The shares of UK Product Group (LON: UKR) went up 62.5% on Thursday 17 March. This means absolutely nothing of any importance and is not something we could have made money out of trading. If we’d even tried to trade it, we would have lost money doing so. This is an important lesson about trading … Continued
Well, apart from the fact that one is already bust and the other isn’t yet? Or even, what’s the difference between First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) and Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ: SIVB) given that one went bust and the other hasn’t yet? If we can work that out, why one is bust and the other … Continued
There are at least three things that can kill off a business idea and what we’ve got to decide with Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) and Cazoo (NYSE: CZOO) is which one of the three – or indeed some other – is dragging them down. Only once we’ve worked out why it’s not currently working can we … Continued
One of the more surprising outcomes of the Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ: SIVB) collapse and bankruptcy is that stablecoins are not, in fact, stable. The reason being that there’s just no good place to put piles of billions of dollars. Nowhere that’s absolutely, 100%, safe that is. There are varying levels of safety, true, but … Continued
Funding Circle (LON: FCH) started out as what seemed like a great idea. Let’s go revolutionise the small business lending market! We all know that British banks don’t lend to business, even when they do it’s only against security, there’s a ripe market for the picking there. Since then, the share price has gone from … Continued
This is not a particular exhortation that we should all go out and trade cryptocurrencies. But it is an observation about the cryptocurrency environment. Prices are changing wildly within crypto – that’s great, we’re traders, we want to be able to be on the right side of changing prices. That’s what trading is – being … Continued
Rolls Royce (LON: RR) shares jumped 25 pence, or near 24% in just the one day last week. Being on the right end of that would have been good – which means we must analyse why it happened, so we have a chance of spotting it being about to happen again. The standard story we’re … Continued
We might well want to be able to trade macroeconomic news – so, unemployment, GDP growth, interest rates etc –simply because that’s something that changes market prices. The problem with doing this with any individual stock – say Exxon (NYSE: XOM) is that there can and will be specific issues to do with that corporation … Continued
We’re just going through the British bank reporting season and everyone’s profits are up. So, therefore British banks must be a good buy, right? Quite possibly, yes, but it’s important to understand that there’s a temporary feature to a part of this profits rise. The interest rate margin only keeps increasing if interest rates keep … Continued
So, this electronic revolution is going to make rare metals soar in price and stay up, right? Those battery metals – cobalt, lithium – and the rare earths for the magnets, they’re stonking to the Moon and no mistake, undoubtedly. Except metals markets don’t in fact work that way. Sure, demand changes, prices change, but … Continued
Of course, Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) and Uber (NYSE: UBER) has always been separate companies. But for much of their dual existence they’ve just been seen as two aspects of the same economic sector. If ride hailing and ride sharing work, then so will both companies – if they won’t then neither Uber nor Lyft will. … Continued
Once again, we’ve a politician not quite understanding what he wants to regulate – in this case it’s US sports betting and the associated stocks. So, the likes of Flutter (LON: FLTR), DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) and MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM). All have substantial US sports betting businesses. All will benefit – yes, benefit – from … Continued
Shell (LON: SHEL) raised its dividend 15% at the last results, Exxon (NYSE: XOM) raised by only 3%. In there is the proof of one of the background features of stock markets. It’s worth our pottering through this to see what is happening. After all, both Shell and Exxon are in the same business- crude … Continued
Darktrace (LON: DARK) found itself the target of a shortselling report from Quintessential Capital Management and the shares dropped 20% and more in a day – to largely regain their losses it is true. The problem here is that whether the allegations about the accounting are true or not doesn’t really matter. Well, of course … Continued
News that the new CEO of Rolls Royce (LON: RR.) called the company a “burning platform” broke on Friday sending the shares down 3% or so. This is a reversal, it’s true, but then RR has near doubled since October. So, what actually is going on here? The doubling, well, that’s simple enough to explain. … Continued
Shares in the 7 key listed companies of the Adani Group have risen some 800% in the past three years. Now they’re falling and falling hard. So, why’s that? The trigger for the fall is the short selling report issued by Hindenburg Research. But there’s something we’ve got to know about short seller reports. They’re … Continued
As our example we’re just going to take the Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: LABU) as our example. This isn’t the only leveraged ETF out there by a long way it’s just an example. There is the Bear version of the same Direxion ETF (NYSEARCA: LABD) for example, they near always come … Continued
Lithium is, of course, the brave new metal of the green energy revolution. We’ve not got any other material to use for automotive batteries, not of any consequence. The assumption is that lithium demand will rise at least 1000% over the next decade or so. The price has already risen at least that in anticipation … Continued
UK inflation is currently rather high, higher than it has been in a couple of generations in fact. It depends upon whether we use the CPI, RPI, or possibly the food index, but levels – in order – of 10, 11 and near 15% are bandied about. This poses both a problem and an opportunity … Continued
