This column is getting on. Bearbull – and yes, I suppose that’s ‘me’ talking in the third person – has been a mainstay of the Investors' Chronicle since the 1950s, back when Harold Wincott ran the shop. But while the hideous two-headed mask stays, the face beneath it does occasionally change.
Just over a year ago, that’s what happened. The magazine’s very own Bruce Wayne, who had been in place since the 1990s, passed the torch to yours truly. And by ‘torch’, I mean an air of anxiety, a reluctant acceptance of the virtues of long-term stock ownership, and a dividend-focused portfolio.
The portfolio isn’t quite as old as the column. But it’s well-seasoned, having launched with £100,000 of capital in 1998, just as global equity markets were starting to lose the plot.