What’s Happened on Markets in the Last Week? The Roller Coaster continued and on foot of the governmental stimulus packages, especially the expected sign off by President Trump of the US package, markets recovered some of the falls by Friday’s close. Despite this individual stock markets are still significantly down on their opening values of 1st January. As I write this update at 5.30 pm Irish time, the US Markets have added another 2% gain
Read more →The Past Week In Markets & Protective Action Against Covid-19 A few weeks ago global stockmarkets were at record highs, supported by data on the US economy which indicated continued growth ahead. But as Covid-19 made its way to Europe and the US, markets turned quickly into the fastest declines on record with extreme intermittent volatility. With worst case scenarios being extrapolated fear of a recession has moved to the forefront of many minds. The
Read more →Firstly, the health issues Much has been written on the medical and health issues of COVID-19 in recent weeks by people far more knowledgeable than I am, and much more will follow in the weeks to come. Nonetheless, there is no doubt we are going to see a huge increase in the number of cases of the virus in the coming days and weeks. This is not due to any new pattern in the spread
Read more →When people gossip, it’s always about someone else and more often than not, there’s a comment on someone’s behaviour. People watching or, more correctly, behaviour watching provides fodder for the chat magazines and the tabloids. This, in turn, has led to the huge growth in reality TV whether it’s the X-Factor, America’s Got Talent, Big Brother, Masterchef or Iron Chef (take your pick). The list goes on. There seems to be a delight in seeing
Read more →It’s that time again when many commercial organisations are looking to kickstart their year off with a big marketing event so that they can display their wares in a good light and, hopefully, generate substantial new business volumes over the coming 12 months. The Financial Services Industry is no different. In the next few weeks, if past years’ experiences are likely to be repeated, I will receive invitations by at least 6 different investment fund
Read more →Every so often I come across a new client who is searching for the magic elixir of finance – the quick fix to all their financial woes. What they are really seeking is a quick and easy way to make more money without taking risk or putting in time. Unfortunately financial management on a personal level and the advice that is needed is not sexy or glamorous. In fact, it’s plain dull and boring. Nevertheless
Read more →Investors are a worrisome lot. When markets are falling many can get upset. Should they sell? Should they buy more? When markets are rising, the questions are the same. Should they sell? Should they buy more? It also depends on what asset is in the news. For a long time it was property, then gold, then bonds, then equities. What should I buy? What should I sell? Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to
Read more →It’s that time of the year when everyone takes stock of what they should have done in the last year and what they really should do in the coming year. Financial Planning is a subject that gets addressed more at this time of the year than any other mainly because of the tendency to “I better do this otherwise I’ll never get around to it”. Once January passes however, the mental incentive does as well. So
Read more →Every so often I meet a personal investor who will tell me that now is the right time or the wrong time to invest, depending on whether the markets are going up or down as well as depending on that individual’s past experience. Despite having 30 years of investment experience I never get into an argument with them because I know something they don’t. Namely, very, very experienced investment professionals rarely, if ever, out think
Read more →Stock markets are now at all time highs. Who would have thought that we would be saying that after the Global Financial Crisis back in 2008. Surely equity markets are now toppy? Many investors who went to cash around then have been too frightened to come back into the market in the intervening period and are now only considering re-entering after an almost 200% gain in stock prices. If anything this sounds like a classic
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