Brexit

June was one of the most interesting months for British politics and its implications on the financial markets. Being a Brit and having a lot of GBP based assets i've been following very closely.

With the markets having priced in a remain vote, the initial shock to the financial markets on 24 June was significant, and beyond anything i've seen in one day.  These were the main immediate impacts to my finances:

With the value of GBP falling around 10% compared to USD (and HKD) the value of many of my assets fell but my HK based assets and income increased in value in GBP terms.  I translate my portfolio to GBP as a base currency so this has generally appeared as a positive, although obviously the opposite is true if i were to consider my net worth in USD terms.

My equity investments initially fell sharply in value but have rallied strongly over the past week. In addition, a number of my uk listed and GBP denominated ETFs have underlying investments in non GBP currencies and have appreciated sharply.

My pension funds initially fell in value following the referendum result, but have rallied back to similar levels. The non GBP portion has gained in value due to the fx movements.

Overall, when viewing my portfolio in GBP, Brexit has had a positive initial impact, with most of this driven by fx movements. It remains to be seen what the longer term implications will be.

Specific considerations for myself going forward include whether i intend to be based in the UK in the future, whether GBP should continue to be the base currency of my portfolio, and if any changes are needed to the broad diversification of my assets in terms of asset class, geography and currency.

Market volatility

After a fairly soft June & July in the markets, August has been pretty awful.  Concerns have shifted from Greece to China and emerging markets in general,  with significant falls in currencies (verses the us dollar) and equities.

Whilst it is pretty depressing to see my investment portfolio and pension funds fall in value, i'm trying to see the positive side of recent events.  My investment strategy continues to be buy & hold well diversified ETFs with a focus on yield.  I have no intention so sell anything and as such should not realise any actual losses.  If anything, i'm viewing the falling markets as an opportunity to add to the portfolio whilst prices are low.

In recent months i've been adding to emerging markets and asian focused ETFs, which have been the hardest hit.  Whilst it is tempting to keep on buying these at low prices, i'm instead focusing my attention at the moment more on the UK, US & Europe equities, which have also been dragged lower by the general concerns about China and the global economy, but in my opinion remain fairly healthy.

The main thing holding me back from some more significant additions to the investment portfolio is a lack of cashflow.  After recently completing a property purchase my cash reserves are relatively low and much is tied up in longer tenor time deposits to boost yield.  This is forcing me to take a slow and steady approach to investing, which is not a bad thing with such volatility and uncertainty in the markets.

Taking a pause...

For the past 18 months or so i've been adding a regular monthly purchase of HK and China Index tracker ETFs to my investment portfolio.

Given the recent rallies in both markets and my growing exposure to them, i've decided to take a pause after this month's purchases & cancel the standing monthly orders.  It is tempting to sell what i have and lock in some healthy gains, but the reality is there is nothing better to do with the cash at the moment.

Instead i'll hold what i have and see where the market goes.  If there is a material pull back i may restart the purchases, if the rally continues i'll reassess whether it makes sense to lock in the gains and look for alternatives.

In general my cash balances are still probably too high, but it doesn't feel like the right time to be buying into equities at the moment. I am still considering potential property purchases as an alternative.

Property: to buy, to sell or to hold...

I've been mulling over a number of decisions about property investments recently.

Firstly, the tenancy on my existing rental property is up for renewal so i took the opportunity to check the current sale value, which was materially higher than the value i'm currently holding the property at in my accounts.  I was very tempted to sell & lock in the capital gain, especially given the steep rise in local valuations and the potential for these to fall back.  However, i decided to hold on to it and continue to rent it out for another year, primarily as there are no obvious alternatives for investing the cash this would release at a comparable yield. I'm already struggling to manage down my excess cash balances so don't want to compound the issue further.

In addition to this i'm also looking at additional smaller property investments in a different location that has not seen similar price rises in recent years, and as a result offers more attractive yields. My current cash holdings are around 37% and whilst the overall cash balance yields just over 2%, incremental cash is earning closer to 1%. I'd therefore like to start managing this balance down, and the property investments i'm looking at could yield around 5%.

Given the high yield and lower valuations, i did also consider selling my existing property and buying on a much larger scale in the new location.  However, for now this isn't attractive as (a) there's a chance i may return to the existing property location in the future so benefit from hedging against price movements there, and (b) i don't have experience of the market in the new location so will start small and see how it goes.

