April 2013
1 post
15 tags
Why You Should be Investing in Europe
With UK inflation at 2.8% for February and ever low interest rates, investors are struggling to find real returns for their investments. With 10 yr Gilts currently yielding 1.71% and inflation likely to increase over the coming years, the fixed income space is looking less and less appetising. Judging by the increase in alternative fixed income products such as infrastructure funds, investors are...
March 2013
3 posts
25 tags
What should economists and policymakers learn from...
As you may know from reading my previous articles, I am interested in how the financial system is regulated. Not necessarily from a compliance perspective but more through an interest of how regulation can drive the financial markets. So the recent talk at LSE on ‘What should economists and policymakers learn from the financial crisis?’ was an event I had been looking forward to for...
12 tags
Cyprus Votes Down the Levy
As I am sure you have seen, the Cypriot parliament have voted down the levy on savings deposits perhaps marking the start of more volatility within the Eurozone. Whilst stocks have seemly shrugged it off so far, Greek bonds have taken a hammering with yields rising 60bps to 11.55% yesterday. The Euro has also struggled, falling to $1.2843 on the news.
As Cyprus has voted against the levy, all that...
8 tags
Budget Day
Tomorrow is budget day and George Osborne is expected to stick to his guns, continuing austerity for into the next tax year. Savers will undoubtedly find little reassurance in minutes released for a Bank of England policy meeting that suggest they will use ‘monetary balm’ to counteract the fiscal pain (FT).
Some things to look out for:
Further cuts in the public sector in a bid to...
February 2013
1 post
11 tags
The Tax Affair
Tax avoidance is in the news a frustratingly large amount recently. Often due to comments from politicians seeking to rile up major corporations. Unfortunately for Mr Cameron, Starbucks is unlikely to wake up a smell the coffee until he does.
The FT today reports on how the big four accountancy firms were yesterday ‘grilled’ on the morality of tax avoidance and I can’t help...
January 2013
1 post
14 tags
Minding the Markets
‘Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlwind of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes the by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done’
This quote by John Maynard Keynes in 1936 formed the final words by David Tuckett in his...
November 2012
2 posts
10 tags
Global Macro Outlook
The major issue for the global economy over the next few years is how the developed world will safely delever. On the most part this means keeping unemployment down, but when you look to Europe socialising the loss through default still can’t be ruled out. The most beneficial way for Europe to delever would be through actual economic growth and whilst recent moves by authorities point to...
11 tags
What does the future hold?
Since the hype of American elections is likely to soon subside, I thought it may be a good time to take a look at the general outlook for the economy. Every day I seem to read articles that are either vehemently bearish or vehemently bullish and it is hard to find clarity amongst the chaos. As with all problems, it can be beneficial to strip away the noise and look at the fundamentals. In the case...
October 2012
1 post
14 tags
Mid-Crisis Regulation
Here is an assignment I did for the Contemporary Issues in Finance module whilst at university. The assignment was to write an Economist article that investigated whether the regulatory proposals being made during the crisis were indicative of a convergence of international financial systems.
Mid-Crisis Regulation
August 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Flying Out The Door
I find a lot of the hype on Facebook boring. Its seems everyone is still interested after its monumental failure of a public offering. What I do find interesting though is that people didn’t see today coming.
Facebook has has its worst day so far (and there have already been some pretty awful ones). Its has hit new lows as a result of some pre-IPO selling bans being lifted, but how did...
15 tags
Derivatives Reform
An article in today’s FT reveals that Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have decided to have another poke at the recently shaky coalition, this time focusing on the availability of derivative products (interest rate swaps in particular) to retail customers. As part of the Vickers report, a post crisis document aimed assessing potential regulations for the UK banks, Sir John Vickers suggested to...
July 2012
5 posts
“Whatever the future, economic growth will be hard to come by, both at a national...”
– Peter Seilern, Chairman of Seilern Investment Management in their latest newsletter
24 tags
Whales, Risk and Ring-fences
London Whale - John Cole
JP Morgans ‘London Whale’ beached itself on the front pages again yesterday. This time revealing that the loss incurred by ‘it’ was not the $2.3bn as shown in the cartoon but indeed a mammoth $4.4bn that has caused them to restate first quarter earnings. This will no doubt add a petrol cans worth of fuel to the ongoing regulatory fire that has caused Ed Milliband to...
8 tags
Diamonds aren't always forever
I woke up this morning to a fascinating article by Martin Taylor, chief executive of Barclays at the time Bob Diamond was running Barclays Capital.
The article, as Rory Cellan-Jones put it (@ruskin147), shows that Bob Diamond ‘had previous’. Rory also rightly wandered why this story had not had more media focus.
In the article Taylor explains how Diamond had proposed a fivefold...
10 tags
Trading Global Consumer Sentiment
A University assignment in my final year required us to look at how news organisations could harness social media to better collate information. During the project I came across Derwent Capital which, at the time, was a hedge fund that made trades based on consumer sentiment data collected from Twitter. The company was set up by Paul Hawtin in 2008 and built upon research from Indiana...
6 tags
Open Innovation and the Pharmaceutical Industry
On the FT’s homepage today is news of a record $3bn fine that US regulators have dealt GSK (here). The fine is due to the companies ‘selective use of clinical data’ as well as the ‘aggressive marketing’ of drugs. Pharmaceuticals have often been accused of being less than honourable with the results of their clinical trials as well as using monetary reward to...
June 2012
5 posts
3 tags
“Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense to...”
– Warren Buffet
11 tags
Fundamentalist vs Optimist
For the UK, GDP figures have confirmed that the UK is in a double-dip recession (link). This news may have had more of an affect on the markets if everyone wasn’t so excited by the Euro news which raises the question, ‘is this a fickle rally?’. If the UK is still in recession then surely when this good news wears off nothing will have changed?
Well, the answer depends on your...
7 tags
Spain's Painkiller
Last night was a late one for leaders of the various Eurozone countries as they fought to save the struggling Eurozone. Spain and Italy will awake this morning with significantly clearer heads than their German counterparts. Held at ransom by Mario Monti, Angela Merkel was forced into addressing the short-term needs of the Eurozone nations before any other items on the agenda were addressed. This...
“If you spent a million dollars every day since Jesus Christ was born, you still...”
– Dave Cote - CEO Honeywells
http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/ceo-series-an-american-competitiveness-agenda-with-honeywells-ceo-dave-cote/
Welcome to Graduate Finance
This blog hopes to give an insight into my pursuit of a career in Investment Management. Having recently graduated from University with a 2:1 and strong interest in the world of finance, I am in the process of applying for jobs and making myself more employable. The job application process is a long drawn out process in all industries but due to huge popularity of...
