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Home > Blog > General News
TD Direct Being Sold?
Post Date: February 1, 2016
TD Direct, a favourite execution-only stockbroker among private investors, is likely to be sold according to a report by Sky News. There are a number of suggested bidders but one of them is Barclays Bank who run a similar platform under the name Barclays Stockbrokers. With TD Direct having £13 billion of assets under management, a merger of those platforms would still leave the combination somewhat smaller than Hargreaves Lansdown, the market leader.
Mergers and restructurings are the name of the game ...
What to do with your NS&I 65+ Bond
Post Date: December 19, 2015
Many readers might have taken out the Government's offering of NS&I 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bonds a year ago when they were made available. They offered a very attractive rate of interest of 2.80% gross on the one year version, but these are now about to mature so investors have to decide what to do with them.
What are the options? You can cash them in. Or you can re-invest the proceeds in another one year term bond at 1.45%, and that's not ...
A Warning – 1875 Finance
Post Date: December 8, 2015
Several ShareSoc directors have been called recently by someone claiming to represent "1875 Finance". To prove their bona-fides they even quote your own log-in information for a well known financial web site - yes they will even tell you the password which to any sensible person should immediately arise suspicion.
1875 Finance is an financial organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland. But they are not registered with the FCA to do business in the UK and have no connection with the aforementioned financial ...
Jim Slater – Obituary
Post Date: November 20, 2015
Well known stock market investor and "asset stripper" Jim Slater has died aged 86. He first made a big name for himself as co-founder of Slater-Walker Securities in the 1960s - an investment company that specialised in rapid deal making. By acquiring companies, reorganising them and then disposing of them the company grew rapidly but built a reputation for "asset stripping" (a derogatory term for taking out the good parts of a business and dismantling the rest leaving workers out of ...
The HBOS Report – It’s Finally Here
Post Date: November 19, 2015
The Prudential Regulatory Authority and the Bank of England today published the report of the inquiry into the failure of HBOS Plc. Those who were investors in the company at the time, or who suffered as a consequence of the bail-out of the company via a merger with LloydsTSB, will not need to be told what happened and why. This report does not add a lot to the story as the defects in the management of the HBOS are now well ...
Better Finance Press Release on Shareholder Rights Directive
Post Date: November 9, 2015
The following press release has just been issued by Better Finance - an organisation that represents private investor associations:
PRESS RELEASE
A CAPITAL MARKETS UNION WITHOUT A SINGLE MARKET FOR EU-WIDE SHAREHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Brussels, 9 November 2015 – The Commission’s proposal for the review of the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD), aimed at countering wide-spread short-termism in favour of a long-term perspective in the governance of listed companies by stimulating stronger shareholder engagement, was presented to the European Parliament (EP) and Council. Whereas the EP ...
Tweeting False Information is a Crime
Post Date: November 8, 2015
Yes tweeting false information is a crime, at least in the USA. Scottish trader James Craig has been charged by US prosecutors with fraud after he set up two twitter accounts and distributed false information on US firms Audience and Sarepta. This caused the share prices of those companies to fall by 28% and 16% and caused investors to lose over £1 million. Mr Craig has now disappeared.
Mr Craig used Twitter account names that were similar to those of Muddy Waters ...
UK Population Growth – The Implications for Investors
Post Date: November 5, 2015
A few days ago, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published their projections for UK population numbers. The projected changes have really important implications for stock market investors. The ONS forecast that residents will grow to 70 million in the next 12 years from 65 million at present (that's an increase equivalent to the size of the Irish Republic). The increase is primarily being driven by immigration and a lot of the rise is expected to be in the South-East of ...
Can you make money in the FTSE100?
Post Date: October 5, 2015
Can you make money by investing in the FTSE100? This thought came to mind when looking at some of the recent market statistics. It's quite an important question because most stock market investors are heavily biased to that segment of the market (as opposed to FTSE250, small cap or AIM stocks) simply because the market cap of the FTSE100 is a very high proportion of the overall UK market. For example, it's about 80% of the FTSE AllShare. So if you ...
Private Individuals Own More of the Stock Market
Post Date: September 7, 2015
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) have published their latest survey of share ownership in UK companies. Historically there has been a long term trend for individuals to own less as a proportion of the overall market. But the latest figures tell a different story. From historic lows of 10% in 2010 and 2012, the figures for 2014 show an increase to 12%.
The proportion owned by the "Rest of the World" (which might also include some individuals) remains the highest at ...
Coping with Panics, and is the Market Cheap Enough?
Post Date: August 25, 2015
I may be a day late to comment on stock market panics as the UK market bounced back today (25/8/2015) after sharp falls in the previous few days. But I had the chance to reflect on recent events after a trip to the somewhat stormy Rensburg AIM VCT AGM. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the markets worldwide were being driven by fear and emotion on the whole. Explanations given were both numerous and dubious such as the collapse of ...
ShareSoc Deplores Withdrawal of Personal Crest Membership by Brokers
Post Date: August 24, 2015
ShareSoc has issued the following Press Release:
Following the takeover of Stocktrade by Alliance Trust Savings (ATS), the latter have decided to withdraw support for Personal Crest Membership from their clients. Clients will either have to transfer into the ATS nominee service, turn their holdings into paper share certificates (a truly archaic form nowadays which are soon to be outlawed by an EU Directive), move to another broker or liquidate their holdings. This continues a recent trend for stockbrokers to terminate the ...
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