The chairman drew me into increasing my gold long position just before the weekend. I couldn’t follow it over the weekend since, curiously, there is no price feed from the Far East. Goodness only knows why. There must be hundreds of thousands of Japanese and Chinese – to name just two lots – who would be delighted to have a go.
The same goes for bitcoin trading where the improbably named Grand Mufti of Egypt has banned its use. This must be a bull signal save that on this occasion I think the Mufti is giving a warning of the ease with which central banks can destroy the cryptocurrency.
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Lord Adonis engaged in a curious rant when he resigned last week. His accusation that Theresa May is really boss of UKIP does not even remotely stand inspection. But the observation that civil servants cannot handle the East Coast rail franchise since – his view – they are engaged on Brexit is delightfully potty.
However, Adonis makes a point worth taking into account. This is that the rail franchisees are clever clogs who run rings round civil servants. Just look at the public’s reaction this morning to the rise in rail fares.
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My first share for 2018 is – wholly unoriginally – 600 Group (LON:SIXH). It amazes me that the share price is still as low as it is. Now 15p offer. Month after month goes by and no evidence emerges that this stock is anything other than very cheap.