Many years before I began trading in equities and funds I was a currency trader. In fact, one of the main reasons that I stopped was because when I first started trading foreign exchange we had the French Franc, the German Deutschemark and the Italian lira amongst many other European currencies. After the Euro came in, the entire currency market dropped on its head and thousands in the City, including me, left the industry. Luckily for me, back then I was still in my early training days at the Royal Bank of Scotland and so it was relatively straight forward to realign my career path and move s...
Good Defensive Stock v2 – Marston’s Plc
The market has been fairly volatile, dropping 1.9% from last week`s all-time high to 7,400 level due to political uncertainties emerged during and after the election. Investors affected by this downturn think of going into more defensive income yielding shares (defensive stock), which essentially could protect their capital from a further fall in the market. With the after-election effects on the market, uncertainty maintains. Bank of England`s decision to keep the rates on hold at 0.25% while inflation is at near four-year high (2.9%) will potentially affect the market, thus by dragging it fu...
Look to the Horizon
Horizon Discovery
Horizon is a UK based life sciences company which was founded by Dr Chris Torrance and Professor Alberto Bardelli in 2007 when they came across an impressive gene editing platform, rAAV, which enabled the ability to tailor-make cell lines with virtually any genomic modification. "In July 2017, Horizon entered an agreement to acquire Dharmacon from General Electric for a total consideration of $85m (£65m). In December 2017, Horizon announced that it had entered into an agreement with Roche Diagnostics to assist in the development of immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays."
Understanding the Alternative Investment Market
AIM
Like anything in life, if you want to go big you must start small – and investing is no exception. Every investor has heard of shares that have gone from a penny to a pound. When these shares are worth pennies, they can be found on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). "Share prices for blue chips companies delivered a sluggish performance, up less than 10% by the end of October. In contrast, the FTSE AIM 100 index surged forward with an impressive 35% gain in the same period – that’s 3 times more than the FTSE 350 indices!"
Schroders British Opportunities Trust – Could Patriotism Give You Good Returns on Investment?
Out of all the economies in the world, EU markets – especially the UK stock market – has been hit the hardest. Consider how in the US, the S&P Index continued to rise in 2020, while the same equivalent of the UK stock market, the FTSE 100 continued to decline.
When Nothing is Straightforward in the Markets
November started with a bang. And welcome to what is historically the best thee-month period of the year for the US stock market. Setting the scene, the presidential election brought the drama we all expected. In the event of losing at the ballot box, President Trump was never going to depart quietly after a turbulent four years. But Joe Biden is currently the heir-presumptive, notwithstanding what could be a drawn-out legal challenge.
The winner of the presidential election was always going to have to contend with deep divisions i...
Can you afford NOT to buy the S&P 500 Index Tracker Fund?
Another week, another record high at least across the pond if not here in the UK. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have once again led the charge, with investors still not ready to bank their winnings. The markets have clawed back the losses inflicted by the pandemic. In fact, US stocks had their best August since 1986. The biggest winners for the month included those hit hardest by the coronavirus. We’ve even seen Apple claim a $2trn market capitalisation and was the biggest contributor to the market’s gains during the period. Time will tell how long things continue. September has a well-know...
S&P 500 hits all time high – are we really going into a bull market again?
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Technology stocks still going strong… for now
The gap in performance between the tech-biased Nasdaq Composite and its rival benchmarks in the first half of 2020 has been dramatic. The index has enjoyed an ever-widening lead between itself and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index.
Could poor UK earnings lead to higher equity prices?
It’s tough to be excessively positive on the outlook for corporate profits in the midst of a global pandemic. But that’s not going to stop eternal optimists as we dive deep into the UK quarterly reporting season. This period provides UK investors with an opportunity to look beyond the health crisis to provide justification for the sharp stock market rebound we’ve seen in recent months.
The Wirecard Scandal
It appears that it’s not just Covid-19 that we need to be concerned about because in recent months we have seen an escalation in fraudulent financial cases which is causing companies to buckle. Whether or not these frauds are coming to light because of the pandemic doesn’t actually matter because eventually a fraud will be found out. What’s worrying is that they are not being picked up even by the most savvy of investors.
The Slow Road to Recovery
As markets bounce around seeking stabilisation, at a time when European countries and individual US states gradually start to reopen, UK investors can now start to survey the wreckage.
Don’t Forget the investment opportunities from Brexit
Many UK investors are looking towards European stocks in the hope that there’s been a fundamental shift in the region’s prospects. After all we are Europe’s closest neighbour and with Brexit (yes, do we still even remember that) now in full swing, the changing dynamics between Europe and the UK will undoubtedly give rise to great investment opportunities.
Is now the time to buy British Airways?
If there was ever an example of the disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street, the stock market behaviour during the rising social unrest in the US exemplifies it. The stock market has risen against all the odds and this is not the first time that we are raising this as a red flag because many investors are clearly getting carried away.