Property valuation

I was shocked again today to see how quickly some UK property prices are rising, particularly around the London area.

Whilst its only around 3 months since i last reviewed and increased the value i record my rental property in my personal finances, checking local valuations again today showed another material increase. The valuations appear to be genuine too, with a neighbouring (and almost identical) property just being sold for around 18% above the value i was holding mine at.

I have therefore decided to add an extra 5% to my property value in my assets and net worth calculations. While this still keeps it around 10% below 'the market', it does reflect the recent increases and allows a margin of error for some fluctuations going forward.

I am also keeping a close eye on potential capital gains tax changes which may determine whether i continue to hold or sell this property.  Whilst it is tempting to sell now and realise a large tax free gain, my cash balances are already too large a proportion of total assets and the rental yield is double what i can earn on cash.

Adverse fx movements, or are they..

Over the past 6 weeks or so i've noticed the unit value of a number of my ETFs declining, without seeing the same degree of falls in the underlying equities markets.  This has been particularly apparent in asia pacific and emerging markets ETFs, which have dropped more materially.

However, a lot of the fall seems to be due to foreign exchange movements rather than underlying equities performance, with a double whammy of a number of currencies weakening against the USD, and GBP (many of my ETF investments are UK listed and GBP denominated) rising against USD.  So for example, when i view the performance of my asia pacific property & high dividend ETFs in GBP, the value is down quite a lot recently.

This isn't a big concern for me for a few reasons:
- firstly i plan to hold long term so try not to focus too much on day to day price movements as long as the fundamentals remain solid
- although the investment values in GBP are falling, the value of the investments in their underlying currency are actually holding up well
- i am looking to reduce GBP exposure over time, so the fx movements will actually be favourable for investing in other currencies should i choose to sell GBP and buy USD, HKD or AUD for example.

The caveat to all this is the magnitude of the movements.  Whilst i am comfortable with the size of the recent trend i would be concerned if this was the tip of a longer term and larger shift in the markets that could materially alter the overall value of my assets.

The other big unknown looking into 2014 is what impact QE tapering will have on global fx and equities markets and when we'll start to see this feeding through.

I'll pay closer attention to fx movements over the coming weeks and may look to re-balance if opportunities arise.

Developments in the HK Exchange Traded Fund market

Following my recent discovery of a newly listed RMB Bond ETF (3139.HK), i decided to see if i could find any other new additions to the market.

As background, whilst the USA (and to a lesser extent the UK) have a wide range of exchange traded funds offering low cost pre-packaged investment portfolios (generally tracking an index), Hong Kong has traditionally had much less choice.  Apart from the excellent 'Tracker Fund of Kong Kong' (2800.HK) which offers an ultra low cost (0.15%) dividend paying tracker of the HSI index, and a handful of China & Asia focused ETFs, there has been limited other options to gain wider global / asset class diversity at a similar low cost.

I was therefore particularly pleased to discover another newcomer to the market, being the Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan ETF (2805.HK). Launched in May 2013, this ETF offers wider emerging Asia exposure, with a weighting biased towards China, South Korea, HK, Taiwan & India.

Whilst i haven't dived straight in for a purchase at this stage (still mulling over country risks, current valuations & lower yields), i am pleased to see this mainly because of its issuer, Vanguard.

Vanguard have a strong reputation in the USA for providing low cost investment options in particular for privately managed pension schemes.  The total expense ratios (TER) or costs to the investor tend to be much lower than most UK & HK listed ETFs i've seen, which i suspect is a consequence of a more mature & competitive ETF market in the USA.

Vanguard have recently launched a basic range of ETFs in the UK, including my personal favourite Global High Dividend ETF (VHYL.L), which looks to have shaken up the market by offering lower cost products compared to some of the more established players. More recently i've noticed Ishares UK have reduced a number of the TERs on their much larger UK range - this may well be in response to the new competition.

It is for this reason i'm pleased to see Vanguard launch their first HK listed ETF.  Whilst this appears to be an initial market tester, it looks to have had reasonable take up since launch.  With a TER of 0.38%, it also looks to be cheaper than other multi-country emerging markets ETFs (the similar ishares hk emerging asia ETF 2802.HK has a TER of 0.59%).

