Mobius Investment Club
Mobius Investment Club
A Yorkshire-based, Award winning investment club. Founded 1997
Club | Formed October 1997 |
Current Membership | 12 |
Monthly contributions | Minimum £75/month |
Meeting date | Second Tuesday of the month |
Accounting date | Last working day of the month |
AGM | November meeting |
Meeting locations | Members homes (rotating) - (Video Conf. during the pandemic) |
Accounting package | iValuation from Software Exception (COW2000) |
Accounting period | Monthly (Unit Value updated) |
Based in Yorkshire: The club started in Leeds and some of its current members also live in Bradford, Harrogate, Huddersfield and York. As a rule of thumb (for new members), members ought to reside within a reasonable travel distance (say 1 to 1.5 hours max) of each other, simply because we meet in members' homes (rotating).
Membership is capped to 12: The main reason is that we meet in members' homes. So there is a natural limit as to how many can gather in one’s house (or living room!). In the early years, we had a soft limit of 10 members (then extended to 12).
Although it has been a rare occurrence to have a full attendance in meetings, more often there have been around 7 to 8 members present. Having said that, during the covid-19 period (from April 2020 todate), attendance has dramatically increased to near full house every month (via video conferencing).
Monthly meetings: They normally start at 7pm and finish around 10:30 to 11pm. There is a set agenda for the meetings that has hardly changed for decades. For any meeting to take place and transact business, it needs to be quorate (number of members present greater than 50% of total club members).
Monthly contributions: Currently, this is set to a minimum of £75/month. Members invest in the club by paying in monthly contributions (or subscriptions, to use the Proshare terminology). This amount is converted into units using the Unit Value (UV) effective that month.
In the early years, the monthly amount had been a minimum of £50/month (per member). This monthly figure was suggested (as indicative) by Proshare in the 1990s. Members can invest more on a monthly basis as well as invest lump sums whenever they wish to do so.
Accounting date: last working date of the month. The UV is calculated on a monthly basis. On the last working day of each month, a snapshot valuation of the Mobius portfolio holdings is taken (from the respective stock exchanges) and used to compute the new UV. The Mobius UV is valid and in force for a whole month (until next monthly valuation).
AGM: November meeting. This is an opportunity to review local rules & guidelines and fine tune what has worked well, what needs changing etc. in managing the club. A full audit of the club’s account is also presented at the AGM.
Accounting package: iValuation (from Software Exception). Mobius has been using the accounting package from Software Exception since 2001. It is a bespoke purpose-built software for UK investment clubs (including reporting, taxation etc..). The initial software application was called COW2000 then upgraded to iValuation.
Prior to 2001, Mobius used a set of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (using templates and guidelines from the Proshare manual).