Car Makers back on the Road
UK investors would have been disappointed had they invested in European carmakers in recent years. This sector has been a massive laggard in a region that was already struggling. For context, industry stocks were dragged lower due to four main reasons:
Stock Market Continues to Rally, But Buyer Beware
With the coronavirus continuing to impact, UK investors may need to get used to the concept of: “It’s different this time.” Time will tell as to whether the effect of the pandemic is more than just transitory. The concern is that the investing environment has changed structurally and personal finances will suffer. At the very least, current investor sentiment remains cautious. Recent surveys show that individual and institutional investors are overwhelmingly bearish. The Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Fund Managers’ Survey is a closely watched monthly gauge of market sentiment. The survey of 223 fund managers showed that just 25% of respondents viewed April's market rally as the beginning of a new bull market. At the same time, 68% saw it as a bear market rally. The data also showed only 10% expecting a V-shaped recovery from the Coronavirus recession. Instead, 75% projected a slower U- or W-shaped bounce. Respondents are more bearish than bullish
Why is the stock market doing so well when we are heading for a recession?
The stock market and the economy continue to go their separate ways. That’s because bad news simply isn’t enough to derail a market that confounds expectations. UK investors and indeed investors around the world need to adapt to this new normal. But as always, it’s the US market that we need to take direction from because that will be the mother of all indicators in terms of where we are headed here in the UK. Economic data has clearly deteriorated at a faster-than-expected rate. In the first quarter of 2020 the US economy slowed at its fastest rate since the financial crisis – and this was before the full scope of the lockdown was in place. Private payroll numbers fell by more than 20 million in April, which is the worst drop in ADP survey history.
Is Elon Musk bad news for Tesla?
The electric vehicle maker Tesla sits at the cutting edge of change in the automotive industry. It is the leading light in the sector’s transition away from petrol and diesel usage. And yet, for some time, investors have had a love-hate relationship with the company. Much of that comes down to how they view its maverick Co-Founder and CEO Elon Musk.
Are we headed for a Double-Dip in the Stock Market?
The US stock market is yet to re-test its late March lows, even though background challenges remain. UK investors should therefore remain vigilant. From an economic perspective, the deterioration continues. More than 26 million Americans filed for unemployment over the five weeks running up to the end of April. The coronavirus spread may be peaking in some parts of the US, but it remains a major impediment to normalisation across most states.
Volatility is creating huge opportunity, but how long will it last?
Volatility has become the new normal. This is not easy for many UK investors, but there are some who are taking full advantage of it. The market swings are likely to be unparalleled for those that first got into stock investing during the decade-long bull run. So far this year, the VIX volatility index has seen 19 sessions where it ended up at least 5%.
Gold is back in Vogue
2020 has been an encouraging year to be a gold investor. The commodity price has risen dramatically on the back of a negative backdrop of the coronavirus and the collapse in the oil price. In recent weeks gold crossed as high as $1,700 an ounce, hitting its highest level in over seven years. It has since retreated, but most investors would be happy with gold’s return when compared with other asset classes.
Coronavirus spreads to market panic
This has been a quite a time to be an equity investor. The euphoria that opened the year on the back of a stellar 2019 has completely dissipated in recent weeks. If COVID-19 wasn’t enough, we’ve now got a full-blown oil industry crisis driven by geopolitical tensions between Russia, Saudi Arabia and ultimately the US shale industry. We’ve got two black swans at the same time.
Challenges for Global Oil Stocks
The slump in Brent crude prices to 13-month lows has taken many investors by surprise. The price collapse has had a significant impact on the performance of the large energy names. Shares in sector giants BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, for example, have all fallen to multi-year lows in recent months.So, what’s behind the downturn? Not enough demand China is the world’s largest importer of oil and acts as the buyer of last resort.
US Markets Remain Resilient...For Now
For US stock market investors, 2020 has started off on a similar footing to how 2019 ended. The US is the best performer of all the major global equity markets. It has continued to attract investor fund flow, thanks to strong momentum, FOMO (“fear of missing out”) behaviour, and a realisation that the US offers secular growth opportunities in a world of negative interest rates.
Making Money in the Green Revolution
Making Money in the Green Revolution In the capitalist world in which we all live, society has become used to the importance of money for our survival. However, despite the obvious benefits that it brings, ‘money’ remains one of those odd instruments which continues to attract more hate than it does love.
Passive or Active – what’s best?
In today’s article we are going to discuss a topic of investing which seems to still attract a lot of heated attention. The question that remains so fiercely debated within the investment world is of course, is it better to be active or passive? This general debate then leads to the more specific question of whether investors should favour tracker funds over individual equities. Well, clearly there are two arguments to every story and so for the purposes of impartiality we will try our best to be unbiased and look only at the facts.
