Neil Woodford doesn’t deserve your sympathy – his troubles are all his own fault

Some people think Neil Woodford has been an unfortunate victim. But he’s no such thing, says Merryn Somerset Webb. He broke some of fund management’s most fundamental rules and his investors are paying the price.

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Neil Woodford.

There are rules in fund management. You learn them pretty early in your career. They aren't complicated, but they are important. Don't take on too much money, particularly in small-caps. Don't think it's all about you. Don't mix or dramatically change styles. Don't own too many illiquid stocks. Don't overtrade. You can, of course, break these rules all good stockmarket stories come with a maverick. But that simply makes the last rule the most important: if you break the rules, don't mess it up. Because almost all bad stockmarket stories also come with a maverick who messed it up.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.