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Making use of your full ISA allowance each year is a great goal to aim for. But what is the best time of the tax year to invest? Should you try and fill up your pot as soon as you’re able to or hang back a little and wait?

New research from Willis Owen may give us an answer. Read on for some insights into this investing dilemma.

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What is the ISA allowance for 2021?

Following the recent announcement of the Budget, there were no changes made to the current ISA structure.

This means that you still have an allowance of £20,000 each tax year. There have also been some hints that this annual figure might be frozen for five years.

You can split your full allowance across the different types of ISA accounts. But with rock-bottom interest rates, it’s the stocks and shares ISA that currently … Read more

The share price of ITM Power (LSE:ITM) performed exceptionally well in 2020, rising from 81p to 538p. The momentum continued up until the end of January this year, reaching an all-time high of 717p. That’s an overall increase of around 700% in the space of 12 months.

But since then, it’s fallen by nearly 35%. What happened? And is this a buying opportunity for my portfolio? 

What’s going on with ITM Power’s share price

ITM Power is a hydrogen supplier. The company designed and developed a technology that uses electrolysis to convert water into its base elements, namely hydrogen and oxygen. Given that the classic approach of extracting hydrogen requires fossil fuels and isn’t exactly environmentally-friendly, ITM’s zero-emission solution sounds promising. At least, I think so.

In 2020, the UK government announced new legislation that aims to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050, focusing particularly on utilising green hydrogen. This was … Read more

Tullow Oil (LSE:TLW) shares have been on a rocky road over the past couple of years. The trend has been downwards, due to several reasons and as the share price moves lower, any bounce (when put in percentage terms) can be slightly misleading. For example, as my Foolish colleague Rupert Hargreaves flagged up, technically Tullow Oil shares are up 550% over 12 months. Yet on an actual basis, the shares are trading at only around 49p, a far cry from levels seen in 2019 of 200p+. 

Why have Tullow Oil shares fallen?

Before I talk about the strong year-to-date performance, I need to talk through the negative news from last year. Firstly, the stock market crash hit most shares hard in March. As Tullow Oil is seen as a high-risk stock due to the nature of the oil exploration business, investors were keen to sell out. 

Add to the … Read more

Several big names in the British retail and fashion industry are urging the government to launch a ‘Shop Out To Help out Scheme’ to assist struggling independent stores as they prepare to reopen on 12 April.

Here’s what we know so far about this scheme and how it might work.

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The Shop Out To Help Out scheme: what do we know?

The coronavirus pandemic has been extremely harsh on retailers, with non-essential stores bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s effects.

Many had to shut during lockdown. Even when they have been open, most have experienced low sales. This is due to customers being either too afraid to shop in person or not having enough money to spend.

The ‘Shop Out To Help Out’ scheme which is being proposed by a campaign group known as Save the Street and marketing firm Appear Here aims to help out these retailers.

It … Read more

Investor appetite for UK shares has calmed down again in recent weeks. Both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 have settled back after making a roaring start to March as fears over Covid-19 resurfaced. Demand for a great many ‘reopening stocks’ and cyclical shares has been particularly weak.

So-called reopening stocks are ones that will benefit from coronavirus lockdowns melting away and travel bans ending. A third wave of Covid-19 cases sprinting across large parts of Europe might delay the pick up in the global economy. And, as a consequence, profits at these UK shares might take a little longer to rebound. Which explains insipid investor appetite right now.

However, I don’t plan to stop buying reopening stocks for my own shares portfolio though. The economic recovery will come. And many of these shares will experience explosive profits growth when it does. What’s more, shedloads of these reopening shares have … Read more