THE BIGGEST RISK TO YOUR DIVIDENDS
The Biggest Risk to your Dividends Following last week’s thumping general election victory that the Conservative party enjoyed, it was little surprise that the stock market liked the news. In fact, the FTSE100 market rallied well over 100 points fuelled by double-digit growth from several blue-chip companies with particularly strong performances from some of the housebuilders including Persimmon which rallied by a staggering 15% on the open and closed up 12% on the day.
ITV: COMPANY AND SHARES REPORT
Overview: ITV plc is a British media company based in London, England. It holds 13 of the 15 regional television licenses that make up the ITV network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.
Melrose Industries: Company and Shares Report
Melrose Industries buys good manufacturing businesses with strong fundamentals whose performance can be improved. Melrose finances its acquisitions using a low level of leverage, improves the businesses by a mixture of investment and changed management focus, sells them and returns the proceeds to shareholders.
JD Sports: Company and Shares Report
It’s understandable why many investors would want to wait and see what the outcome will be of the general election on 12th December and Brexit before making any significant investing decisions, not to mention the ongoing trade wars between the US and China. And while doing nothing and staying in cash for the time being is an option, if planning on investing in certain sectors which may be heavily influenced by these events
Unilever: shares and company report
Under the current economic climate where we have trade tensions and uncertainties, you will be forgiven for wanting to sit on your hands and see how things play out before making any new investing decisions. While that is an option, the volatility has created lucrative opportunities to buy solid companied at an attractive price, and if we were to focus on companies which have strong balance sheets,
Webis: Company and Shares Report
As many may know, the AIM market has seen a number of great opportunities over the years, but also its fair share of disasters. We take a look at an interesting company which fits a high-risk, high- reward investor profile: Webis Plc. To understand what Webis is, investors need to understand the fairly complex corporate changes to the US gambling industrythat have been ongoing for a number of months now.
WOODFORD INCOME EQUITY FUND
Neil Woodford is one of the UK’s best-known fund managers. He has had a hugely successful career over a 30-year period. Anyone who invested £10,000 at the start of his quarter-of-a-century career at Invesco Perpetual would have seen their money grow to almost £250,000 by the time he left. It is true to say he achieved his fair share of fame.
Black Swan Events
A black swan is an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and isextremely difficult to predict; the term was popularized by Nassim Nicholas Talab. Throughout history of the financial markets there have been a number of black swan events such as the dot.combubble, black Wednesday and more recently the 2008 financial crash.
SIRIUS MINERALS: COMPANY AND SHARES REPORT
Last week was very bad for Sirius Minerals, the Potash miner based in North Yorkshire. The project is estimated to be worth up to £4billion, but the FTSE 250 firm fell by 60% when its latest financing deal was scrapped by the Government, which refused to guarantee multi-million-pound loans for the huge fertiliser mine near Whitby, in Yorkshire. History Founded in 2003, the company initially focused on exploring the potential for potash mining in North Dakota.
staffline: company and shares report
Today we examine Staffline, one of the UKs largest recruiter/employment agencies. Staffline is a leading outsourcing organisation providing services, mainly in the UK and Eire, to both Government and commercial customers. The Staffing division supplies up to 52,000 workers per day to more than 1,500 clients. The People Plus division is a leading provider to both Central and Local Government, offering a wide range of services to help and support in the Employability (Welfare to Work), Communities and Skills arenas.
Burford Capital: company and shares report
Burford Capital, founded in 2009, provides specialized finance to the legal market. It operates as a finance and professional services company worldwide with principal offices in New York, London and Chicago. The company offers financing to lawyers and clients engaged in litigation and arbitration, asset recovery and other legal finance and advisory activities. Burford Capital has initially started on the AIM market with a valuation of 80million, only to see that figure sore
Galileo Resources : COMPANY AND SHARE REPORT
The recent strange market open delay that occurred a few Fridays ago was highly unusual. Only the computer-controlled FTSE 100 and 250 were both affected, with the AIM market trading as normal. The markets opened at around 10:30am, a delay of nearly 2 and a half hours. Could these strange events be a precursor to something bigger? During the 2008 crash, in September of that year the NYSE bell which signals the open failed to go off, which then led to a major sell off for the day.
ITV : company and share report
ITV plc is a British media company based in London, England. It holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV studios have diversified their business model by capitalising from their competitors success. They have achieved this by producing some of their most successful shows. These include the BBC's Bodyguard
greatland gold: company and share report
Greatland Gold is a company trading on the UK AIM market. We have covered the company before but we will now revisit it based on new grounds for investment. Greatland was brought to attention in 2016, at around 0.28p mark—today the company
thomas cook: company and share report
Thomas Cook Group is a British global travel company. It was formed on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG. The company has 9.6 billion in revenue for 2018 and has over 21,000 employees and operates across 16 countries. The company is split into 2 divisions- the group tour operator and the group airline. Thomas Cooks shares fell drastically last Friday: at one point they were down more than 60%
Pension – To Consolidate or Not to Consolidate?
In the old days, people would secure a job after leaving college and would stay with their first employers until they collected their golden tickets. Today, people are open to changing jobs more frequently. In fact, according to a research by life insurance firm LV, people in the UK change employers every five years on average.
