by 10% or more, you may begin to question whether now is the time to sell!

SWDA Global Index Tracker ETF (5th August 2024 was a bad day- but the market recovered).

Amazon Prime bargains

This week you can pick up tremendous Amazon bargains!

Air Fryer

I bought an air fryer last year and I can honestly say they are great! Cheap to run, saves using lots of oil (e.g. the expensive Extra Virgin olive oil that I exclusively use), and healthier. I use mine everyday for chips, veg and meat. I now eat fresh meals every day and feel much healthier too. My electricity usage has reduced this year as I hardly ever use my main electric oven now. The air fryer has probably paid for itself already.

The unusual Schallen air fryer (#ad) is not only very cheap (just £30) but it is very easy to clean because the 'basket' is just a large Pyrex glass bowl.

Or you could up-scale to a large 5 litre Cosori (#ad) with Wi-Fi for about £70.

Is it time to buy Gold?

This year, Physical Gold has outperformed many global equity ETFs including my favourites SWDA and XDEQ. The gold ETF SGLN has shown a gain of 27.5% in one year. Over last 1, 3, 5 and 10 years it has kept pace with all world ETFs. Unlike bonds, gold can also dive when the market dives however.

This Q4 is expected to be volatile and the recent correction has scared some people but the market has now recovered. Investors are scared that a bigger correction may be coming before the end of 2024 and 2025 is also looking unsettled. 2025 is predicted to not be as good as the past two years have been. So some people are now turning to gold as a safer haven for their cash.

The graph below compares my favourite Physical Gold ETF (SGLN) to some other popular ETFs. Volatile Tech ETFs like tech ETFs XLKQ (40% gain this last year) or IITU have outperformed gold. China has a lot of secret gold (reputedly far more than they have declared) and if they need/want to sell some, they could devalue the dollar which would affect USA share prices. This would cause gold to increase in price as countries would want to increase their gold holdings to stabilise their own currency. Russia also hold a lot of gold and may need to sell some to support their Ukraine war.

Fix Ventoy UEFI Secure Boot not working on new PCs and Laptops

 

Secure Boot to grub/Ventoy/agFM/Linux, etc.

Secure Boot is supported by many Linux distributions and is an important security feature for ensuring that your boot loader and kernel have not been tampered with. Linux distributions use a Microsoft signed ‘shim’ executable that is then able to verify the subsequent boot stages - that have been signed with the distribution key. The Microsoft-signed shim is signed using the “Microsoft 3rd Party UEFI Certificate”, and this certificate is stored in the BIOS database. 

Starting in 2022 for Secured-core PCs it is a Microsoft requirement for the 3rd Party Certificate to be disabled by default. This means that for any of these platforms shipped with Windows preinstalled an extra step is needed to allow Linux or grub2 or Ventoy or E2B to boot with secure boot enabled. 

To enable secure boot to work with a non-Microsoft bootloader such as used with Linux or grub2 or Ventoy, etc. you will need to enable the “Allow Microsoft 3rd Party UEFI CA” option in the BIOS setup. 

Use the following steps (example Lenovo): 

No more Ventoy Secure Boot Issues - just use an IODD drive!

If you need a Multiboot solution that works with Secure Boot without any problems (no BIOS issues, no MOK Manager changes to the BIOS for Ventoy, etc.), then get an IODD Virtual drive.

The latest one is USB C and is a 2.5" HDD/SSD enclosure. So you can just buy it and fit you own 2.5" SSD which are pretty cheap these days.

These devices allow you to also select fixed size VHDs as a virtual drive (as well as .ISO files and .IMA floppy image files). This means you can have 100's of virtual drives in one device. Each VHD can contain an MBR or GPT drive, each with multiple partitions (e.g. contents of a Rufus USB drive, WinPE, Windows installer, full OS's, Ventoy drive, E2B drive, etc.).

ST400 IODD (#ad link)

Simple hack to make sure Amazon deliver to you personally (no more 'drop and dash')!

In the UK, certain items are age restricted. If you include one of these items in your order, then the delivery driver must ask you for age verification. This means they must knock on your door or ring your doorbell, wait for someone to open it and then verify the age of the person that receives the parcel.

Of course, someone over 18 must be in to receive the delivery or they will need to redeliver it.

So, in the UK, simply include a knife in your order (the Amazon page will warn you that age confirmation is required - see above). Cheap knives on Amazon are often only £1-£2, so just add a useful cheap knife to your order and make sure someone over 18 will be in on the delivery day!

You can always sell any surplus knives or give them as gifts to your friends and neighbours!