In July and August many traders and money managers will swap the stress of the office and staring into a Bloomberg terminal for relaxing on a beach staring across a glittering azul blue sea. Today’s stock market is a ‘frenetic’ trading machine lubricated and fuelled by a 24-hour entertainment cycle masquerading as news. Most will […]
As seasoned investors we know from experience that Mr Market does not know or care who owns a stock or fund. The financial regulator obligates investment companies to make sure that the phrase ‘past performance is no guarantee to future returns’, appears on all investment product sales material when giving investors information on an investment […]
As with any new product that has a significant impact on financial markets the introduction of the mutual fund in 1924 gave the small investor access to invest in the stock market and changed the face of investing forever. This opened up a business opportunity for financial institutions to create, market and sell a huge […]
It is a shameful indictment of the investment industry that too many mutual fund managers charge fees for active management when in fact their stock selection is replicating a given index against which they are benchmarked, and their performance judged. In a move to pressure investment management companies to make their investment objectives and benchmarks […]
As I write, today Wednesday 6th March, is the 10th anniversary of the financial crash when the stock markets around the world crashed. The S&P 500, the index of the top 500 publicly traded companies by capitalisation in the USA plummeted to $666 giving back 57% of its value. This was the bottom of a […]
Many would-be investors fear the stock market. Equally, many do not adhere to the fundamental principle of identifying capital for savings and capital for investment. The irrational emotions of fear and euphoria are very real when applied to the stock market. The stock market drops far more quickly than it rises. The stock market in […]
The passing of the legendary investor John (Jack) Bogle recently at the age of 89 has stirred many writers in financial and nonfinancial papers to comment on his extraordinary achievements. His vision as a young man, following a thesis for his degree at Princeton University way back in 1951, led him to produce the first […]
When are investors going to wake up to the relentless rules of humble arithmetic and recognise that costs matter when investing? Simple arithmetic dictates that the generation of profits by investment companies requires charging fees above the basic cost of providing investment services. As investors we can only guarantee what we will pay in cost […]
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Mark Twain. Mark Twain. During October investors in stock and bond markets around the world saw declines in their portfolios, therefore a look at market history may be useful. So far this year, the US stock market has been climbing, fuelled by tax cuts, historic low unemployment and […]