The Numbers That Make for a Financially Peaceful Retirement
Henry Youngman once said: “I’ve got all the money I’ll ever need, if I die by four o’clock.” That’s quite a timeline! And while we’re confident that everyone reading this post has much more money in their bank account or savings pot than is enough to last them till mid-afternoon (relax; you aren’t leaving this world that soon), it really calls for the thought-provoking question: how much numbers are actually enough? This isn’t an easy question to answer to be honest. Retirement life is like a clean slate, and you can choose to live it however you may want.
yellow cake: company & share report
Yellow Cake is an AIM market share that specialises in the investing and holding of physical Uranium that came to the market in July 2018. The company is offering direct exposure to the spot uranium price without exploration, development, mining or processing risk. Since coming to the market, the company have been rather flat share price-wise, as seen below.
COSTAIN: COMPANY AND SHARE REPORT
Click here to download the full report. The FTSE is currently trading within a very tight range - we are experiencing minimal volatility which is unusual, in particular when considering the events occurring around the world at present. There’s a chance we will see further tensions over the weekend since the G20 meeting which led to Trump making further progress with trade talks with China. This week we saw a large fall in another building/contractor services provider, Costain. The company fell 43% on the release of the 6-month trading update. The company says projects including the M6 Smart Motorway
Kore Potash: Company & Share Report
In early 2014 London Stone Securities began bringing Sirius Minerals to the attention of investors. The company is a potash miner based on Yorkshire and it has, since then, significantly grown in size and turned into a billion-pound company. There is no doubt that the future of world food needs is going to be impacted by environmental concerns, sustainability and dwindling natural resources.
Agronomics: Company & Share Report
Agronomics, previously Port Erin Biopharma Investments Limited, was founded on the 3rd May 2011. The company’s purpose is to invest into the alternative food sector, specifically in the emerging area of alternative food technology. The Company's non-executive Director is Jim Mellon, who has had a successful career in the fund management industry. He is expected to participate in a Fundraise to the necessary extent to maintain his existing shareholding in the Company of 29.0%
Is Countrywide worth buying for your portfolio?
Countrywide is the United Kingdom's largest property group. It includes residential property surveying, a collaboration of estate agents, and corporate services. It employs circa 10,000 personnel nationwide, working across 850+ estate agency or lettings offices operating under 65+ local high street brands, supplemented by 650 mortgage consultants.
Upcoming UK IPOs
All companies have to start somewhere, and often, it involves having the founders invest a chunk of their own money in the hopes of eventually growing the business. But as small, private companies start to gain traction, many come to find that they need outside financing to continue growing, and therefore decide to go public. And that's where IPOs come in.
Share in Focus: Royal Mail
This week, on the 22nd May, we will see Royal Mail announce their full year results 2018-19. Royal mail has for 1 year done not much else but decline from a high of 561p to a year low of 231p. We will now examine the company as a whole, the reasons we are where we are and what may be in the future, assessing the case for investment.
Share in Focus: Astra Zeneca
AstraZeneca is a biopharmaceutical company. The Company focuses on discovery and development of products, which are then manufactured, marketed and sold. The Company focuses on three main therapy areas: Oncology, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease (CVMD) and Respiratory, while selectively pursuing therapies in Autoimmunity, Infection and Neuroscience.
LSS Trading ideas
Click here to download the full report. This year, during Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, CNBC caught up with legendary investor Warren Buffet. After a fairly rudimentary conversation, towards the end of the interview Buffet made a comment out of character, a cryptic statement: “We will look back at this period and be surprised we didn't see what was coming next”.
Share in Focus: IAG
International Consolidated Airlines is an airline company that holds the interests in airline and ancillary operations. Its segments include British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and Other Group companies. It combines the airlines in the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland. It has approximately 550 aircrafts to over 280 destinations.
The Big Short
In early 2005 Volkswagen, the largest car company in Germany, was not doing particularly well and suffered a depressed share price and low earnings. Though the company had $123 billion dollars in annual sales, its annual profits were only around $2.2billion and its market capitalization only around $17billion.
Rank Group - worth a gamble?
Overview The Rank Group is a gambling company based in the United Kingdom. Rank was involved in the cinema and motion picture industry until 2006, and continues to use the Gongman logo originally used by the Rank Organisation's film distribution subsidiary General Film Distributors. Its brands now include Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, the UK's largest casino operator.
The 3 biggest mistakes that stock market Investors will make in 2019
The first two months of this year have already proven to be more dramatic and inspiring than anything that we have seen in the past twelve. Last year, the stock market struggled for prolonged periods and particularly in the second half, where there was very little positivity to be taken from it. In fact, over the Christmas Period the UK leading equity index, the FTSE 100, plummeted to below 6,500 which sent investors into a panic.
