A modern economy can only function efficiently if its infrastructure is up to the task. Essential assets like good quality roads, bridges, railways and hospitals play a vital role in all of our everyday lives, but these facilities are expensive to construct and maintain and command premium prices. Historically most of the critical infrastructure in…
From 1st January all investment trusts have had to publish a Key Information Document (KID) before their shares can be made available to retail investors. This sort of standardised information can be useful, but unfortunately some of the prescribed content can be highly misleading. One of the most surprising aspects of the new KID is…
Miton Global Opportunities (LON:MIGO) is a highly unusual fund that aims to profit from pricing inefficiencies by buying investment trusts that are trading on wide discounts where there is a clear catalyst for them to narrow. It had a fantastic 2017 by investing in four of the ten best performing trusts in the market and…
There are mixed views about the peer-to-peer finance sector – where those with spare cash can make direct loans to those who want to borrow − with some investors believing that it is a bubble waiting to burst, while others see it as a viable alternative to the banks and an attractive source of returns.…
Brexit has had a dramatic impact on the returns from the UK stock market with many companies that derive the majority of their earnings from the domestic economy struggling to make any headway, whereas those whose business is mainly abroad have surged ahead. In order to measure and monitor this effect the index provider, Bats,…
It is not normally a very sensible policy to invest in countries that have incurred international sanctions in response to their unacceptable behaviour, but Russia could be an exception. The partial recovery in the oil price has allowed its economy to return to growth, yet it remains the cheapest major market and is trading on…
Over the last five years the Nikkei 225, the main Japanese stock market index, has risen by an impressive 141%, which is well ahead of other markets such as the US, the UK and Germany. Despite these strong returns Japan remains one of the cheapest developed markets in the world. Hideo Shiozumi, who manages the Legg…
Reports of a possible agreement on the size of the Brexit divorce bill that could pave the way for a trade agreement once the UK leaves the EU have prompted a surge in the value of Sterling, but the longer term picture is a lot more disturbing. The Labour party has recently admitted that it…
It is hard to imagine a less likely President than Donald J. Trump, yet there is no doubt that his election success has been well received by the markets. When Hillary Clinton accepted defeat last November the most widely reported US stock market index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, was trading below 19,000 points, but…
One of the attractions of buying investment trusts is that you can often pick them up at a discount to net asset value (NAV). This feels like you are getting a bargain because you are paying less for the shares than what the underlying portfolio is worth, but it can be misleading. An investment trust…
