Category: Latest News

It's fantastic to celebrate some success in these difficult times. Ray Hall our Operations manager has just achieved his chartered status presented by Tom Doran of the Chartered Management Institute. This has been no insignificant feat as during his study he has moved house and started a family! I asked Ray to tell me about … Continued

‘Has coronavirus affected your investments?’   For most people, the answer to this question is ‘Yes’. For anyone with an interest, the media are making it clear that global stock markets have been volatile and the implication is that investors should be nervous. If you have money invested in pension plans, ISAs, Unit Trusts, any … Continued

This week I have received two scam emails, all very genuine looking from my internet service provider. All I had to do was to put in my password and no doubt I would have been poorer by the end of the day or at least my information passed to someone with ulterior motives. Scams have … Continued

In the midst of a crisis like this, it’s natural to reach for historical comparisons. Perhaps the kind of economy we’ll inherit when the coronaviris crisis has passed is unprecedented? Perhaps not? Never before has the state expanded to the levels we are seeing ie paying our wages, propping up businesses and limiting our freedoms. … Continued

During a discussion this week about fear in the investment markets one of our advisers, Bryan Dunlop, mentioned to me that his only experience of a helicopter crash and managing fear had similarities to managing an investment portfolio. Intrigued, I asked him to tell me more. Bryan said, I was commissioned into 2nd Gurkha Rifles … Continued

Perhaps the key question currently regarding Covid 19 relates to which elements of normal life can resume without pushing the R value beyond 1?  If the number is higher than one the virus spreads further and it’s only a matter of time before the virus overwhelms the NHS.  By contrast, if the R remains below … Continued

Before we went into lock-down we made a commitment to fund the purchase of a gazebo for Lisburn Triathlon Club. Our own Kerry McCaughan a member. The good news is, the gazebo has arrived! It looks fantastic! The bad news is, they can’t take it to any races just yet, for obvious reasons. Triathletes don’t … Continued

What we’ve seen over the last few weeks is stocks tumbling – a bear market. The famous investor, Lord Templeton, said that the four most dangerous words in investing are ‘it’s different this time’. With this in mind, below is a chart going back to the financial crisis from 2007-2009. Can you guess what the … Continued

On Monday the 20th April headline news quoted an extraordinary movement in oil markets (BBC article). The one month forward West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was  -$37 per barrel. The price rebounded in early morning trading the following day but this has left investors curious about how oil can attract a negative price and why is it … Continued

General A recent Imperial College report talks of two basic approaches to deal with a pandemic, i.e. mitigation and suppression.  In mitigation, the progress of the epidemic is slowed down so that health systems are able to cope with the outbreak.  Suppression aims as far as possible to eliminate the transfer of the virus once … Continued