Corporate bonds, or financial obligations owed by companies, have been increasingly year on year for a long time now. A few months ago, a fellow investor pointed out to me the growing issue not just of net bond values in issue, but the grade of those bonds. How are bonds graded? Bonds – both corporate […]
On the 30th January, the Financial Conduct Authority published two papers as part of a process to propose new measures on encouraging effective corporate stewardship for investors. As an investor myself, I was pleased to read that the FCA is trying to encourage asset managers to more closely monitor the companies they invest in and
Having previously written about the serious danger presented to UK investors by the crisis of credibility facing the UK’s audit industry, I’m yet to see any serious measures taken to suggest this beyond an attempt to drive ‘competition’ in the industry. Why are authorities not undertaking a wholesale review of the effectiveness of auditing? Late
More competition won’t change the culture of auditing Read More »
The various news feeds and sources of financial commentary I follow are becoming increasingly vocal about the rising risk of global debt. Starting in early 2018, commentators have been warning that global debt levels are spiraling out of control, possibly leading to a repeat of the 2007/8 financial crisis. Global debt levels are at historic
I must confess to being absolutely fascinated by the on-going saga of General Electric. Originally founded in 1892 by Thomas Edison, the company employs more than 300,000 people and is structured as a conglomerate, with about 12 divisions including GE Aviation, GE Power and GE Capital. It holds diverse interests including healthcare, transportation and lighted
Earlier this week I was speaking to a friend about his portfolio and some options he was considering taking to reduce volatility. Put simply, he wanted to sell out of a number of positions which were rapidly declining, move into cash and then buy in again at a lower level. When I asked him why,
Reader Question: How often do you sell positions? Read More »
If you consider yourself an investor then no doubt you’ve heard the story of ‘Mr Market’ – the emotionally unstable, totally illogical neighbour that comes to your house and offers to buy your shares or sell you new ones at a different price every day. Some days, he offers a high price and other days
Anyone with an ear tuned to global financial markets will know that central banks around the world are winding up their decade-long programme of quantitative easing. Although originally designed to support banks suffering a credit crunch following the 2008 financial crisis, these have ballooned and extended over the last ten years and with interest rates
In a recent article, I made a reference to the price of Amazon shares reaching a ridiculous 150 forecast earnings. The price of a company is an indicator of the market’s confidence in its abilities to generate cash and return this to shareholders. The higher the P/E ratio is, the more confident that investors generally
Have tech valuations lost all semblance of reality? Read More »
Having covered a number of company fundamentals that demonstrate how a company is operating (Turnover, Profitability and Leverage), this article will examine the Balance Sheet, which provides an overview of a company’s assets and liabilities, as well as the shareholders’ equity at a given point in time. Each of these sections includes many sub-accounts which
Understanding Company Fundamentals – Balance Sheet Read More »
Leverage, or debt as it is more commonly known, is a term that refers to money that a company has borrowed. When a company wants to invest in new assets, it needs cash to pay for them. That cash can come from one of three sources – sales and investment returns, equity capital or debt
Profit is an economic concept which occurs when the income from an economic transaction exceed the costs of carrying it out. For example, if a company sells windows that cost £500 in material and, plus £100 in labour and transportation costs, but they receive £1000 from the sale of the window, then their profit is
Understanding Company Fundamentals – Profitability Read More »
Turnover is a financial term which refers to how much cash has entered a company’s bank account in a given period. In most companies, it reflects the value of its sales in that year, either of goods or services, but before costs such as salaries and taxes. Most investors like to see an increasing turnover
In my previous article, I wrote about my approach to portfolio risk management and the steps I take to reduce my risk profile and qualify potential opportunities. Underneath the hood of any investment engine is a financial model of factors which affect a company’s performance. My ideal portfolio is one which is high yield (compared
A few days ago it was put to me that investing requires little skill and is essentially no different to gambling. If that’s the case, then why do I bother investing in equities (which takes up quite a lot of my time to research and manage), rather than just buying hundreds of pounds worth of