One of the little sadness’s of life is that no stock picking method – no investing method – works all the time. If it did then everyone would do it and all the potential profits would be gone. However, what is true is that certain investment picking methods work some of the time. The trick … Continued
Say that we want to speculate upon BONK – and speculate it would be of course – then we face something of a problem. For actual crypto exchanges seem to be falling over with depressing regularity. This then means that speculation on DOGE, or Shiba Inu (SHIB) – all things that might be connected – … Continued
An unfair but possibly true statement would be that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has just been through the mother of all meme bubbles over the past few years. There is a major difference against the others, Gamestop (NYSE: GME), AMC (NYSE: AMC) and so on, most especially Bed, Bath and Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY). The most obvious … Continued
Copy trading is the simple enough idea that some people are better at trading than others. So, those less good should follow – copy – the trading of those better. Put like that it’s both a simple enough idea and one that’s obviously sensible. There are problems though when we explore the details. Newspaper Tip … Continued
Dropping foul news into the markets just before a long weekend offers the chance for people to have forgotten about it by the time the markets reopen. Or, perhaps, that’s often the hope, as with Harland & Wolff’s (LON: HARL) announcement that revenue for the year just gone – to Dec 31, 2022 – will … Continued
So, is Elon Musk the world’s greatest entrepreneur or some blowhard who got lucky? Yes. So, that’s that little question dealt with. On the other hand, we’d like to know more about why Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares keep going down. Is this because Musk is a genius entrepreneur or a blowhard who got lucky? Yes. … Continued
We might think that we have to be not cynical, uncynical, to believe that just as Santa brings presents to all the little kiddies so the Santa Rally also provides an annual profit-making opportunity for us traders. Yet the actual explanation of why there is such a rally is profoundly cynical, it incorporates a possibly … Continued
Should we be value investing or growth investing? The answer is known and obvious – yes. Which might sound like just a cute answer but it’s also true. We should be doing whichever makes us more money at the time of course, so the answer is yes. When growth is more highly valued than value … Continued
Warren Buffett (of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) fame of course) is able to tell us why companies like Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) and Oatly (NASDAQ: OTLY) have been such successful destroyers of shareholder capital – they ain’t got no moat. That is, of course, something that in itself needs explaining. Buffett’s point is that it’s … Continued
All too often we think of “the shipping industry” without thinking it through properly – it’s actually a series of different industries. Precisely because it is that series different parts of shipping can be at entirely different points in the cycle. For example, Moller Maersk (NASDAQ: MAERSKA) (LON: 0O77) did very well out of the … Continued
This is a very strange idea but one that needs serious consideration – could inflation save the British commercial property companies like Hammerson (LON: HMSO) and Land Securities (LON: LAND)? It’s too late for poor old Intu (the property company, not the software one) but is there this – however weird the idea is – … Continued
We all know that the world is using much more lithium – all those Teslas, Rivians and other EV s are just packed with it. Demand is soaring so those producing now are coining cash – like Sigma Lithium (CVE: SGML) soon will be. The only really world class deposit that’s about to come on … Continued
By definition the price of a share on the market is the right price for that share on the market. That’s just what market price means – that’s the price. Which means that the short sellers in Home REIT (LON: HOME) are correct when they say it was overvalued at 120p, overvalued at 80p and … Continued
Royal Mail (LON: RMG) changed its name recently, to International Distributions Services (LON: IDS). Within that name change is the base problem that Royal Mail – sorry, IDS – faces and the one that could well bankrupt the group. Or, of course, provide the impetus for the change that will allow it to thrive. This … Continued
Which are the best and greenest shares to buy rather depends – are we to judge on how well they’re going to aid the world in going green? Or in how we’re going to make money out of them? Of course, we’d like to do both but that does mean that we’ve got to distinguish. … Continued
The idea that these stocks are not sensitive to higher interest rates, while these over here are, is true. But that does depend more than a little bit on the weight we put on that word “sensitive”. For at some level of movement of interest rates all stocks will change in price. Other levels of … Continued
One answer to that headline question – UK Energy prices, what’s up? – is that UK energy prices are up, that’s what. But that’s not a grandly illuminative statement as most of us have seen our own bills where this is true. And, of course, what most of us want to know is what happens … Continued
This is not exactly a new question – what should I do with my investments in this market? For markets always change, so what should be done in them changes as they do. This is, from the grander economic point of view, rather the point of using markets in the first place – things change, … Continued
There are really only two possible answers to that question, should I invest in today’s stock market? After all, a maybe would be rather dodging matters. The answer is yes – because that’s what investing is. The aim is to build a source of wealth and independence. That’s something that requires continued addition to the … Continued