If you'd invested in: Rio Tinto and Tate & Lyle

If only...

Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) is the world's second-largest mining firm. In February this year the firm declared a record final dividend of $1.80 per share and unveiled a $1bn share buyback after higher commodity prices lifted full-year profit. Underlying earnings for the year to 31 December jumped 69% to $8.63bn from a year earlier, broadly in line with analysts' estimates of $8.74bn. Earlier this month it also reported a 5% rise in its first-quarter iron-ore shipments and kept its forecast for aluminium production steady, despite new US sanctions on its Russian partner Rusal.

Be glad you didn't buy...

Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE) produces ingredients for the food, beverage, and agriculture industries. The firm, which sold its sugar-refining business in 2010, has had a few difficult years amid a price war in the sucralose market and posted three profit warnings between 2014 and 2015. In November last year it reported a 26% increase in first-half profits. Sales of new products are now expected to hit $200m in 2020, up from $69m in 2014. Despite this, analysts are expecting the company's earnings per share to decline over the next two years as the tailwind from weaker sterling vanishes.

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Alice grew up in Stockholm and studied at the University of the Arts London, where she gained a first-class BA in Journalism. She has written for several publications in Stockholm and London, and joined MoneyWeek in 2017.

Alice is now Consumer Editor at The Sun and covers everything from energy bills to Social Security.