Global Matters | Momentum

SPACtacular surge

Christopher Butcher - 12 April 202

During a period of extreme volatility and a global pandemic, the initial public offering (IPO) market had a spectacular year in 2020 in terms of the number of new listings and proceeds raised, along with the rise in popularity for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) which have become one of the hottest investment trends on Wall Street.

Tom Delic - 29 March 2021

The CEO of a business has many responsibilities, two of the most important being the strategic and operational oversight of the company. Another vitally important aspect of their role is capital allocation, an area that is often underappreciated by an investor but also poorly carried out by many CEOs. When researching a fund, it is often useful to view the fund manager as a CEO.

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Bailey, Powell and Lagarde; the new eco-warriors?

Robert White, CFA - 22 March 2021

For all the column inches dedicated to central bank meetings this month, one potentially seismic change to monetary policy has slipped under the radar over the last few weeks. In the most recent UK budget, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the Bank of England should reflect the “importance of environmental sustainability”in policy decisions, which includes asset purchases.

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Why we are all hard wired to be bad investors

Gary Moglione - 15 March 2021

Investing our savings is an extremely important part of life that will have a strong influence on retirement, home ownership and the quality of our lifestyle. Therefore, you would expect us to have evolved to be efficient investors. Unfortunately, we are hard wired to be bad investors as many of our natural instincts force us to fall into a number of behavioural traps that result in poor investment returns.

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Percy's not a pig

Alex Harvey, CFA - 08 March 2021

A little over a fortnight ago history was repeated when NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) successfully landed a rover on the Martian surface. After a near seven-month journey across 300 million miles of space, at a gentle cruising speed of nearly 25,000mph, the rover touched down on 18^th February. Perseverance – or Percy for short – was lowered on to the surface by a sky crane, like its cousin Curiosity in 2012, in a feat of incredible human engineering. Of the now five successful JPL rover landings (yes, five!), this was the most accurate ever and was enabled through the experience gleaned over previous rover missions.

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Are you sitting comfortably?

Richard Parfect - 01 March 2021

As I write this there is a good news story of a B777 executing a successful diversion and emergency landing following the dramatic loss of one of its two engines. Somewhat unnervingly for passengers the remnants of the burning engine were clear to see. More seriously there was fuselage damage too, however the pilots’ frequent rehearsed emergency procedures and risk controls prevented a catastrophic outcome.

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Coin Toss

Andrew Hardy, CFA - 22 February 2021

Digital gold or “index for money laundering¹”? Fiat currency hedge or irrational mania? Bitcoin divides opinion more than most, but the bulls are in the ascendency at present and the 12-year old cryptocurrency is gathering many new followers as a result. Its 6-fold increase in price in the last year has been the driver; creating a FOMO (fear of missing out) effect whilst also increasing the size of its market, which reached $1 trillion over the weekend, to a level where institutions begin to consider it more seriously.

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More of the Same

Richard Stutley, CFA - 15 February 2021

The tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears was a popular analogy in markets in the years post the Great Financial Crisis, used to describe the global economy as not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Extending the idea to today’s central bank policy: too hot would be embarking on helicopter money or large scale debt forgiveness; too cold would be abandoning tools like quantitative easing, possibly in response to criticism of QE’s role in fuelling asset price bubbles; just right, then, is a continuation of current policy and hence central bankers need to hold their nerve in the face of rising inflation and provide more of the same.

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To the Moon - YOLO

Lorenzo La Posta, CFA - 08 February 2021

Tuesday 26^th January, it’s early morning here in the UK and still night in the US when Aurelio, a friend of mine, texts me.

Aurelio: “Dude, what is going on with Game Stop? Last week some people on Reddit said they were gonna shoot GME (ticker for Game Stop) to the moon, to $1000 per share! So, I bought a few at $45 on Friday…”

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Emerging Opportunities

Stephen Nguyen, CFA - 01 February 2021

2020 witnessed some of the toughest challenges – be it social, economic or political – that most of us have ever experienced. Around this time 12 months ago, the Covid-19 pandemic was gathering momentum, particularly in Asia before it spread further afield, and soon enough the world went into lockdown. As we slowly emerge from the shadow of the pandemic thanks to vaccine breakthroughs, mobility and global economic growth should gradually increase.

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StoreREIT telling: three key elements

Jackson Franks - 25 January 2021

For me writing has never been easy, in fact English was my least favourite subject at school. However, I enjoy a challenge and as I think about what to write this week, I take myself back to my English class at school to remind myself of what writing tricks I was once taught. What I remember most is how we were taught the basics of writing a story: each story must consist of a beginning – hooking the reader & setting the scene, a middle – a series of interesting and exciting events, and an end – tie up loose ends & satisfy the reader.

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An industry in constant evolution

Robert White, CFA - 18 January 2021

It is generally accepted that 2020 saw changes in the way we use technology that are likely to persist even after the pandemic ends. Many changes to society and markets already appear self-evident today, and developing a full understanding of the implications will be important for active managers over the years to come. The Christmas break provided us with a chance to ponder more introspectively over the impact these changes may have on the investment management industry itself, and how best to serve our clients over long term.

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Global Matters: Annual Compendium 2020

The Global Matters weekly readership has picked up greatly over the past five years and once again we mark the end of the year by sharing a compendium of 2020’s articles. Across dozens of blogs, which incorporate a mix of investment insight with topical twists, this charts our journey through what has been the most extraordinary year.

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Scotched Eggs

Alex Harvey, CFA - 14 December 2020

Of the five weekly blogs I will have written this year, none of them have been untarnished by Covid 19 with my first – Tipping Point – penned on 9^th March as markets tumbled into the Corona induced abyss. From the pre Covid peak on 12^th February the market hit its lows just ‘28 days later’[1], with the streets of London and cities around the world looking eerily similar to those in Danny Boyle’s rage inducing horror of the same name.

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A Pack of Wolves

Lorenzo La Posta, CFA - 07 December 2020

When I was a kid, the concept of wolves being dangerous, aggressive animals was instilled in me: they growl, they stalk, they kill. Yet, have you ever heard spine-tingling howls breaking through the night? It is primordially majestic. As I grew up, I found myself seeing wolves as fascinating, widely misunderstood creatures. I had to find my own pack.

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