and if you work, have a great break!
Why investing early can make a real difference
As the end of the tax year approaches, it’s a good time to check whether you’ve made full use of your ISA allowance for 2025/26. But it’s just as important to look ahead—because starting early in the new tax year can make a meaningful difference to your long-term investments.
One of the biggest advantages you can give your money is time. The longer your investments are in place, the more opportunity they have to grow. While many people wait until the end of the tax year to use their ISA allowance, investing earlier can significantly improve your overall returns.
Making the most of your ISA allowance
You can currently invest up to £20,000 each tax year into an ISA, where any growth is free from income tax and capital gains tax.
If you regularly use your full allowance, and invest at the start of the tax year rather than the end, this gives your money more time to benefit from potential growth.
As one tax year ends and another begins, it’s worth thinking about how you can take advantage of your new allowance as early as possible.
If you have a Flexible ISA, you may also have the option to withdraw money if needed for short-term expenses, while still retaining your allowance (as long as it’s replaced within the rules).
Keeping things simple
If you have multiple ISAs with different providers, bringing them together into one place can make things easier to manage. It can also help reduce costs, simplify paperwork, and make things more straightforward for your family in the future.
More time for growth
The earlier you invest, the longer your money has to grow in a tax-efficient environment.
For example, investing £20,000 each year at the start of the tax year over six years could result in noticeably higher returns compared to investing at the end of each year. Assuming 6% annual growth, this could mean over £8,000 more in your ISA after six years, please see the table below.
*Calculated from 6th April 2020 to 5th April 2026
Planning for the future
These benefits don’t just apply to your own savings. If you’re investing for children or grandchildren, using a Junior ISA (JISA) early in the tax year can give their savings even more time to grow—helping to build a valuable financial head start for the future.
Looking ahead
While it’s important to review your current ISA usage before the tax year ends, planning ahead can be just as valuable. By investing early in the new tax year, you can give your money the best chance to grow and make the most of the tax advantages available to you.
If you’d like help making the most of your ISA allowance or planning your investments, please get in touch.
Anna Griffiths – Clear Technical Manager
All your silver eggs in one basket.
We often talk about diversification, particularly when things get a little concentrated, and speculative. As humans we love a speculative trade; from crypto currencies to tulips to even Pokémon cards…
Source: BBC News / Hansons Auctioneers
These kinds of markets are usually driven by a collective frenzy – a bit of fear, a bit of greed and a lot of Fear Of Missing Out, usually requiring lots of investors to buy into the story.
But what about when there isn’t lots of investors but rather just one? Or brothers to be more precise.
Enter the Hunt brothers who, in 1980, decided the best way to make money from the silver market was to control it!
The brothers took advantage of the poorly governed futures market, so by early 1980 they controlled over 100 million ounces of silver… which is roughly a third of the world’s supply not held by governments. This resulted in the price of silver increasing up 700% due to their buying frenzy, going from $6 per ounce in early 1979 to almost $50 by January 1980.
This did not make a favorable impression on Tiffany & Co, they published this ad:
Source: The New York Times, March 26 1980
Not too long after this Tiffany & Co. advert, the regulators brought in the “Silver Rule 7”, restricting the ability for people to purchase significant volumes of silver through excessive borrowing – the Hunt brothers were in trouble.
Shortly after the implementation of this rule, the silver market suffered a brutal collapse that later became known as
Silver Thursday. The new rules led to forced selling by the Hunt brothers, sending prices down by more than 50% in just four days. For context, silver prices wouldn’t reach those heady highs again until 2025!
As prices dropped, the Hunt brothers were faced with escalating margin calls, including a $100 million demand they simply couldn’t meet, so they were left needing a bailout.
Interestingly, This story of the Hunt brothers inspired the film Trading Places, but writers thought orange juice would be funnier than silver!
The story is a cautionary tale of concentration risk – even when investors feel like they’re in control, the markets have a way of showing they aren’t. Diversification might not be as exciting on the way up, but it can be a relief on the way down.
Source:7iM
Don’t miss the market
Market madness in the middle of tax year end chaos.
Source: Garfield and Friends
Mmmm……..
There is a “don’t panic” perspective.
Following a weekend of headlines and a terrible night in Asian markets, the FTSE 100 was down nearly 3% on Monday.
Then Donald Trump spoke and so, before we had even reached lunchtime, the market had turned positive for the day, and spent the rest of the afternoon acting as if nothing had happened:
Source: FactSet/7IM. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Two weeks ago, something similar happened in South Korea. On 4th March 2026, the South Korean stock market fell 12%, the worst day in the last twenty years. On 5th March 2026, the same market rose 10%, the second best day in the last twenty years.
The following graph is a reminder that markets mostly tick along, with a few big positive days and a few big negative days.
Source: FactSet/7IM. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Missing those few key days in the market can absolutely ruin your long-term returns.
- The FTSE 100 has had an annualised return of 6.7% over the past 20 years. £10k would have turned into £39k.
- Miss the best FIVE days and that turns into a 4.7% annualised return. 2% less PER year – which means £10k would have become £26k.
- Miss the best 30 days (one month out of twenty years!) and you lose money! £10k becomes £9k!
The main thing that the chart doesn’t show is that most of the time, the big positive days come hot on the heels of the bad days. Just when you’re feeling most concerned is when things are likely to turn around.
- 30 of the BEST 40 days come within two weeks of one of the worst 40 days!
- 10 of the 40 BEST days come the DAY AFTER one of the worst 40 days!
Sell in haste, repent at leisure … much better not to sell in the first place.
Location, location, location
An essential commodity. A narrow stretch of water, geography turned into a weapon. We are not talking about the Middle East today, we are referring to Ancient Greece.
The Dardanelles Strait separates Europe from Asia. It was called the Hellespont by the Athenians and they relied on the waterway for supplies of grain. If this strait was closed, Athens would struggle. But in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta did just that.
There was plenty of grain waiting in the Black Sea. But Athens couldn’t get it … ultimately, they were forced to surrender.
Despite the advances in modern technology, the world is just as susceptible as ever to geographical constraints as it was three millennia ago.
Remember this from five years ago?
Source: NY Times
So having lots of something is great but if it’s in the wrong place it’s the same as having none!
Here is an example as to why location matters.
- Natural Gas in the US vs Europe. Two things matter here.
- The first is that Europe relies on Middle Eastern gas (as we’re seeing right now).
- The second is that the US has limited ability to export its excess natural gas (not enough pipes!).
.Location matters. So, you get completely different price fluctuations.
Source: Bloomberg Opinion
- Gold. Or last year, as Trump announced tariffs on metals, gold in New York became worth more than gold in London – some investors started loading up planes to take advantage.
- Timber. Most niche of all – wood. In 2017, this guy turned up in the forests of Germany, Austria and Czechia.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The European Spruce Bark beetle attacked roughly 10% of the spruce trees in Europe. Foresters cut the trees down quickly to prevent rot, massively increasing supply. So for the next two years, the price of wood fell by 40% … in Europe. In North America, beetle free, log cabins stayed expensive!
Commodities don’t price based on what exists. They price based on what can move.
In 404 BC, the grain started flowing as soon as Sparta defeated Athens* and the Hellespont reopened.
And today, if the Strait of Hormuz reopens, the oil and gas and fertiliser is sitting there ready to go.
* Athens and Sparta only signed a peace treaty in 1996 to officially end the Peloponnesian war.
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