Ben Kumar, Investment Manager, Seven Investment Management Someone once told me that on average, we won’t remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we see and 30% of what we hear. There is…
The Centre Holds
Alex Scott, Deputy Chief Investment Officer. 11 May 2017. Investor attention has been dominated by political risk for the best part of a year. Now, however we see signs that we might be passing the…
Why the old adage to sell in May is flawed
By Justin Urquhart Stewart, Co-founder. 25 April 2017. “Events, dear boy, events” was Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s infamous reply when asked what the most difficult thing about his job was. In other words, stuff happens…
Markets don’t die of old age
Alex Scott, Deputy Chief Investment Officer. 12 April 2017. Investors seem to be a little less convinced about reflation trades now than they did at the turn of the year. Back then the rise in…
Sheltering portfolios around the French election
Chris Darbyshire, Chief Investment Officer. 10 April 2017. In three months’ time, the French will have queued up four times in two (separate) elections. Their first selections take place in April and May as they…
After Article 50: Latent Soft Brexit Forces Released?
Chris Darbyshire, Chief Investment Officer. 30 March 2017. It has been a busy week for Brexit. Over the weekend, the Labour Party flexed its muscles for the first time since the EU Referendum. With Article…
Caught Between Growth and Capital Risk
Alex Scott, Deputy Chief Investment Officer. 29 March 2017. Markets continue to be caught between the economic backdrop and political events although now, for the first time in years, we appear to have a synchronised…
Lemons Don’t Always Lead to Lemonade
Justin Urquhart Stewart, Co-founder. 16 March 2017. The Office for National Statistics has completed its annual review of the basket of goods that it uses to calculate inflation. But what does that mean, how is…
Alternative Investments for an Alternative World
Chris Darbyshire, Chief Investment Officer. 28 February 2017. Professional analysts, bookmakers and pollsters failed to predict the outcomes of two key votes in 2016. Contrary to most expectations, we are now hurtling down the road…
Commodity Price Bounce
Ben Kumar, Investment Manager. 17 February 2017. Over the last 12 months, commodities have been surging in value, with the Bloomberg Commodity Index rising 14% in US Dollar terms. On the back of this, we’ve…
What a Difference a Year Makes
Alex Scott, Deputy Chief Investment Officer. 10 February 2017. What a difference a year makes! A year ago, investors were in panic mode, still battered by the shock of the Chinese devaluation in August and…
A Pause for Breath – But Inflation is Still Coming
Alex Scott, Deputy Chief Investment Officer. 24 January 2017. Investors have been sensing hints of inflation since the summer. With Trump’s election win in November, those hints became much less subtle. The US economy, already…
The case for sterling
Ben Kumar, Investment Manager. 18 January 2017. So Theresa has finally spoken, and we are… not that much the wiser. There were a few new bits of information though – highlighted below with some comment.…
The Year Ahead 2017
January 2017. Our positive economic outlook for 2016 was pretty much correct and, at the end of the year, it looks as if markets reflected that growth with almost all major equity indices in positive…