27.11.2023 Global Matters Blog

Fleece Navidad - Falling out of fast fashion

Gabby Byron - 4 December 2023

As we approach Christmas Jumper Day this week in the UK, I find myself sifting through the depths of my wardrobe, searching for festive knitwear to raise money for Save the Children. The promise of chilly winter evenings and cosy Christmas gatherings tempts me to add yet another festive jumper to my collection, despite the fact that I already own enough to dress a small woolly army.

 

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Alex Harvey - 27 Nov 23

Siren Call

I recently returned from a client trip to Asia, during which I visited Hong Kong for the first time. The ‘Fragrant Harbour’, to coin its literal name. From my short time there I found it to be a fascinating and vibrant melting pot of ‘East meets West’, with a can-do and pro-business attitude. Yes, the city has witnessed major politically motivated unrest and change in recent years, which has undoubtedly had knock-on effects, but as an outsider visiting for the first time, I could feel the city’s welcoming energy.

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Matt Connor - 20 Nov 2023

Stocking filler for your portfolio

It’s that time of year again where Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé are defrosted for their annual appearances, Coca-Cola’s Christmas truck graces our cities, and sock sales men and women are awoken from their slumber. What a wonderful time of the year.

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13.11.2023 446 X 298 Website
Gregoire Sharma - 13 Nov 2023

Interest rate volatility: Transitory or here to stay?

Following the start of the US Federal Reserve’s belated rate hiking cycle in March 2020, this year has seen a marked pickup in interest rate volatility and a significant increase in the benchmark 10-year yield in recent months, which have contributed to broader economic uncertainty.

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20.11.2023 446 X 298 Website
Matt Connor - 20 Nov 2023

Stocking filler for your portfolio

It’s that time of year again where Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé are defrosted for their annual appearances, Coca-Cola’s Christmas truck graces our cities, and sock sales men and women are awoken from their slumber. What a wonderful time of the year.

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13.11.2023 446 X 298 Website
Gregoire Sharma - 13 Nov 2023

Interest rate volatility: Transitory or here to stay?

Following the start of the US Federal Reserve’s belated rate hiking cycle in March 2020, this year has seen a marked pickup in interest rate volatility and a significant increase in the benchmark 10-year yield in recent months, which have contributed to broader economic uncertainty.

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06.11.2023 446 X 298 Website
Richard Parfect - 6 Nov 2023

Use it or lose it

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Richard Parfect discusses regarding Investment Companies (ICs), or more commonly called Investment Trusts in relation to Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD)

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Glyn Owen - 30 Oct 2023

Treasury hunt

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Glyn Owen discusses the yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond last week crossing a milestone of 5%

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Tom Delic - 23 Oct 2023

Base effects

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Tom Delic explains that Base rates are a useful tool for investors when making decisions that involve factors that can disrupt the balancing of risk and reward.

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Mark Wright, CFA - 16 Oct 2023

Fly me to the Moon

In this week's edition of Global Matters Weekly, Mark Wright delves into an analysis of Moonpig Group Plc, exploring the potential prospects within the UK equity market.

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Jade Coysh - 9 Oct 2023

Responsible investment: here for good

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Jade Coysh suggests that responsible investing is not just a passing trend but a long-term approach to investing, and that investors do not have to give up returns in order to invest responsibly.

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02.10.2023 446 X 298 Website
Stephen Nguyen, CFA - 2 October 2023

Risky Business

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Stephen Nguyen, CFA discusses the benefits of embracing risk as part of the investment process, rather than isolating it to one team.

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Gabby Byron - 25 September 2023

A tail of two services

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Gabby Bryon discusses the benefits of boutique investment houses versus larger asset gatherers.  

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Gary Moglione - 18 September 2023

The Investment Odyssey: Avoiding the Sirens of Behavioural Bias

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Gary Moglione draws parallels between the sirens of the ancient Greek epic poem 'The Odyssey' by Homer and the behavioural biases of the investment world.

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Richard Stutley, CFA - 11 September 2023

Macro Matters

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Richard Stutley, CFA takes a look at the bigger picture, discussing macro events and conditions and how this is considered within the Momentum investment process.

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Lorenzo La Posta, CFA - 4 September 2023

Don't trust the numbers

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Lorenzo La Posta, CFA discusses how numbers can't always be trusted and why this means experience and care is necessary to question the mathematics when it comes to investing. 

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Jackson Franks - 21 August 2023

Build in ESG

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Jackson Franks discusses how at Momentum, we are committed to contributing to a more sustainable world, both through direct actions and indirect means

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Alex Harvey, CFA - 14 August

Decision time

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Alex Harvey, CFA discusses the importance of timing when making investment decisions.