I'll be keeping a close eye on the major HK ETF issuer websites going forward.  It may even be worth purchasing this new ETF just to encourage them to stick with & help to further develop the HK market!

Investment Portfolio Update - 1 year on

It is around a year since i set up my personal investment portfolio. I've been steadily building it up over the last year, with a combination of initial core holdings, regular purchases & the occasional more opportunistic investment.

Here's the current position:

	Description	CAGR	% Portfolio
UK listed ETFs
SEDY	EM High dividend	3.8%	8.1%
IASP	Asia Pacific property	6.5%	8.5%
SHYU	High yield corporate debt	5.2%	8.5%
IUKD	UK High dividend	26.2%	9.8%
IDVY	Eurozone High dividend	30.1%	5.9%
IAPD	Asia Pacific High dividend	1.4%	7.9%
VHYL	Global High Dividend	25.2%	15.4%
INFR	Global Infrastructure	-4.6%	7.1%
HK listed ETFs
2800	HK Index tracker	12.6%	6.8%
3049	CSI 300 China tracker	-1.0%	3.6%
Other Equities
AV.B	Aviva Pref Shares	-3.8%	7.7%
AAPL	Apple	11.3%	2.5%
Metals
GOLD	Gold (paper)	-25.1%	6.2%
SSLN	Silver (ETF)	-42.4%	1.9%
	Total weighted CAGR	7.8%	100%

Overall the core high yield ETFs have performed very well, especially the developed markets (UK, Eurozone & Global High dividend).  The emerging market ETFs have seen more volatility, with some also being adversely affected by depreciating currencies.

As expected, Gold & Silver have been very poor, although these were purchased partly to hedge against any potential crises that may have impacted equities performance.  These are also a relatively small part of the portfolio at around 8% combined.

Looking forward, i'll probably look to build the portfolio primarily by adding to core holdings either with regular purchases or on market dips if possible.  I don't want to add too many new holdings unless they clearly meet my basic investment criteria (adding to diversification, yield and being good value), however, i will keep my options open.

Current investment thoughts

I haven't been particularly active in the markets recently. After the dip around June, equities have been performing better, with the exception of a number of emerging markets where substantial fx movements have affected sentiment.

Since June, my investing activities have been limited to regular pension fund contributions (mainly global equities) and a couple of small regular monthly purchases of the HK & China index trackers.  My cash reserves are still high and with savings interest rates still falling i feel like i should be investing more, but i'm finding it difficult to get back into the markets at current valuations. This isn't helped by the reaction of the markets of the Fed's decision to hold off tapering, making some of the recent increases look temporary.

The weaker performers in my portfolio have been fixed income and emerging markets, but as these already make up a big proportion of the overall portfolio i don't really want to grow these more rapidly.  Instead, i might look to add some more stable high dividend ETFs to build up a larger long term income stream.

Not a great start to the month!

A quick mid month refresh of my finances suggests i might be on course for my first monthly decline in net worth for over 4 years.

The main contributing factors are:

1) Around a 5% decline in the value of my investment portfolio, with emerging markets equities & currencies suffering materially in the first 2 weeks of the month.  I've also noticed quite rapid declines in the value of the fixed income components of my portfolio (high yield bonds/pref shares). I took advantage of the declines to add the iShares Asia Pacific high dividend ETF to my portfolio.  I have identified some other potential purchases aligned to my core strategy but will hold off committing too much to the markets at this moment.

2) Around a 4% decline in the value of my pension funds, which are heavily invested in global equities, and have broadly tracked the markets down.

3) I've also had a couple of one off expenses associated with renewing my tenancy, resulting in a below average (albeit still positive) savings rate.

I'm trying not to see this as a negative.  The investment declines are market wide and if anything a pull back in the recent rally is healthy and provides a buying opportunity. Income and savings are still strong, and cash, property & investment yields are all healthy.

Sell in May?

May has been a bad month for stock markets for the last 3 years, prompting the saying 'sell in May and go away'.

I think a sign of my changing investment mindset is that i would actually welcome a fall now, i have no plans to sell my existing investments and have plenty of cash available should buying opportunities emerge.

In particular i'll be keeping an eye on the US markets. Apart from a small holding in Apple, i'm light on US equities exposure but have been holding off given the record highs being set in the major indices. If there is any material correction i'll be looking to invest in some form of dividend or property ETF.