Five Rules of Investing in the Stock Market
The saying goes that there are many ways to skin a cat, and whilst we don’t advocate animal cruelty of any kind, this principle is a very valid one. It is also particularly applicable to stock market investing. In other words, there is no single right or wrong strategy that will consistently guarantee results – there are multiple strategies that can be equally effective. However, and like most things in life, if you want to increase your chances of being successful, there are still a few key principles that you should follow.
Move your head before you get punched
There’s nothing better than being punched in the face to awaken the senses. And it doesn’t matter how many martial arts books that you read or how many boxing matches that you watch on YouTube, the only way to really know what it feels like to be punched in the face, is, well…to be punched in the face.
What’s better – Funds or Shares?
There has been a lot of talk recently about funds and their usefulness in a bear market. After all, when things are slowing down and the stock market is falling in value, the idea that a fund will somehow do better than an individual share is quite frankly a nonsensical argument. In most cases a fund is simply a type of Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) which means that it is a collection of individual shares.
The 2019 Crypto comeback
I was milling around in Harrods yesterday not because I had any intention to buy anything but because my better half loves that shop. Thankfully she loves to window shop more than actually buy anything which is just well for me. In fact, I hate shopping and I am as far removed from being a fan of shopping as one could probably be. I have often thought that whilst the internet has had so many incredible uses such as connecting people through email, transferring money in seconds to somebody on the other side of the world, or the ability to stream a live film straight into the comfort of your own living room, I can’t help but think that it’s number one use is for people to buy something without ever having to walk into a shop again.
2019 could be a fantastic year for Investors…even if the stock market crashes
…and welcome back. Wow, doesn’t time to fly so quickly. We are already into the 2nd week of January of the new year and 2018 is all but a distant memory. So how was your Christmas and New Year? Good, I’m glad to hear that…now let’s continue with that wonderful warm, fuzzy feeling of joy and happiness and make 2019 fantastic too.
Where’s Santa when you need him?
After months of bleating from yours truly about the impending stock market crash, it seems that the business newspapers and financial press have finally caught up with what the City has been predicting for some time. This comes as no surprise to me as the financial news is always at least 3 months behind the true economic picture and at least 6 months behind the true stock market picture.
‘The Death Cross’ is out to kill your portfolio
If you didn’t believe the hype, you better start believing it now. The largest financial bomb since the 2008 crash which has been dangerously positioned beneath the global stock markets since the start of the year, has, as of last week, been officially detonated. I knew it was coming sooner or later but it turns out that it was sooner than even I had imagined.
Eliminating inefficiency is the quickest way to improve returns
Last week I received an email from one of my traders telling me that I should speak to at all of my clients that were holding the bakery company, Greggs. Apparently, the company had gone up in price by 7% that morning and was looking particularly strong. Now, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t become too excited, after all, companies in the stock market are always going up and down – that’s completely normal
IPO, Pie in the Sky Valuations
I would hazard a guess that it’s probably been about two years since I first had the idea that I should write a book, but little did I know then how painfully slow it would be to write one. For somebody who typically likes to spend more time executing than planning, it’s been quite frustrating. However, if we are to believe that ‘good things come to those who wait’, I am hoping for something fantastic because I have been incredibly patient. In truth, the problem is not with the book but with me because I am constantly finding new things to put into it. The book is called “The 13 Insider Tradin...
Investors are caught in the headlights
At the present time there appears to be a lot of confusion and dare I say it, panic, amongst private investors in the market place. Investors are scared that the stock market is over-valued and that it is due either for a correction or a major crash and yet seem absolutely helpless to do anything about it. This baffles me because if you know something is about to happen to you which is going to be painful then surely it would make sense to do something to counter it. It’s the equivalent of a deer being caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck and not moving out of the way. The only differ...
the DIP strategy
If you have read my recent posts then you will know that for the past few weeks I have been shouting from the proverbial rooftops of what I believe to be the inevitable, impending market correction that we now all face. Through rain or shine I have been sharing with those willing to listen and even those who have no interest in listening, how the stock market is significantly over-valued and therefore poised for a crash. Therefore, and at the risk of repeating myself and losing both of my avid followers on social media, I have reiterated my point with consistent and determined frequency to the...
Watch out for the dead cat bounce
Although I am definitely a dog lover over a cat lover, I am an animal lover first and foremost. Thankfully therefore I have never seen a dead cat, less still one that bounces. However, I am preparing myself for that unsightly eventuality over the coming weeks. Before you ring the RSPCA I should make clear that I am of course talking about the stock market. The infamous ‘dead cat bounce’ refers to the time when a stock market rallies from a low point as investors expect a recovery in prices and it is usually fuelled by the same people who have already lost their shirt in the downward market cor...
THERE IS NO SAFE HAVEN
Following on from last week’s article I received some highly alarming messages from my avid readers (yes both of them) that struck me as being full of unnecessary panic. Whilst I make no apology for being direct when writing about something serious as an impending stock market crash, I do feel that I should put people’s minds at rest. There is some good news. The good news is that you are entirely in control of your investments and your portfolio. In other words, if the market is about to either moderately correct or even crash, which I believe it is, then you have nothing to fear because all ...