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Matt Connor - 7 August 2023

Undervalued Forgotten Opportunities: UFOs in your asset allocation

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Matt Connor discusses the importance of diversification and the opportunities in the UK and Asia. 

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Gregoire Sharma, CFA - 31 July 2023

Taking the fixed income tack in multi-asset portfolios

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Gregoire Sharma, CFA discusses the case for allocating to fixed income in multi-asset portfolios.

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Richard Parfect - 23 July 2023

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Richard Parfect discusses the importance of due diligence when looking to invest in specialist investment trusts.

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Ben Drysdale - 17 July 2023

Music royalties offer "sound" returns

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Ben Drysdale discusses the opportunities music royalties offer investors.

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Tom Delic - 10 July 2023

Lessons in extremis

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Tom Delic finds similarities between the approach to the extreme sport of Free Solo climbing and fund management, drawing inspiration from El Capitan Free Solo climber, Alex Honnold.

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Mark Wight, CFA - 3 July 2023

Roll on recession

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Mark Wright, CFA discusses the opportunities that a recession may bring for UK mid-caps.

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Stephen Nguyen, CFA - 26 June 2023

Momentum Investing at Momentum

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Blog Stephen Nguyen, CFA discusses the potential benefits of momentum investing.

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Gary Moglione - 19 June 2023

Dare to be different

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Blog Gary Moglione discusses the potential benefits of contrarian investing.

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Richard Stutley, CFA - 12 June 2023

Safe as houses?

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Blog Richard Stutley, CFA discusses why property has been anything but a safe bet so far this year.

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Lorenzo La Posta, CFA - 5 June 2023

The many dimensions of sustainability

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Lorenzo La Posta, CFA evaluates incorporating sustainability considerations into investment decisions.

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Jackson Franks - 22 May 2023

Richest match in football

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Jackson Franks discusses how he would strategically allocate £265million of funds if given the opportunity. 

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Alex Harvey, CFA - 15 May 2023

Carolean carousel

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Alex Harvey, CFA discusses the importance of succession for success.

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Matt Connor - 24 April 2023

Football versus Soccer

In this week's Global Matters Weekly Blog Matt Connor discusses why the UK presents undervalued opportunities for investors.

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Richard Parfect - 17 April 2023

In Changing of the Seasons We (Investment) Trust…

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Richard Parfect discusses the investment trust market and how it has changed with the seasons.

 

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Gregoire Sharma, CFA - 3 April 2023

Lessons learned from the bank-run playbook

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Gregoire Sharma, CFA discusses the importance of considering qualitative research as well as quantitative research when making risk assessments, in the wake of the dissolution of Credit Suisse into UBS and the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

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Andrew Hardy, CFA - 27 March 2023

Managing uncertainty: a question of weighting?

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Andrew Hardy discusses why asset managers and financial advisers must help clients narrow the gap between time-weighted and money-weighted returns.

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Tom Delic - 20 March 2023

Wu Wei

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Portfolio Manager Tom Delic discusses why in a world of non-stop news and media inaction can often be the best course of action.

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Mark Wright, CFA - 13 March 2023

Life in the old dog yet

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Mark Wright, CFA explores how rigorous fundamental analysis can often present the best opportunities for new investments.

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Gabby Byron - 6 March 2023

Bursting bubbles

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Gabby Byron discusses how can investors avoid getting caught up in the effects of an investment bubble, which is often driven by speculation and investor psychology.

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Gary Moglione - 27 February 2023

Is active management dead?

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Gary Moglione debates whether active management is dead.

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Richard Stutley, CFA - 20 February 2023

Insights from rate markets

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Richard Stutley, CFA discusses investors' rate expectations and what this could mean for yields.

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Lorenzo La Posta - 13 February 2023

Love Actually? Disappointment, actually

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Lorenzo La Posta, CFA discusses the importance of valuation discipline.

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Jackson Franks - 6 February 2023

AI: is your job safe?

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Jackson Franks explores AI and considers whether AI could one day replace his job.

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Gregoire Sharma - 30 January 2023

Turning away from the glass-half-empty mentality

In this week's Global Matters Weekly, Gregoire Sharma, CFA looks at why investors should look at some of the positives as we continue into 2023.

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Matt Connor - 23 January 2023

No stress

In this week's Global Matters Weekly blog, Matt Connor discusses how heightened emotions often cloud judgement and can lead to irrational decision making.

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Richard Parfect- 16 January 2023

Well, that wasn’t expected…

In this week's Global Matters Weekly blog, Richard Parfect discusses the recent downfall of Home REIT and how it is a reminder that the greatest risks sometimes lurk in the least expected places.

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Alex Harvey, CFA - 9 January 2023

Divine inspiration

In this week's Global Matters Weekly blog, Alex Harvey, CFA takes inspiration from the namesake of January and reflects on 2022 as we look forward to 2023.

