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Its Not Harry

Comment and opinion for retail investors in the UK

Members Only

Midweek Musings – how low can we go?

7th September 2022 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

We’re are all doomed, Captain Truss

As Ms Truss gets started as Prime Minister, its seems that there is nothing but a gloomy few months to look forward to in Britain. Investors are certainly taking that view because I read that nearly £7 billion has been withdrawn from UK focused investment funds this year (Source: FT).

Of course, the withdrawals might be all by UK investors scared of markets (amateur investors always withdraw money when markets have fallen sharply, according to most research) but it is likely that some of that money has been re-allocated elsewhere by international investors. A recent international bank economic forecast had the UK as the most likely region of the world to suffer a recession.

To a degree, none of the above is evidence of anything concrete – it is just behavioural. However, the human psychological behaviour of market participants is, in my view, the main driver of market valuations.

Economics is only of relevance insofar as it puts some words and fairly naive theory around the living conditions (especially financial aspects) of us all and that might help predict our behaviour!

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Filed Under: Markets, Members Only, Monthly commentary

Watching Brief – September 2022

1st September 2022 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

Pottering About

August was the football commentators’ legendary ‘game of 2 halves’.

The month started with a continuing rise in the value of the major stock markets and even a flurry of meme stock silliness in Bed, Bath and Beyond, exploited ruthlessly by one Ryan Cohen (his actions now being the subject of a class law action, I read). 

The month ended with a very negative reaction to the Fed’s hawkish line on interest rates (surely no real surprise?) and markets losing all the gains they made over the last few weeks.

Have the pessimists turned out to be right? 

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Filed Under: Asset Allocation, Basics, Markets, Members Only, Monthly commentary, Portfolios

Only fools and horses (and meme stock buyers)….

24th August 2022 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

A storyline

Delboy Trotter is in the pub with the usual crowd. He is bragging that he has just acquired 500 units of the latest computer gaming toy (the Mistboard console to be precise) that is going to be massively in demand and is in short supply due to global ‘logical’, as he puts it, (logistics) difficulties, retailing at £125 a pop. He only paid £100 a unit and they are already being touted on Ebay at £150 plus. The discussion moves on.

A week later, Del is back in the pub and blathering on about the same subject. The dudes ‘in the know’ reckon that the computer gaming console he stocked up on is going to be selling for at least £250 by Christmas because a container load of them fell off a ship coming out of Taiwan and 200,000 units were lost.

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Filed Under: Members Only, Rants, Trading

Midweek Musings – Bond is back?

16th August 2022 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

Not 007, but fixed income assets!

Readers will know that the return of inflation and the actions of central banks to sharply increase interest rates from a low base has had the entirely predictable (and indeed, this actually was predicted accurately by many, including your scribe) effect of trashing the value of longer dated fixed income assets like Gilts and Treasuries, which were valued on the weird assumption that interest rates were going to remain low or even negative for ever.

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Filed Under: Basics, Education, Markets, Members Only, Monthly commentary

Midweek Musings – start at the bottom

10th August 2022 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

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Filed Under: Education, Funds, Members Only, Research tools

Watching Brief – August 2022

1st August 2022 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

Pottering About

Last August my sub-heading for this introduction suggested some grounds for optimism with a final caveat (Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2 and 2.5).  I fear I may be about to repeat myself in sentiment, although the context is very different.

Last year, I was finding reasons for hoping that a runaway bull market might hold up a little longer.  This year I am going to suggest that we might have seen the end of a serious (and to be honest, long overdue) pull back to reality.

So what are this summer’s reasons to be cheerful and what ought investor’s to be worried about?

[Read more…] about Watching Brief – August 2022

Filed Under: Basics, Education, Markets, Members Only, Monthly commentary, Portfolios

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