As UK and global markets face the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, Louise Kernohan, co‑manager of Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust, advocates a focus on high-quality companies and the need for a long-term mind-set.…
Income in Retirement – A Shift in Thinking
With the new pension freedoms legislation now firmly part of the retirement planning landscape in the UK, the true implications of these changes are now starting to be truly understood. What is clear in our…
Market review: safe as houses?
The UK stock market began the week well, with share prices moving up in tandem with the oil price, which rose above $51 on Wednesday. But things turned sour thereafter, leaving the FTSE 100 index…
Why gold can be the winner if US interest rates stay low
Policy makers in the US continue to look for an excuse to keep interest rates low, and that should send the gold price higher from here, according to Nitesh Shah, analyst at ETF Securities. US…
Week in review: this is not just any profits warning…
Hundreds of millions of pounds were wiped off Marks & Spencer’s market value on Wednesday after the high street icon warned that a plan to revamp its clothing range would tear a hole in its…
Viva la revolucion
Gold, oil and house prices have, at different times, all been viewed as a one way bet by British investors, but the goldbugs hoping for a rebound have been disappointed for many years and those forecasting…
Week in review: ruffled feathers
“I know a hawk from a handsaw.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet And so, evidently, do the markets. Four hundred years on from Shakespeare’s death, investors are in absolutely no danger of mistaking the merest hint of…
Week in review: talking nonsense
In celebration of the birthday of author and poet Edward Lear, Thursday was declared National Limerick Day. Former Bank of England monetary policy committee member Andrew Sentance took this to heart and decided the form…
Market review: inertia – gaining momentum?
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Will Rogers (1879-1935) Mr Rogers was a man of multiple talents – Depression-era humourist, newspaper columnist, political commentator, vaudevillian…
Market review: oiling the wheels
The week began with a whimper, as the Doha oil talks – at which the world’s major oil producers discussed cutting production – ended without agreement on Sunday. Although the oil price initially dipped in…
Continuing our hunt for opportunities
Today, everyone is aware of the lack of pricing power of commodity businesses just as they became aware of the complexity and leverage inherent in bank business models in 2008. Likewise, all the economic analysis…
A Tour of Financial Markets
We have been looking for the end of the risk rally for a few weeks now. US equity and credit markets have been the most robust and have so far refused to rollover. Elsewhere, we…
Built for staying power
How time flies when you are enjoying yourself as a personal finance journalist. I can’t believe that nearly 30 golden years have passed since I first started writing about the virtues of investment trusts. I…
Market review: Saving the euro
For many years now, Mario Draghi has relied on a four-word promise to keep the Eurozone ship on an even keel. The European Central Bank (ECB) president has repeatedly asserted that he would “do whatever…
What is Priced in to the ECB Meeting This Week?
Financial markets have enjoyed a very robust recovery in the last three weeks. In our opinion, the rally has not been driven by any fundamental improvement in economic growth or corporate or emerging market prospects.…
Market review: playing the game
Risk made a comeback this week – and we don’t mean the perennially popular, seemingly never-ending board game. Rather, investors – who recoiled as volatility struck equity markets early in 2016 – returned in their…
A simple exposure to markets
It is possible to introduce a lot of complexity into the selection of investments. Is it better to invest in large or small companies, for example? Or with this fund manager or that fund manager?…
Why gold is performing well right now
While cyclical assets and the oft-cited safe haven of the dollar have started to struggle the traditional ‘port in a storm’ asset of gold has started to reclaim its place as the ‘true safe haven’…
Tracking the market
How best to track the market Understandably, most investors assume that if a fund claims to track an index, their return will be exactly the same as the index. There are a number of reasons…