I'm also looking at a few more emerging markets options, potentially adding to my China ETF or looking at some more emerging markets high dividend ETFs.

After making a few new purchases in April i'm relatively comfortable with the growth rate of my investment portfolio, so i'm not in any rush to continue buying at current levels.  Instead i'll probably sit back and see what happens, allowing standard monthly purchases to keep the portfolio growing at a steady rate whilst being ready to add to these when opportunities emerge.

Metals: what to do now

I was a little alarmed to see the sharp drop in gold and silver prices overnight, with both down around 5% in one day.

This takes the value of my holdings of gold to around 13% below cost, and silver around 4% below its more recent purchase price.  I now need to consider whether to buy more, hold (ie do nothing) or sell.  I'll try to present my thoughts on these options:

Buy
It is tempting to take advantage of the price falls and add to my positions, thus averaging down my cost price to capitalise on any rebound. The reasons for my original purchases are still valid (being global economic uncertainty and continued money printing), however it seems these factors are not the only ones driving the recent price movements. There is also some talk of Cyprus selling off its gold, but this really shouldn't move the market.

What is holding me back from adding more is that the original purchase was partly intended to be a hedge against income earning equities (which it certainly has been) and not a core investment, and that i don't want to get into a trap of buying more and more if it continues to fall. Given the lack of income generation, i don't want metals to become too large a component of my investment portfolio.

Hold
It is tempting to do nothing and ride out the volatility.  Unlike individual equities, metals can't really drop to zero and should always hold a solid amount of intrinsic value. A key consideration here is the time horizon for holding, in that for short term investments it might be better to cut losses and reinvest elsewhere. However in my case, i could easily hold these indefinitely and i have plenty of cash available for other investing opportunities.

Sell
This for me would be the hardest option, in that it would realise a cash loss, and i would then be kicking myself as the price no doubt recovered shortly after!  However, there are plenty of examples where investments have fallen in value and have never gone on to fully recover, for example the Nikkei in the late 80s.  Also, given the recent rally in equities, it would make little sense to sell my only real hedge against an equities pull-back.

I think the most likely option for now is to do nothing and see how the next few weeks play out. My holdings in metals represent an immaterial amount of total assets and the portfolio as a whole is still well in profit.

Risk appetite

Risk appetite has been a central consideration in developing my overall asset allocation.

I define risk appetite as a broad collection of rules or parameters which look to define the degree of risk i'm prepared to take in order to achieve an acceptable return.

A common example of risk appetite is the target percentages often quoted for asset allocation, for example 60% equities, 30% bonds, 10% cash.   This is very much a personal decision, although it is widely accepted that the time horizon for investment should play a large role in making this decision.

In my case, i am very risk averse, and have traditionally only had a small proportion of my assets in equities. I did however find it a lot easier investing in property, which has proved a successful asset class for me in bridging the gap between cash & equities along the spectrum of risk.

My aim for the past year has been to target an overall asset allocation of 80% 'invested', and 20% in cash or near cash.   The invested component currently consists of rental property, equities based pension funds and my ETF based investment portfolio.   However, due to a combination of investment paralysis after the recent rally, and a few large cash inflows, i'm currently closer to 65% invested, 35% cash.

In the past i wouldn't have been concerned at all about this, but after having determined an asset allocation that i am comfortable with from a risk perspective, i do feel that i should be looking to move towards my target allocation, and i'm actively looking for opportunities to re-balance and reduce cash.

Whilst i have developed a high level target asset allocation, i have not yet given as much thought to the asset mix i would like to target within the invested component of my assets, other than maintaining a high level of diversification and maintaining a large proportion of my assets in property.

I think developing a clearer long term investment strategy would help to reduce my focus on short term market fluctuations, and get me back to making longer term investment decisions.

This is now next on my to do list!

Managing an investment portfolio

Following a comment in another post i'll try to summarise how i manage my investment portfolio.  Whilst this certainly won't cover all the options available, i'll try to cover how i personally went about it and what i considered.