WHAT DID I TELL YOU?
I don’t get any pleasure by uttering those immortal words ‘I told you so’, but that’s exactly how I’m going to begin this week’s article. That’s because last week we saw the FTSE100 pull back dangerously close to the psychologically important 7,000 support line (representing a 10% fall since May’s peak) and I, like many others, have been warning about this impending crash for several months. As soon as the market failed to break through the 8,000-barrier earlier this year and create a technical ‘triple top’ formation, the writing has been on the wall. The weird thing is why so many investors b...
NO TEARS SHED FOR CFD FIRMS
There is a saying in the City that the ‘market is always right’. Even when it’s wrong, it’s right, if you know what I mean? That’s because it’s the value that investors place on it at that moment in time. Therefore, and following this logic, the market can never be undervalued or overvalued, it’s always absolutely right; for the budding economists in you, this is otherwise referred to as ‘Efficient Market Hypothesis’ theory. It is an interesting theory and I can see the argument very clearly, partly because I have a background in Economics but mainly because it just makes a lot of sense. Howev...
ALGORITHM TRADING IS NO OIL PAINTING
If you have been paying close attention to the stock market recently you may have seen a strange phenomenon that you couldn’t quite put your finger on. The reason that maybe you can’t put your finger on it, is because the phenomenon that I talk of has become so common place that it actually no longer feels like a phenomenon; it feels like any other day in the market. What I’m talking about is unjustified or unusual volatility in the market. In other words, it’s when the pricing of the index quickly increases or decreases in value for no apparent reason. It happened just a couple of weeks ago...
WHY THE FSCS SHOULD BE SAYING “NOT TONIGHT MATE, YOU’RE NOT COMIN’ IN”
Whenever you invest in anything you are assuming two types of risk, and in order to make money effectively you need to understand both of them. The first type of risk is ‘credit risk’ and the second type is ‘market risk’. Credit risk refers to the risk that the company which you are investing through will run off with your money. In other words, you could find a fantastic investment opportunity but if you buy it through Del Boy Trotters & Co. you might find that Rodney is the one who becomes a millionaire this time next year, not you. The second type of risk is investment risk which is pretty ...
Weekly Report: Ferrexpo PLC
Ferrexpo mines for, develops, processes, produces, markets, exports, and sells iron ore pellets to the metallurgical industry worldwide. It has a customer base supplying steel mills in Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and other European states, as well as in China, India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Click here to download the full report. 
Greatland Gold
Greatland Gold (GGP) is a company trading on the UK AIM market. The company was brought to clients’ attention in 2016, around 0.28p mark, and today it trades at around 2p. We believe GGP has a lot more potential, so let’s take a more in-depth look at the company. Click here to download the full report. 
Greatland in over 5 years has had a number of very big spikes, followed then by large retracements, which allow for individuals who believe in the company to either have sold at a large profit or have added further to a longer term investment. Accumulating shares this way can be immensely p...
THE QE PARTY IS OVER
There is no doubt that in the past decade we have witnessed some of the most incredible growth in equity prices that we have ever seen over any 10-year period. In fact, the UK benchmark stock market, the FTSE100, took just 6 years to double in value from its lows at around 3,500 in March 2009 to just under 7,000 in March 2015 – that’s a whopping 16% annualised return and PLUS you earn your dividends on top! Imagine that. At a time when the Bank of England Base rate was floored at 0.5%, the lowest level in its 320+ years of history, and when most current account holders were lucky to be seeing ...
BULLET-PROOFING BREXIT
There is only one word on the lips of investors right now and that is ‘Brexit’. It is a small word, indeed only six characters in length and yet its impact has been so prolific that it has fuelled the most heated debate in a generation and has divided a nation. It is the ultimate marmite question if ever there was one, either you love it, or you hate it. Whilst I have no more of an answer to the political conundrum than any of our seemingly incompetent representatives in Parliament, I do have a solution to the investment problem. You see Brexit isn’t a big deal when it comes to finance, and in...
THE PUMP AND DUMP SCANDAL
I’m no author but I have just recently finished writing my first (and last) ever book, entitled “The 13 Insider Trading Secrets that will blow your mind” It’s an expose of what goes on in the City from the 20+ years that I have been in the game and specifically it talks about how trading and investing in general is rigged in favour of the professionals against the retail investors. There is some pretty hard-hitting truth of what goes on behind closed doors that I think needs to be out in the public domain. The scandals, money laundering, clients being ripped off, principal dealing, CFDs, brown...
WHY DO INVESTORS STILL NOT UNDERSTAND BONDS?