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Annual Compendium 2022

Annual Compendium 2022

Once again we mark the end of the year by sharing a compendium of 2022’s articles. Across dozens of blogs, which incorporate a mix of investment insight with topical twists, this charts our journey through what has been another most extraordinary year.

 

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Global Matters Weekly

What were you thinking?

Tom Delic - 12 December 2022

2022 has been an eventful year across financial markets, and while anything could happen during the last few weeks of December, I thought it would be worth reflecting on the extraordinary market behaviour we have seen over the past few years.

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Global Matters Weekly

A turning point for UK mid-caps

Mark Wright, CFA  - 5 December 2022

So far, the year 2022 has been one that investors in UK mid-capitalisations (mid-caps) would probably prefer to forget. The first six months of this year witnessed the worst relative performance of UK mid-caps vs UK large capitalisations (caps) on a rolling six-month basis since 1986 (as far back as I could find data). By 30th June, they had underperformed UK large caps by a staggering 18%. The performance gap has since widened a little to over 19% on a year-to-date basis.1 The absolute performance of UK mid-caps is not as stomach churning, but at -15% it is still poor.

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Global Matters Weekly

Has gold lost its shine?

Stephen Nguyen, CFA  - 28 November 2022

As we approach the end of 2022, it is worth reflecting on asset class returns this year. Global equities and bonds have both suffered significant declines and as a result the traditional balanced portfolio, anchored by these two asset classes, has struggled. Risk assets have had a torrid time due to a combination of factors including bleak economic and earnings outlooks, inflation concerns and heightened geopolitical tensions, which have all weighed on investor sentiment. Surprisingly, gold which has traditionally been deemed as a ’safe haven’ asset has also disappointed this year. Gold is often thought of as a hedge during market downturns and in an inflationary environment, so why has it struggled this year? And does it still warrant a place in investors’ portfolios.

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Global Matters Weekly

The World Cup Effect

Gary Moglione - 21 November 2022

As a keen student of behavioural investing, I love reading articles on how human behaviour is influenced by emotion and how this translates to stock market movements. If only there was an event that stirred up extreme emotions that the majority of the world will participate in. It just so happens that the FIFA World Cup is here and according to audience data around 3.6 billion people watch the tournament on television. This equates to about half of the world’s population. Over the years there have been many academic studies on the behaviour of stock markets during the World Cup. Here is a summary of some of my favourites.

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Global Matters Weekly

Temperature Check

Richard Stutley, CFA - 14 November 2022

I wanted to provide a quick update on the Euro-zone economy. It’s good practice to step behind the headlines, which as we know are written with the aim of being interesting, rather than painting a complete picture of any topic. While we firmly believe that a good macroeconomic outcome is neither sufficient nor necessary for good investment returns (although it does help, particularly in the short term!), we nevertheless need to be aware of the macro when managing portfolios.

 

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Global Matters Weekly

Yet another update on China

Lorenzo La Posta, CFA - 7 November 2022

For some reason, any time it’s my turn to write our weekly Global Matters blog, there is something happening in China worth writing about. Or perhaps, it is just my colleagues deliberately leaving me with the honour of updating our readers on the latest developments within the Chinese walls (pun intended). Luckily, these days we are not short of significant news and while the west is struggling with rising rates and elevated inflation, China is facing a different set of issues that still have global consequences.

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Global Matters Weekly

Will the strong dollar continue to spook markets?

Robert White - 31 October 2022

We are living in a dollar-dominated world, a fact most famously captured by John Connally, President Nixon's Treasury Secretary, who once told a group of global finance ministers “the dollar is our currency, but it's your problem”. Students of economic history will be aware of the disruption that a strong US dollar can cause, however, at times such as this it is important to remember that the global economy is cyclical, and such periods eventually do pass.

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Global Matters Weekly

(IL)Liquid of property

Jackson Franks - 24 October 2022

As mentioned in my previous blogs, I am an avid Watford football club supporter. Although there are some ups and (a lot more) downs, being a Watford supporter has had one positive outcome. It’s enabled me to cope with the ever-changing UK political situation. Since David Cameron resigned as Prime Minister in 2016, following the UK’s vote to leave the EU, there have been three UK Prime Ministers over the preceding six years, with the fourth set be announced.

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Global Matters Weekly

Gilty Pleasures

Alex Harvey, CFA - 17 October 2022

Three weeks ago, I had just landed in Morocco and with impeccable timing, as I worked out how to use Agadir airport’s ATM, Sterling tanked on the back of the UK government’s now well pored over ‘mini-budget’. I found it mildly amusing that the ticker for the Sterling-Dirham currency pairing is GBPMAD. It certainly felt like it! Of course, this wasn’t a bout of Dirham strength but a Sterling maelstrom resulting from the aforementioned budget, and the Pound was in freefall against every major currency. After reaching an intraday low of 1.035 dollars to the Pound on Monday 26th September (the lowest level ever plumbed and breaching the 1.054 set in February 19851), the currency has bounced back, albeit limply, to over 1.12 dollars to the Pound today.