I'll break this down into 3 sections:
1) What markets / risk do i want exposure to
2) What products offer that type of exposure
3) Which service providers offer access to these products

Markets

Firstly, with respect to the markets & risk categories to target, this is very much a question of an individual's risk appetite.  In my case, i have been targeting broad geographical & industry diversification, with a focus on high yield.  However, the options i've looked at were almost limitless, for example:
Developed, Emerging;  Large cap, Small cap;  Yield, Value, Growth;
Country, Regional, Global;  Individual names, Broad sectors;
Companies, Commodities, Currencies and so on.

Products

Once i had a clear idea of the markets i wanted to target i moved on to choosing suitable investment products.  In my case, the priority here was to minimise fees, hence increasing the proportion of income/growth returned to me.  I personally try to avoid products such as managed funds, unit trusts, insurance linked investment products etc which have all traditionally come with high fees, either at opening, closing or on an annual basis.  I recall looking at a bond fund prospectus that charged something like a 4% upfront fee and a 2% annual fee. It would need to perform very well before the customer started to benefit.

My preference for achieving low cost diversification is currently Exchange Traded Funds, which come with annual fees typically in the 0.2-0.6% range.  ETF ranges have been steadily growing for a few years now and there is almost always something suitable for my needs.
In addition to the appeal of lower costs, ETFs also offer the lazy option to diversification, allowing easy access to track an index without needing to hand-pick individual companies.  This is ideal for me as I don't have a lot of time to manage the portfolio.

If pre-packaged diversification isn't required, the obvious options include but are not limited to direct equities, bonds, buying physical assets, or more complex structured/derivative based products.

Service providers

In some respects I found that this flowed from the choice of market & product.  I found the simplest option to be a broker through a high street bank, many of which now offer dedicated online services.  This is good for those trying to keep personal finances clean & easy to manage, but for those looking to build more complex or active portfolios, a dedicated brokerage may be preferable.

Again, a key consideration for me is fees, i try to avoid quarterly/annual holding fees, inactivity fees or preferential terms for a higher frequency of orders, simply because i don't think they will suit my infrequent buy & hold investing style.  I would always recommend shopping around for the best deals though, as there are many options out there.

Again, another appealing factor of ETFs to me is that these can cover equities, bonds or commodities all via the stock market, which can make market access simpler if a basic online brokerage/bank provider is chosen.





(Disclaimer:  every post on this blog is a personal opinion and in no way should be interpreted as professional or financial advice.  Please consult a professional adviser if advice is needed.)

Current investment thoughts

I've been sat on the sidelines for a few weeks now looking for investment opportunities that either look attractive from a value perspective, or offer solid reliable returns. Here's a few of my current thoughts:

Precious metals have been declining, primarily on improved confidence in the US. I'm holding a modest amount of paper gold at the moment which is around 4% below my average cost price.  Whilst it is quite tempting to buy into the falling market to average down my entry price, i'm resisting the temptation.  This is partly to avoid concentration, and partly due to its lack of yield.  However, if metals continue to fall i might diversify into silver or another alternative, albeit probably in small quantities.

I've mentioned before that my investment portfolio is lacking exposure to US equities (apart from my pension funds which are globally diversified).  With the S&P reaching 5 year highs and US equities yielding lower than the UK & Europe it doesn't feel like the best time to be adding this to my portfolio.  However, i must say i'm slightly tempted by Apple, which has fallen from around $700 to well under $500.  Regardless of all the media hype it attracts, with a PE of around 10, a dividend yield of around 2.3% and a lot of cash on its balance sheet, it is starting to look reasonably valued.

Bonds are still not appealing to me.  Some yields have shown signs of improvement, but i would be concerned about capital depreciation in bond funds / ETFs.

Property is still attractive (although not in HK!).  Whilst i don't think a new investment in this field is imminent, the likelihood may grow later in the year if i'm struggling to find alternative places to park my cash.

Unexpected mail

I received a couple of unexpected but welcome letters this month.  Two of my savings account providers contacted me to let me know they would be raising the interest rates on some of my accounts. Its the first time (certainly post 2008) i can remember being contacted in such a way with the offer of an improvement in the rates on existing accounts, with no strings attached or new purchases required. The two institutions are unconnected.

Given the lack of central bank / market moves, i can only imagine these are motivated by local competitive forces.  I believe one is related to a product re-launch, the other appears to be more of a short term goodwill gesture.

This was a timely surprise following my recent post Falling rates, i wonder if they read my blog! Coincidentally i had been planning to move funds away from both accounts to better offers, so i'm assuming their marketing teams are monitoring competitor rates as closely as me and recognised the threat of losing funds.

