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Deep Dive – February 2025
Trump 2 – a different and personal take on the implications
So far…
At this early stage of the new US President’s term of office, it is not possible to make any reliable predictions about the global macro economic impact beyond examining the potential threats, which I have already done in a number of ways, as have many, many other commentators.
I will this month offer what is absolutely only an opinion, based on my personal view of the world, so this piece is not claimed to be educational. Feel free to disagree with me: I will be satisfied if I have prompted you to think about the situation in a new way or added an angle to your existing assessment.
YAP – new video
I have just published a new video which offers some help with portfolio reviews, in a style I intend to develop over this year. I have a few topics suggested by subscribers for short training sessions, but would welcome more, plus any feedback and suggestions.
YAP – 2025 as seen from New York
I receive a daily news feed on markets from the Dealbook team at the New York Times. I find this useful as we all know that what happens in the US stock markets is highly relevant data in interpreting the global macro-economic climate and overall financial risk.
The New York team leader Andrew Ross Sorkin recently published his thoughts on what might happen in 2025. Now pundits there are a plenty, but this author has contacts at the very highest levels of US business, so you might be interested in his thoughts as context. I have picked the points I thought most relevant to UK-based retail investors. My own touch of flavour is added.
Deep Dive – January 2025
Fixed Income – a refresher
This article is designed to satisfy a couple of subscriber requests to offer more core information about fixed income investing.
The asset class that comprises Gilts, Treasuries, Eurobonds, corporate bonds, elements of bank capital, assorted ‘notes’, private credit and the like has been an important investment opportunity for centuries but most beginner investors will, at best, have as their only acquired knowledge of the fixed income market some knowledge of National Savings Certificates.
I freely admit that it took me several years of day-to-day involvement in investment markets as an adviser to feel intuitively comfortable thinking about fixed income (henceforth interchangeably called ‘bonds’ as well, although bonds is a looser term). That was the case even though I had formal training in corporate finance as a Chartered Secretary and had experience of over a decade working for a mortgage bank. It’s not a subject that one can skim over and grasp.
I have procrastinated about writing this sort of article until now as even an introduction or refresher requires quite a lot of words. I hope what follows is digestible and useful.