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Global Matters Weekly

Welcome to the New Age

Matt Connor - 10 October 2022

Like it or not, there is no doubt that social media is now an integral part of our lives, with our online presence an extension of who we are, and for many, who they aspire to be. There were almost three billion monthly active users on Facebook in the second quarter of this year1, some 37% of the global population. For a business, social media offers a treasure trove of potential customers, but still so many seem to get it wrong when advertising through these channels.

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Global Matters Weekly

Data, data everywhere and not a number to guide (with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Richard Parfect - 3 October 2022

All through life our brains like to use “general rules of thumb” when dealing with problems. These rules may come through personal experience or maybe they are more prescriptive and laid down by doctrine. When dealing with problems I have sometimes found it useful to use a “factor of three”. For example, if I plan to do a DIY job in the house, bitter experience tells me it will take three times as long as I might expect. 

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Calm before the storm

Mark Wright, CFA - 26 September 2022

When it rains in Mallorca it doesn’t just rain, it pours and not only does it pour, it hails! One minute I was soaking up the sun, swimming in the sea with little care in the world, the next I was running back to the hotel to take cover from giant hail stones. The speed with which the weather turned was breath-taking, but maybe not quite as remarkable as the speed with which inflation has gone from close to zero in the UK and other parts of the world, to double digits now.

 

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Lessons to learn from Queen Elizabeth II

Ferdi van Heerden -  20 September 2022

The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has prompted a time of quiet reflection.

For me, the most valuable reflection has been on the lessons that we can take from how she lived her life. The Queen will be remembered for the values that she lived by. These are also values that we hold dear and that we aspire to live by.

As she so eloquently commented, “The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts.”

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Global Matters Weekly

The Law of Lindy

Tom Delic -  5 September 2022

In 1964, American author and academic Albert Goldman wrote an article in US magazine The New Republic, titled ‘Lindy’s Law’1. While dining at Lindy’s, a New York delicatessen, Goldman became interested in the discussions that took place between entertainment industry veterans who frequented the restaurant and would analyse the latest televised comedy shows. The unwritten rule amongst the gossipers was that “the life expectancy of a television comedian is (inversely) proportional to the total amount of his exposure on the medium”, in other words, the more frequent the comedian was on the television, the shorter the comedian’s time in the spotlight…due to running out of material!

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Global Matters Weekly

Navigating fund fees and finding value

Gary Moglione -  22 August 2022

As investors in the investment trust market, we have seen the UK market grow significantly over the years. In addition to diversification and access to many asset classes not usually available to retail investors, closed-ended trusts have significantly outperformed open-ended funds over the long term. In the UK, over the ten years to September 2021, the average investment company returned 265% versus the average open-ended fund returning 70%.

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Global Matters Weekly

Change - it's a constant

Richard Parfect -  15 August 2022

Back in February I gave a sob story of my childhood of how the 1970s and early 80s saw “austerity” hit my household, including my father’s industrial clothing factory closing down. Recent developments on the Continent, brings another childhood memory to mind; cold housing. Admittedly, the central heating system, decades past its use by date and an insufficiently insulated house, was not conducive to staying warm. However, an article caught my eye in the Financial Times* this week that showed the average temperature in British homes has risen considerably since the 1970s; even those that actually had central heating in 1971 saw average temperatures rise from circa 14C to 18C today.

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Shinzo Abe; a tragic death but a promising legacy

Robert White, CFA -  8 August 2022

Japan has been in the headlines for the sad and shocking death of Shinzo Abe, one of the few truly visionary democratic leaders in modern times. The former Prime Minister was instrumental in transforming Japan’s economic and military ambitions, and while both remain a work in progress, he became a revered figure on the international stage. As investors, we are optimistic about the opportunity in Japanese equities; not only are they cheap, but nascent structural reforms and robust corporate profitability should provide a healthy tailwind over the coming years.

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Global Matters Weekly

Build up not out

Richard Stutley, CFA -  1 August 2022

I met with one of our underlying global listed property managers last week and I thought some of the discussion points were worth repeating here. Until such time that we all live in the metaverse, what is happening with physical space remains important, with implications for investors beyond dedicated property buyers. 

From a sector perspective, we discussed the supply outlook for industrial/logistics space, following Amazon’s announcement earlier this year that they plan to mothball several new warehouse projects and sublet excess space.

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