magazine archive


magazine archive

Education

What is the Vix ‘fear index’ and why does it matter to investors?

Thursday 17 Mar 2022

The Vix is often called ‘the fear index’ and if you have ever wondered what different readings mean this article is for you. Before getting to the details, it is worth explaining the difference between uncertainty and risk because it is more than just semantics. Investment is all about managing...

Four good habits investors should try to cultivate

Thursday 17 Feb 2022

Every now and then it’s useful to step back and look at your investment process to see what’s working and what isn’t working. Here are four good habits which we think investors should try to adopt. 1. STAY FOCUSED One of the most common mistakes investors make is to spread their bets too thinly...

How to buy US shares: the key points to consider

Thursday 20 Jan 2022

Strong returns from the US market over the past decade have caught investors’ attention, particularly the performance of stocks like Tesla, Amazon and Apple. Fortunately, it’s easy to buy US shares, if you so wish. Many of the big stocks are available on UK investment platforms and you can buy and...

What happens to your personal pension when you die?

Thursday 09 Dec 2021

The rules on how you can pass on your defined contribution pension scheme funds when you die changed in April 2015. They are now very generous and there is lots of flexibility in terms of both who can receive your unused pension fund, and how they can take the money. WHO CAN I LEAVE MY PENSION TO?...

Using your pension in retirement

Thursday 02 Dec 2021

This article looks at the different ways you can access the money in your defined contribution pension. Examples of defined contribution pensions include SIPPs and personal pensions. The minimum age that most people can access their pension is currently 55. This will increase to 57 in 2028 and...

The importance of reinvesting dividends and why costs matter

Thursday 11 Nov 2021

Reinvesting dividend income is fundamental to making the most of your investments and getting the full benefit from the effect of compounding. To give an idea of the advantage let’s look at how £100 invested over the last 121 years would have theoretically grown with and without reinvesting...

Why the opening price of a share can be different from the previous close

Thursday 04 Nov 2021

There is no reason why a share must open at the previous night’s closing price. Daily price moves are determined by supply and demand for the shares and that in turn is affected by company news such as earnings updates, acquisitions, disposals, legal disputes, new product launches and so on. In...

Automatic enrolment: the key facts

Thursday 14 Oct 2021

At the start of the century, the government of the time asked Dr Adair Turner to investigate poor pension saving rates. Turner’s Pension Commission suggested adopting automatic enrolment into a pension scheme. Since 2012, a new employee will automatically join the employer’s pension scheme, and...

Charting: How a classic mathematical series can help set price targets

Thursday 07 Oct 2021

The Fibonacci sequence, named after an Italian scholar of the same name, is a simple mathematical series where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. It starts as follows: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 The sequence is sometimes called ‘nature’s code’ because the numbers...

How to profit from Bollinger Bands

Thursday 30 Sep 2021

Bollinger Bands are a technical trading tool developed by John Bollinger in the 1980’s and were designed to capture high and low-price movements in relation to their trend. The two bands are dynamic which means the distance between them widens and narrows along with rising or falling share price...

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