A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. – Winston Churchill OK, I know I have covered this before (here), but in the cacophony of market forecasts arising from the brokerage industry, and dutifully repeated by the financial media, I feel the need to purge myself of the temptation to listen to them. (This may be a form of therapy – bear with me.)…
The new year has not started brightly – geopolitics in the Middle East, literal rumblings in North Korea and the chaos in Chinese asset markets has put equities on the back foot. The real concerns, however, may lie elsewhere.
[The title of this blog is penned with apologies to Edwin Lefevre, the writer of what is possibly the greatest book on the stock market ever written] In February next year, I shall have worked in stock markets in various guises for 29 years, and will have to up-date the bio below. In the meantime, in what will be our last blog of 2015, I shall attempt to describe the similarities that have endured and the differences that have emerged in that period. It is by no means exhaustive, merely a personal account of what it was, and is, like to work in the City of London.
Liquidity describes the degree to which an asset or security can be quickly bought or sold in the market without affecting the asset’s price
Contrarian Investing is an investment strategy that is characterized by purchasing and selling in contrast to the prevailing sentiment of the time.
Events in Europe appear to be moving in a decidedly dangerous direction. The initial huge sympathy for the migrants has given way to concern (and in some cases alarm) amongst the local populations. From welcoming refugees unconditionally a few weeks ago, Angela Merkel has changed tack, limiting their “rights” and preventing further inflows (as far as possible). This puts them on a par with the likes of Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and others who are actively seeking to offload the problem to others. Meanwhile the EU itself, according to the Washington Post, predicts<
ZIRP- Another Japanese innovation, this time from the Bank of Japan, whose aim was to stimulate the Japanese economy by having a Zero Interest Rate Policy: so far (15 years and counting), it has had an extremely limited effect. NIRP- A variation on the above theme, whereby Central Banks (particularly the ECB, but not limited to them ) employ a strategy of Negative Interest Rate policy: the likely economic result will be much the same.
The future depends on what you do today. – Mahatma Gandhi There has been much talk recently about “Sequence Risk” (a more detailed description of the opposing views can be found here and here ), as both sides ponder the Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) for retiring investors, and the effect of market returns on Retirement Pot longevity. …
Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them. – Ogden Nash This week we shall focus on a number of (partially) related stories in lieu of a major theme. The common denominator is debt – how companies, states and even countries deal with the issue will shape the economic landscape for years to come.…
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
