A year to remember: Crashes, QE and the return of rate rises
Investors will remember 2015 as a year spent trying to guess what major central banks around the world would do or say next.
Analysis
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ANALYSIS: What if the Fed is wrong and other scary thoughts for 2016
A look at the coming year for those whose glass is half empty
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ANALYSIS: Does this mean we can start talking about fundamentals again?
Finally! After two and a half years of mixed messages and muddled data, of volatility and vacillation we can talk about something other than the Fed’s first rate hike in nine years.
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Fed hits right notes as rates rise for the first time in nine years
About the right amount of ‘dovishness’ seems to be the initial verdict from market commentators pronouncing on what had been billed as the biggest event in financial markets since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
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ANALYSIS: Just how clever is the Fed boxing?
The last time the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, Daniel Craig had just taken on the mantle of James Bond and Sylvester Stallone had just successfully resurrected the Rocky franchise from the ignominy of 1990’s Rocky V.
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Oil Price Expectations and a House of Cards
Greg Bennett, fund manager at Argonaut Capital, gives his view on the dynamics behind the current oil price.
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ANALYSIS: Multi-manager fees under fire
The departure of Mark Harries from Aberdeen has brought the spotlight back on the world of multi-managers. But it is one aspect in particular that’s the big talking point.
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What to look for in structured notes
Structured notes continue to remain a popular alternative investment among offshore investors, although it remains increasingly difficult to decide between which ones to choose given the complexity of how they can be constructed, says Harpreet Sajjan, managing director of S7 Capital Management.
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Decoding the ECB ‘disappointment’
ECB President Mario Draghi disappointed markets on Thursday. While the Bank delivered a 10 basis point cut to the deposit rate to an historic -0.3%, and extended the deadline of its asset purchase programme by six months, it kept the main refinancing and marginal lending rates steady at 5 and 30 basis points respectively.
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Buy-to-let Stamp Duty hike among perks under fire
Chancellor George Osborne showed a steely determination to tackle some of the cosier aspects of the lives of the wealthy in this year’s Autumn Statement. Tax evasion, capital gains tax and second homes came under scrutiny in an otherwise relatively benign budget.
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ANALYSIS: Clouds gathering ahead of Chancellor’s Autumn Statement
As we enter winter there are clouds on the horizon for the United Kingdom economy and Chancellor George Osborne has to deliver his Autumn Statement against an increasingly murky backdrop.
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OPINION: Why wealth managers must act now to save their future
Break a mirror, and you’ll get seven years of bad luck. Break the banking system, and it’ll take that long just for regulators to work out who’s to blame.