We are in the process of moving house. It’s really a function of a two bed flat in London being a bit cramped for a soon to be family of four rather than any call on the housing market. We went to see a property the other weekend and have subsequently had our offer...
It has been great to have test cricket being played again. A sport I am utterly useless at (and one I found pretty dull throughout childhood) but as I’ve grown older, and duller, it’s really become one of my favourites. I think it must be something to do with the...
I picked up my bike from the office garage the other day. It was the first time I had been into the City since lockdown had begun. It felt almost nostalgic, as I cycled from the office back to my flat in northwest London. It was great to see activity; with vehicles on...
It was my birthday this month. I’m not one to make a big fuss but it has historically been a good excuse to get a few friends together at a pub and enjoy some early summer sunshine. This year was perhaps the most extraordinary birthday I’ve had, yet the most...
It is remarkable how quickly the alien becomes routine. Having settled into lockdown and working from home, my previous life seems a distant memory. I have to remind myself that I have only been working from home for 7 weeks. Lockdowns have been effective in bringing...
The key point of difference for JPM UK Equity Plus is its ability to short. In my previous two articles on the JPM UK Equity Plus fund, “Extending the alpha opportunity in UK equity” and “Standing out from the crowd in UK equity” I explained how shorting gives...
The beginning of a period of unprecedented social lockdown that will mark a moment in human history. This is not to say that the economic impact is necessarily going to be as harsh as in the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 or change the political map like the fall of...
Most equity investors generate returns by buying shares of stocks they think will go up. However, investors can benefit from stocks that they think will go down, using a technique called short selling, or ‘shorting’. To take a short position, an investor borrows the...
When fund managers have a positive view on a stock, they can buy it and build a position as large as their liquidity and risk parameters allow. In many cases, this can be many times the weight of the stock in the index, significantly increasing the potential to...
Wednesday 11 March is proving to be a day of stimulus for the UK economy as both central bankers and politicians do what they can to fend off the economic impacts of Covid-19. The Bank of England (BoE) unanimously decided on an emergency rate cut of 50 percentage...