magazine archive
magazine archive
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Market giants
Thursday 24 Aug 2017Size matters. The UK’s largest stocks are typically easy to buy and sell, hold dominant market positions, are often diversified across several different areas and typically generate plenty of cash which can be returned to shareholders through generous dividends. ‘Economies of scale’ also make it...
SUMMER SIZZLERS
Thursday 17 Aug 2017Geo-political tensions aside, the trend for UK stocks has been firmly positive so far in 2017 as investors have shrugged off another electoral shock and ongoing Brexit fallout. That pushed the FTSE 100 index to within touching distance of record 7,547.63 highs until the recent North Korea inspired...
Mundane Marvels
Thursday 10 Aug 2017A mistake investors frequently repeat is chasing in-vogue, go-go-growth shares and shunning the ‘steady eddies’ of the stock market. It is easy to understand how electric car maker Tesla captures the imagination, even as it burns through cash, while online fashion retailers including Amazon and...
Chinese Internet Stars
Thursday 03 Aug 2017We’re all familiar with Facebook (FB:NDQ) , Amazon (AMZN:NDQ) , Netflix (NFLX:NDQ) and Google – courtesy of its parent Alphabet (GOOG:NDQ) , aka the FANG stocks. They’ve been blazing a trail this year on spectacular trading, with soaring key performance indicators (KPIs) like new subscribers and...
How to choose and use a Lifetime ISA
Thursday 27 Jul 2017By Emily Perryman, Daniel Coatsworth and Tom Sieber A growing number of investment platform providers now offer Lifetime ISAs, three months after the savings and investment wrapper was launched. The latest provider to launch its service is AJ Bell Youinvest with a Stocks and Shares version. The...
Searching for small cap value
Thursday 20 Jul 2017There have been some very successful small cap stocks in recent years, rewarding shareholders with returns equal to three or more times their original investment. The ability to make significant gains is a key factor behind investors risking their money in smaller companies. We believe there could...
Time to buy the banks?
Thursday 13 Jul 2017Banks were put through the ringer in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008. Not only did the main players’ share prices collapse, a seemingly constant flurry of alleged rate fixing and misselling of products began. Bank bashing became a national pastime. Almost a decade on, there are...
Retailers feel the Brexit pinch
Thursday 06 Jul 2017A variety of negative factors caused by last year’s Brexit vote are starting to take a bite out of retailers. Sterling weakness is driving up the cost of goods which means consumers have less money in their pocket after paying for essential items. Some retailers now say they won’t hit earnings...
Family fortunes
Thursday 29 Jun 2017By: Steven Frazer, Daniel Coatsworth, James Crux, Tom Sieber Buy family-run businesses if you want to beat the market. It’s a bold statement and credible one, according to various bits of research we’ll discuss later. Many of these studies categorise a family company as one where the family owns at...
The contrarian investor
Thursday 22 Jun 2017A contrarian investor can be categorised as someone who does the opposite to everyone else. In general, they are looking to buy shares when no one else is interested in a certain stock; and sell when a stock is racing ahead and everyone is buying it with no thought to valuation or risk. Knowing...