Time to debunk the silly myths about personal credit ratings October 19, 2011 A BAD credit rating is the financial equivalent of a six-year hangover. We should fear them. They can stop you getting a mortgage, new car and leave your credit card trapped on a crippling interest rate. But a lot of what is said about them is rubbish. For example, 71 per cent of people still [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 19, 2011 WPP UBS rates the advertising giant as “neutral” with a target price of 620p, after this week’s digital investor day gave a positive outlook on the company’s longer-term strategy. The broker says the revenue opportunities for providing a wider variety of higher value services are very clear, but could come at a cost through staff [...]
Achieving best execution of FX trades October 19, 2011 AS EUROPEAN regulatory authorities move to regulate the execution of trades in other financial instruments, forex still operates outside of these regulations. But does it need to be regulated in order to achieve improved execution? The European Commission will today publish a proposal for a review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid 2), [...]
Britain’s FTSE gets fillip from debt crisis hope and earnings October 19, 2011 BRITAIN’S leading share index closed higher yesterday, buoyed by financials on fresh speculation of a game-changing response to the Eurozone debt crisis at a weekend meeting of regional leaders. Forecast-beating earnings from the likes of spirits group Diageo also helped drive the move, although concerns about growth continued to come through in other results, for [...]
A euro escape route is well worth £250,000 October 19, 2011 IF YOU were stuck in a burning building with no exits, what would you do? You could try to put out the fire, or try to dig an escape route. When Europe’s leaders gather this weekend, they are going to spend their time trying to get the fire extinguishers to work to quell the euro [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 19, 2011 DNA of innovation I’d like to draw Tim Hammond’s [Innovation first, Rapid Responses, yesterday] attention to the computer, transistor and integrated circuit. Together they have transformed the world far more than the jet engine did, and are all more recent inventions. Then there are new technologies in the life sciences, such as DNA sequencing and [...]
A new faction contesting the foundations of how to invest October 19, 2011 Q. Why are you called The 300 Club? A. This refers to the 300 Spartans who stood against an invading Persian army at Thermopylae. The group went there even though they did not have the support of Sparta or of the other Greek cities. These Spartans understood the risks, but they still decided to make [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 19, 2011 Rockspring Rockspring Property Investment Managers has appointed Hugh Bigham (pictured) as head of capital raising and client services for North America. Bigham joins from the Sydney office of Principle Advisory Services, where he supported real estate and private equity managers. In addition, Julianne Cho joins from Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers as client services representative in [...]
Learning to cook El Bulli-style October 19, 2011 The Family Meal: Home cooking with Ferran Adrià Ferran Adrià £19.95, Phaidon WHERE the allure of Jamie Oliver’s and Nigella’s books comes from the idea that you’ll cook like them, “The Family Meal” is less “cook like Ferran”, but “eat like Ferran”. The recipes are a fresh insight into the working life at the now [...]
The reason for 4m sales of iPhone 4S? Monkey scrabble, of course October 19, 2011 I have written a lot about the iPhone 4S. Before I ever laid hands on one I had churned out countless paragraphs, covered each twist in the saga, vomiting Apple stories like some grotesque human Rube Goldberg machine. If you threw all these words into a bag, shook it up and handed it to troupe [...]
