Bitcoin bubble grows as banks fall flat December 1, 2017 | City Talk Bitcoin continues to defy expectation. It recently reached and passed a milestone, that of the $10,000 mark, an incredible feat considering it was worth less than £1,000 at the start of 2017. Nobody can quite agree as to why it’s so strong, but a parallel to its soar in value is its huge popularity in [...]
The Bank of England has just given a coded warning about the danger posed by a no-deal Brexit. It’s terrifying November 30, 2017 | City Talk On Tuesday, the Bank of England released the details of its latest banking industry stress tests. The results made for some soothing sounding headlines – the UK financial system is strong enough to withstand a "disorderly Brexit". In other words, Britain’s banking system can withstand leaving the European Union (EU) without a trade deal. While [...]
No royal rally can change Britain’s harsh economic realities November 29, 2017 | City Talk What a difference 24 hours makes. Monday morning’s headlines in Britain were dominated by the familiar themes of Brexit-inspired political tension and economic listlessness – yet by Tuesday morning Brexit was briefly forgotten as the nation digested the news of a royal engagement. The Daily Mail’s coverage was typically low-key, with readers treated to a [...]
Markets crave political stability after the last few months November 27, 2017 | City Talk Last week started with a potential political catastrophe as Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats were forced to concede that coalition negotiations with the Free Democrats and Green Party had collapsed two months after the German elections. The election result was bad enough for Mrs Merkel’s party – its worst election result since the end of World [...]
Brexit lurks behind Britain’s cautious Budget November 24, 2017 | City Talk British Chancellors are used to facing intense scrutiny on Budget Day. Yet Philip Hammond spent weeks in the spotlight in the run-up to his November Budget. Brexiteers within the ruling Conservative Party want Theresa May to sack him because of his apparent lack of commitment to the Brexit cause, and for not being upbeat enough [...]
Co-working space startup Huckletree raises £4.5m in second fundraising round October 11, 2017 Co-working space startup Huckletree has announced a funding round of £4.5m with investment manager Meyer Bergman. Huckletree joins the London-based real estate investment group's portfolio alongside retail space marketplace Appear Here and app company POQ Commerce. The latest round of investment follows a £2.4m Series A fundraising in 2015, and will support the London based [...]
Wealth manager Netwealth raises £10m in second funding round September 19, 2017 Online discretionary wealth manager Netwealth Investments has raised £10.02m of new capital in a second funding round. Thirteen new investors joined the 28 angels who provided the company its initial capital of £6.57m before the firm launched in May 2016, making total funds raised to date £16.6m. New investors include: Dame Alison Carnwath, chair of [...]
The London Stock Exchange is shrinking: Why the capital needs to float more IPO boats August 29, 2017 Something strange is happening to London’s equity market. In a word, it is shrinking. Steadily, but surely, and over a long period of time. This threatens to have long-term financial and economic consequences for all of us. This may surprise you since on the face of it everything looks rosy. The FTSE 100 is sitting [...]
How do markets fail? Blame visible hands July 28, 2017 | City Talk Markets are less perfect than commonly assumed. In the past, I have discussed their inability to price unknowns; the blindness of the assumptions that underlie market activity; that the implicit presumption that market fungibility bears consequences; and that markets are not systemic. How else do markets fail? They have visible hands, not invisible ones. Markets [...]
The UK’s 12 most shorted stocks revealed: Carillion tops the list, with several household names filling in the ranks July 25, 2017 It's not a list which many corporates would be happy to top, but Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management has today released a ranking of the 12 most shorted stocks in the UK. Construction company Carillion topped the list, with 27.2 per cent of its equity having been shorted. High street names such as Debenhams, Marks and [...]