When the stock market volatility is not doing you any favours and when the banks are screwing you for every penny saved that you have worked so hard for, it makes you wonder why investors still fail to recognise the obvious sanctuary of fixed income investments. I mean, just think about it for a second. The stock market has been booming for a decade since the collapse in 2008 and the low in equity prices globally around March 2009. Since then we have seen this unprecedented run which many would argue has been nothing short of magical. Even the Brexit vote and subsequent turmoil and mayhem has ...
IS THIS THE EASIEST INVESTMENT STRATEGY EVER?
Everybody is in search of the holy grail of investing, right? We are all out there looking for this one silver bullet that will solve all of our financial woes and of course along the way there are plenty of mistakes that are being made by investors. However, one of the biggest mistakes that are being made in my opinion is that people are over-complicating things in search of making money. It is as if our human defensive mechanism nature kicks in and we automatically assume that in order to make money or to make our investments grow, that it has to be complicated. For example, one of the most ...
WHY EUROPE IS FALLING AND WHY IT IS A GOOD TIME TO BUY
One of the most common debates that I have with my clients and investors generally is whether it is better to be a long term buy and hold investor or if in fact it makes more financial sense to trade the stock market. Advocates on either side will tell you why theirs is the most compelling argument. For example, a buy and hold investor will tell you that ‘it’s not timing of the market but time IN the market’. A short-term investor on the other hand will tell you that the only way to beat the market is to trade the market; otherwise you may as well buy an index rate tracker. Whilst both stateme...
GET READY FOR THE DAY AHEAD
Putting yourself under duress is not only important but necessary. That’s because the physical body and the mental state of the mind are inextricably linked. Therefore, and unlike people who like to wake up slowly, have a nice cup of coffee, have a full English breakfast and then ease their way into the day, I am the polar opposite. Yes, I like coffee as much as the next person and I love a full English but before that I want to put myself under intense pressure. This is counter intuitive to the body because it’s not expecting it, especially first thing in the morning, and if you are really lu...
DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE SCAMMERS
It’s so annoying when good, hard working people get scammed out of their money. It’s even worse when those good, hard working people are vulnerable either because of their age, their health, their lack of experience or knowledge or maybe it’s just because they are less able to protect themselves. What I’m talking about of course are the boiler room scammers and con artists selling you the dream that doesn’t exist. Despite the best effort of the FCA, in my opinion I think that this problem is getting worse, much worse. In fact, I don’t think that a day goes by in my job where I don’t speak to a...
KIM JONG-UN AND TRUMP FINALLY GET IT ON
I’m a firm believer in speaking my mind and I think most traders are. I think that’s because when I search for opportunities in the market I have to be sure, I mean really sure. There can be no doubt in my mind, not even a flicker of doubt. The moment that doubt enters your mind, the trade is probably lost because you have just entered a new whole world of uncertainty and pain. You doubt everything, you doubt your entry point, the company you have just bought, your analysis, your exit, is your stop-loss too far? is too near? hell – do I even need a stop loss on this trade? – worst of all you d...
INHERITANCE TAX,WHY YOU SHOULDN’T PAY
You may not know this about me but I regard myself as a modern-day Robin Hood. That’s because I steal from the rich and give to the poor. Now before you call the police allow me to explain – by ‘stealing’ I don’t mean theft in the traditional sense. What I mean I that I even things up by taking valuable information which is usually available only to the wealthiest elite and I disseminate that information to the masses. Stealing information and knowledge is far more valuable than money, and in any case, it’s not stealing anyway. The rich just happen to have acquired this information/knowledge b...
Picking bottoms is a dirty habit
There are many rules to investing and trading but one of the simplest and most important ones is simply that you have to mitigate risk and maximise return. In fact, it’s the bedrock of making money and without it, you are totally lost. I also spent months analysing data from scores, no hundreds, of investor portfolios and what I found didn’t surprise me. They all showed the same pattern – the real and ‘easiest’ way to make money is to focus on risk not on profit. If you get that equation right then your results will improve instantly. With that in mind let me share with you one tip to help red...
How to make money made simple
When it comes to making money, the formula is surprisingly quite simple. You need to look at cashflow. Yes, you can look at capital appreciation and try and make money on the asset base, or if you were feeling particularly frisky you might like the idea of ‘speculate to accumulate’, or you could just stick your money on the 3-legged horse ‘Pull Your Pants Down’ running out of starting gate 13 at Ascot. However, the sensible money is made through a strong appreciation and respect of those two eternal concepts of risk and return. Once you understand that everything (yes, I mean everything) has a...
Bye Beaufort
When it comes to investing in shares there are two main types of risk – market risk and credit risk. The ‘market risk’ is the risk of the stock market and that can be mitigated through sensible investment strategies including using options, futures, inverse ETFs and so on. The market risk is therefore something that everybody knows about, and it is what investors are completely pre-occupied with when they think about risk. However, there is another type of risk which is much worse than market risk and that is ‘credit risk’. The reason that it is worse than market risk is that it won’t just aff...
