As seen in the January edition of Master Investor Magazine. We’re now at the beginning of the year: a time when investors, analysts, journalists, and politicians make a series of predictions for the year to come. Most of them will prove wrong, as the many interactions between all the variables involved make it impossible for…
The ECB has kept its key rates and asset purchasing programme unchanged while Mario Draghi promised investors there’s more to come in the near future. A dovish Draghi is keeping investors entertained while buying him some time to convince the other committee members to extend the current asset purchase programme. If he doesn’t deliver there…
The latest data published by Oxfam show a worrying increase in income inequality during just the last few years. Many believe this to be the consequence of the free market, and in response raise arguments in favour of policy intervention. I myself believe public intervention to be the cause, not the solution, as the global…
The Chancellor talked of a new, unwelcome economic cocktail the other week. His message was to warn us that the contents may not be good for our economic health and his own budgetary predictions. It was all a bit like an Agatha Christie ‘who dunnit?!’ Now trimmer and more elegant-looking (as a result of fasting…
As seen in the January edition of Master Investor Magazine. “My global outlook for 2016 is for broadly steady but slow growth – the new normal – but a nervous and skittish market over-reacting to news flow. My biggest threat for this year is a positive upside economic surprise – stronger than expected US growth!…
As seen in the January edition of Master Investor Magazine. 2016, The Year of the Monkey, will be a capricious, unusually nervous year, full of danger and foreboding, not just confined to the financial markets. As ever, nothing is foretold, and no outcome is inevitable. Most people have little concept of how much their lives…
Master Investor was given permission to re-publish this missive from Alan Steel of Alan Steel Asset Management. Alan will be speaking at Master Investor 2016 in what (judging from this article) promises to be a standout performance. Click HERE to book your complimentary free tickets using the discount code “MI2016”. “Under Pressure? Pressure pushing down…
There are many sayings in the financial markets regarding calendar effects. Some say “sell in May and go away”; others say “as goes January, so goes the rest of the year”. Both sayings are based on persistent performance anomalies that were uncovered by traders and confirmed by researchers. Today I’m going to test another calendar…
One should always listen to stock markets; they can tell you things. But in the case of Chinese stock markets it is different. If one thing remains the same in this changing world, it appears to be that things Chinese remain inscrutable to Western eyes. The Chinese stock market collapses, but the empirical evidence for…
I’m still at a loss to explain why in a healthy economy our GDP could be growing at between 2 and 3 per cent annually, yet our debt is still mounting. This was Matthew Parris in his column in The Times last Saturday[i]. I respect Matthew as a highly intelligent writer, though as he admits…