Sitting on the sidelines

Although i'm trying not to time the market, i'm currently suffering from a bit of inertia following the recent market rally.  Things that looked cheap a couple of months back now look a bit more fairly valued, which has narrowed the range of investment options i find attractive.

Bond yields are falling, even those with more questionable credit quality. There is also a real risk of capital loss unless tenors are kept short (which reduces yields further).

Equity valuations are broadly at a level i'd consider to be par, or fair value. Certainly nothing is jumping out to me as being dramatically undervalued at a country / regional level.

Looking at the mix of my ETF portfolio, i have reasonable emerging markets, UK & European exposure, and to a lesser extent Hong Kong. Where i think i'm lacking is exposure to North America, small caps, and broader Asian markets (incl China).  Industry wise, the high dividend nature of  my portfolio tends to favour financials, utilities and property. I could probably do with some more consumer based names and possibly industrial or infrastructure.

I think i'll see how the next couple of weeks play out in terms of broader economic sentiment. If we are just taking a pause, its probably a good thing given the past couple of months and i'll just continue with my asset accumulation plans.  If we see a pull back, its even better from a long term investment perspective.

2012 Investment performance

Since October i've started to build a portfolio of ETFs, primarily but not exclusively focusing on dividend stocks. I've also bought some gold in non-physical form through my HK bank.  Here's my current portfolio and how it has performed in the past couple of months:

Name		Return	% Assets
SEDY		4.4%	1.05%
IASP		4.0%	1.05%
SHYU		0.9%	1.05%
IUKD		5.3%	1.07%
IDVY		3.4%	0.64%
GOLD		-1.4%	1.01%

The return figure is inclusive of both dividends and valuation gains.  SEDY (emerging markets), IASP (asian property) and IUKD (uk high dividend) have all paid dividends in either November or December which has boosted the return in the short period of time i've been holding these.  IDVY (euro high dividend) has had a good week, rallying 3.4% in the week since it was purchased.

Gold has lagged a bit.  Fears around europe and the fiscal cliff seem to have eased recently, which can be seen in the increase in equities and risk currencies.

Going forward i'll measure investment returns using a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) formula, which factors in the timing of cashflows such as purchases & dividends to generate an annualised return.  For those excel fans its the 'XIRR' function!  I haven't shown it here as the numbers are a bit meaningless given the short period of time i've held these investments.

The % Assets represents my total assets rather than just the investment portfolio. You'll see my default target holding for now has been 1% of total assets per investment, which over time will be varied up or down depending on my comfort with the investment, and the overall degree of diversification i'm aiming for.

I will be looking to build up this portfolio over the coming year, primarily targeting high yield investments & ETFs listed in the UK or HK.

Falling rates

One of the unfortunate side effects of the latest round of central bank interest rate & QE announcements seems to have been another round of savings rate cuts both for existing variable rate accounts & potential new fixed rate time deposits.

It is becoming quite a mission to hunt down an lock in decent interest rates. I'm not keen on long term fixed rate accounts beyond a year or two, and many variable rates have fallen quite sharply in the last two months or so.

In an attempt to build a respectable yield i've been flirting with the idea of moving more cash into corporate debt ETFs.  Its really a case of weighing up the transaction cost and credit risk against the difference in yield, but i'm increasingly finding that my desire for yield is starting to overcome my natural risk aversion.

Investing in foreign currencies

A lot of my friends and colleagues are expats, typically with currency exposure between Hong Kong dollars and their home currency. Some may have financial commitments in multiple currencies, others may be planning to retire in a different country. 

What has surprised me is that as retail investors, a number of people are actively using exchange rate movements as a means of investment, either in the form of direct buying/selling of currencies or through products such as foreign currency linked structured deposits.

Up to now i haven't been actively considering fx as a means of investment, other than looking to opportunistically exchange money when rates move in my favour.  This is mainly because i don't want to get stuck on the wrong side of a transaction with a currency that i don't want or need. However, to the extent i'm indifferent between holding two currencies, there's no real reason why i shouldn't apply the basic investing rules of looking for value & buying low and selling high to the fx markets.

I don't anticipate this to be a significant part of my portfolio, but where opportunities arise i might look to take small fx positions from within my cash buffer.