As seen in the January edition of Master Investor Magazine. By Carl Shave of Just Mortgage Brokers Buy-to-let landlords are set to endure a tougher time obtaining a mortgage in the coming months. Following repeated warnings from the Bank of England’s financial policy committee, the Treasury is preparing to hand greater powers to the Bank…
Currently two weeks into a self-imposed January booze ban my newly refreshed brain got thinking about the economic impact caused by the many drinkers who abstain from alcohol at this time of year. “Dry January”, as it is commonly known, is in fact a relatively recent phenomenon, with the trademark being registered by the charity…
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…
The Ghost of Christmas Past I see that a year ago my note on Tesco contained the following observation: “Cutting the dividend has helped to push the share price northwards. That is because the market clearly sees it as a welcome sign of balance and better judgement by the new Tesco management in setting priorities.…
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…
“On a typical day, one billion people around the world eat chocolate” – in “A taste of the future”, KPMG June 2014 Financial news has recently been dominated by the epic crash that is haunting the oil market. What at first seemed like good news for consumers is now turning into a nightmare from which…
Poor old Neil Woodford. The investing public have really got it in for him now. He’s an example of the longstanding observation that first they put you on a pedestal and then they knock you down. His investment in Circassia (CIR) seems to be another example. Anyway, it seems that there is nothing in this…
Finally, the groves of academe have awoken to the sound of gnashing teeth. An assembly of the most eminent British historians has formed a campaign group called Historians for Britain[i]. Their aim is to advance the argument, from a historical perspective of course, that the forthcoming UK-EU IN-OUT referendum is a historic opportunity to go…
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…
Whenever you say ‘short cable’ some joker will say “actually, Vince Cable is quite tall”. It may be time to follow the electorate, though, who shorted Cable in his Twickenham constituency in the General Election this year and short cable (£:$). Arbitrage is a big deal in trading and any sort of speculative endeavour. As…
