As regular readers will know, I’ve been avoiding bank stocks for years now – since April 2007 to be precise. As I predicted in ’08, banks have become a cash cow for government as well as a popular scapegoat. The extra corporation tax on banks that was announced in the budget was just the most…
Those of you reading this that are familiar with my trading, and those who follow along with my blog at Diary of a Currency Trader (www.diaryofacurrencytrader.com) will be all too aware that – over the last few weeks – a number of us in the community have had some difficulty with a particular brokerage. While…
As featured in this month’s Master Investor Magazine. “To reduce risk it is necessary to avoid a portfolio whose securities are all highly correlated with each other. One hundred securities whose returns rise and fall in near unison afford little protection than the uncertain return of a single security.” – Harry Markowitz, 1968 Early Days…
As featured in this month’s Master Investor Magazine. The trickier the times, the greater the opportunities for profit (and loss!). And we are now firmly in tricky times. I have spoken and written before about the imperative of seeing through the fog of financial battle in order to achieve success. by this I mean focusing…
As featured in this month’s Master Investor Magazine. There’s been a whole spate of bids for small cap shares in the last month. Anite (AIE) and Thorntons (THT), for example, and one I had only recently bought in the expectation of a bid – Aga (AGA). Aga bagged me a 50% profit, which was very…
A closed-ended fund that invests in a Berlin-focused portfolio of German residential properties has recently listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Phoenix Spree Deutschland has been operating in Germany since 2006, but can now be traded in the UK using the ticker PSDL. The fund currently owns 114 different properties. These…
– The FTSE 100 closed the day flat at 6,753.75. – The FTSE 250 fell by 5.32 points to 17,637.08. – The FTSE All Share decreased by 0.05 points to 3,676.46. – The FTSE AIM All Share finished 1.08 points higher at 756.22. UK unemployment rose for the first time in two years over the…
We live in strange times in terms of economic reasoning and thinking. One Nobel laureate economist believes that saving is public enemy number one, as it prevents economies from growing, hence he preaches the virtues of macro policies aimed at leading people to spend whatever they produce, and eventually a little extra if they can…
Stories on the markets, in general, usually unfold very slowly and in plain sight. Before all the great crashes there was ample warning from the technical trader. I wrote recently about signs that we might be seeing the 6 year rally running out of steam. The worrying thing with that is that the companies who…
– The FTSE 100 rose 59.06 points to 6,732.44. – The FTSE 250 gained 214.48 points and closed at 17,700.75. – The FTSE All Share increased by 33.82 points to 3,669.37. – The FTSE AIM All Share finished 2.48 points higher at 752.30. UK inflation has returned to 0% after rising last month, with the…