STEADY YOUR AIM BEFORE SHOOTING
I have been very fortunate in my career in as much that I have experienced many different types of investment products and markets whilst working for a number of different companies. From massive, international investment banks like Deutsche Bank and RBS to smaller specialist outfits like Hoodless Brennan, which later became Beaufort Securities, and later still became bankrupt (more about that later). And it’s because of this varied experience and knowledge in different markets that I have seen things within the investment world that most people don’t see. I know successful traders and fund ma...
WHY BONDS ARE STILL MISUNDERSTOOD
For those of you who know me, you will know that I am a huge advocate of people taking control of their lives through sensible investing. It’s one of those things that is sorely missed in our education system. Even with my own education with an ‘A’ in Economics A-level, a 2.1 degree in Economics and Accounting, a Masters in Business and Finance and various post-graduate professional qualifications to my name, I can honestly say that none of these courses actually taught me anything about investing. It was all theory with lovely concepts, ideas and historical reasoning. It was all about yesterd...
WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT? ASDA-BURYS!
Over the weekend I was as shocked as everybody else to hear that Sainsburys and Asda were in advanced negotiations to merge and create a new retailing empire worth £10billion. OMG! The schoolground bully that has reigned supreme and unchallenged for so long, must be worrying this morning after hearing the weekend news. In fact, the only thing that will seem to save Tesco now will be the Competition Watchdog and the Takeover for Panels and Mergers. If they think that competition will be reduced then it won’t pass. However, as I write this article at 805am on Monday 30th April, Sainsburys is tra...
# WE’RE IN THE MONEY…# ? DOH!
After the shock announcement over the weekend of Sainsburys and Asda potentially merging to create a £10 billion behemoth retail giant that will surpass even the monster that is Tesco, I had a lot of questions about how this position should be traded i.e. how to make money from the deal. So today I’m going to share with you some simple strategies. Now remember, as I always say with my articles, I am not giving investment advice and I’m not encouraging you to take any sort of action. I’m just sharing what I know and hopefully you will take some value from it. Right, that’s the risk disclaimer o...
WHY DEBT IS NO LONGER A DIRTY WORD
Debt is one of those dirty words that people don’t seem to like to talk about, especially in my household when I was growing up. That’s because being part of that first generation of children that were born in this great country to migrants from Panjab (India) in search of a better life, I have had instilled in me from a very young age that debt equates to the devil. Even when people struggled to feed their families taking out debt was the last thing on their minds. If we had no food, my parents would find another way. Debt was that bad that we could go without clothes, books or food if necess...
IT’S TIME TO AUDIT THE AUDITORS
It’s difficult enough to make money in the stock market without being fed false information. I mean, before you buy a share you probably look at the company’s balance sheet, the profit and loss account, research the directors on board, break down the business model, analyse the chart, look at the dividend flow and cover, research the market place, look at your bank account to see if you have enough money, speak to your wife to make sure she’s not going to leave you if it all goes horribly wrong and then finally, you pull the trigger – you ring up your broker and ask them to buy you £10,000 of ...
3 TIPS TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
I have never really regarded myself as being a particularly talented businessman or entrepreneur. To the contrary, I see myself as average at best. I don’t know whether that is because I am always very hard on myself or because I compare how my skill set as an entrepreneur compares against that of being an investor. If that’s the comparison then hands down, the investor wins. That’s because I have dedicated my entire adult life to becoming good at one thing and that is how to invest money and I have to say it’s a pretty useful skill to have learned. If you think that everybody in the world (wi...
FOCUS ON YOUR LOSSES, NOT YOUR PROFITS
Everybody wants to make money in the stock market but it’s all too easy to get distracted from how to do that. In fact, over the years the distraction has become so strong that I feel that most investors have actually lost their way entirely. You see, very much like me, my thinking is also quite simple. For example, and whilst I can’t say for sure I would imagine that if you go back far enough to when people first began investing in the stock market, you would probably find that they focussed mostly on the risk element of their portfolio. I’m also sure that the collapse of the equity markets t...
THE TRIPLE S ‘SHARE SPIKE STRATEGY’
For today’s article, I thought that it was about time to start to giving my two avid followers some real, tangible value. That’s not to say that I don’t think that you receive great value and no doubt pleasure from my information packed, informative and mildly witty reports but rather you deserve now to see how to make real money from it. So today I’m going to share with you a very simple but incredibly effective strategy that I use to make money for me and my clients. Now I should warn you as I always do, this is not investment advice and I don’t want you to implement it, lose your money and ...
EUROPE LOOKS CHEAP TO ME
Despite the fact that I believe that the market could suffer a crash either this year or next. that is not to say that I am not investing or that you shouldn’t either. After all investing in the markets whilst simultaneously protecting a portfolio using hedging strategies is not the same as sitting in cash and watching your money dwindle away into the abyss through inflation. So, with that mindset, and assuming that you agree with my hypothesis the next question is where do you invest? Well, US technology stocks certainly are not flavour of the month. What with Trump’s tweets on Amazon (which ...