Irrational exuberance? What is it and what does it mean?
SOME weeks back we talked about how stock markets are born on pessimism, grow on scepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. Unfortunately there are no bells chimed at any point in the process. And so, identifying the signs is fundamental. Many of the signs of euphoria become obvious as irrational exuberance arises. Irrational […]
Quantitative uneasing and your money
CENTRAL banks attempted to stimulate the economy with quantitative easing (QE), and are now looking to reverse this arrangement slowly. So what might that mean to your money/house prices et al? QE is normally introduced after interest rate stimuli fails. For example, the Bank of England lowers rates which lowers your, and companies’ mortgages and […]
The forgotten children in company pensions
IN June the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulatory body governing pension transfers, scrapped the starting position for transferring a company pension (defined benefit scheme). The starting position used to be that it was always unsuitable. Some ‘sales orientated’ advisers saw the scrapping of this starting position as a ‘green light’ open season to transfer, […]
Is my company pension guaranteed?
LAST week we began the journey of explaining the current potential scandal that is ‘transferring out a company pension scheme’. This is where employees/members of a final salary pension scheme are being offered millions today to walk away, leave their guarantees and effectively have their future pension in their own hands. My calculations have it […]
Do I transfer from my company pension?
Do I transfer from my company pension? It’s a question we’ve been asked lots of late and we couldn’t be faced with a longer answer. I will endeavour to answer all the queries on this subject over two or three articles. Every so often there comes a potential scandal, and in the past, financial advisers […]
Advisers accused of misleading clients on costs
LAST week I talked about the impact of risk on your investments and pensions but failed to mention one of the biggest risks I see within an investor’s (or pension investor’s) hard earned money. That is apathy. Just as on a bright sunny day in a hot air balloon, no-one checks for parachutes, when a […]
Investing – like crossing the road
Risk. What on earth is that then? The choice of walking straight across the road rather than walking 20m to the pedestrian crossing? With that split decision comes to component parts – the potential for return and the potential for loss. We save the 40m round trip and time at the pedestrian crossing, but the […]
Korea, China and stock markets
Following last week’s review on the impact of Korea on markets, I had a number of calls asking for further information regarding the instability it would cause. It is indeed a highly complicated situation, and as always, very little of the real information makes its way to the top. Whilst news channels will make the […]
Dow Jones – a chocolate watch
THERE are few better skills than that of seeing through noise. From the razzmatazz of the forecourt salesman selling you extra fluffy dice with your used car he is keen to get rid of, to that of Donald Trump tweeting “Great Dow20k”. In this never-ending noisy world, managing your pensions and investments, it could be […]
Rick Stein price for a chip butty?
CONFIRMATION bias has a lot to be answered for. This is looking for information to support your beliefs and excluding information which does not. It’s a simple method used by PR to ensure your choices are often kept binary, where as indeed the argument or answer is nowhere near there: Brexit v non Brexit, blue […]
Mind the gap
A subject which doesn’t often make the dinner party conversations is that of a will, life insurance or critical illness cover. Funny that. We are often asked how much cover/protection to have, and whilst it’s dependent on circumstances, there are parameters to consider. It is, however, quite disturbing to find out that 8.5 million breadwinners […]
Will the central banks crush your investments?
“Its gonna be different this time”… Good old confirmation bias has a lot to answer for. Confirmation bias is where we look at information that supports our views and reject the information as nonsense that doesn’t support it. And that is how financial bubbles, Brexits or Remains occur. As F Scott Fitzgerald stated: “The test […]