Thoughts ahead of the Budget November 20, 2017 | City Talk This coming week is the second Budget of the year, the first of the new Parliament and the penultimate one before the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. The UK may prolong its tenure in the EU through a yet-to-be-agreed transition deal, but even so we are just over half-way through the Article 50 [...]
The greater a market’s valuation, the smaller the likely future returns November 15, 2017 | City Talk The growing willingness for investors to pay higher and higher prices for stocks is a real cause for concern. For instance, US index, the S&P 500, has only ever been more expensive on two previous occasions – just before the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 and in the build-up to the Great Crash of 1929 [...]
Overcoming fear: why you need to take some risk November 14, 2017 | City Talk Most of us are programmed to be afraid of taking too much risk. Yet when it comes to our money, not taking an appropriate amount of risk can be damaging to our wealth. It’s logical to assume that leaving money in a savings account is the best risk-free way to look after our money. While [...]
One year of President Trump: the impact on markets November 10, 2017 | City Talk President Trump has credited himself for the rise in the stockmarket since he won the US election 12 months ago. It is not fake news. Demand for equities has been strong because it is hoped the Trump administration will pass legislation reducing tax for companies, which should boost their profitability. Since the election on 8 [...]
Bitcoin: A bet on a bubble about to burst? November 9, 2017 | City Talk What is Bitcoin and should we trust it? Five years after the cryptocurrency first burst into the public consciousness, many are still asking this most fundamental question. Nevertheless this month Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus of the world’s largest futures and options exchange CME Group, predicted the cryptocurrency will go on to become a new asset [...]
How Richard Thaler’s theories can help investors November 8, 2017 The thinking of professor Richard Thaler, an expert in behavioural finance, can help you become a better investor, so we were delighted to see him awarded a Nobel Prize in economic sciences. Firstly, his views should matter to you as a citizen. He developed the theory of “nudge”, where rules, structures or incentives are subtly [...]
Paradise Papers reveal very little we didn’t already know November 8, 2017 | City Talk How much impact are the Paradise Papers likely to have? Not much, is the answer — at least if the Panama Papers are anything to go by. Leaked in 2015, the Panama Papers, which also revealed the super-rich used offshore tax havens, caused some mild embarrassment but led to very little change. Then British Prime [...]
New US Fed chair could herald an economic boom November 7, 2017 | City Talk We now know who US President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve is, and it’s not the incumbent Janet Yellen. This shouldn’t come as a massive surprise. After all, Ms Yellen was nominated to the position by former President Barack Obama. But at the same time, with US economic [...]
The rise of young Asia: how millennials are transforming a region November 6, 2017 | City Talk There seems to be a growing view that Asia has a problem with ageing. It is certainly true that maturing populations will soon be putting pressure on workforces in countries like China, Korea and Taiwan. But, this misses the point: there is a huge shift of economic power to a growing and increasingly wealthy Asian [...]
UK investors expect returns of 8.7% over the next five years November 2, 2017 | City Talk UK Investors expect an average annual return of 8.7 percent on their investments over the next five years, according to a major study. The Schroders Global Investor Study (GIS) 2017 found 58 percent of UK investors expected to make an average return of up to 10% over the next five years. Just under a third [...]