Wednesday 31 July 2013

Security Data Edge

In our times of Big Data for big rewards, at least potentially, there's also the threat of big security issues surrounding that massive wealth of information. This videos highlights this and reminds us all to the need for security. FT's Connected Business talks to Vijay Raghavan, Chief Technology Officer at LexisNexis and this companny approach which tries to strike a balance between the security needs of Financial Services  companies and the required and mandatory privacy of customers.

Friday 26 July 2013

FT on the Insurance Industry: a Webinar

The Link below gives acess to a Financial Times Webinar on the Insurance Industry that took place in the begining of this Month of July. An important part of the financial sector, this industry was particularly affected by the Financial Crisis and is trying to regain ground amidst greater difficulties. A good and knowledgeable panel is always certainly a contribution to the debates on the future of the Insurance Industry!

London Webinar | Calendar | FT Live

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Opalesque TV on Reinsurance

I confess on this post that I from time to time - maybe daily at the moment - receive e-mails from Fund Management publications like Opalesque. Matthias Knab is a major editor in this publication that occasionally also sends e-mails directly to my mail box with updates from this Swiss specific publication. I present here a video in which Matthias talks with Joe Taussig CEO of Multi-Strat Holdings about why the great Fund Managers of all time as well as some prominent Hedge Funds set a Reinsurance Business. He explains the superior returns of this business relatively compared with traditional Insurance, by the manner in which so called 'Float' premium received by re-insurers is properly used to invest elsewhere and only later the business needs to pay the cost of Insurance. But he warns also that the performance isn't equal for every Fund, which tells us that experience and the right strategy continues to matter. Nevertheless it is a reminder of why the Fund Management is so competitive and the way that, and in times of difficult to get low returns, the industry should strive to get the necessary alternatives.
Mr. Taussig takes also the opportunity to reveal the way Multi-Strat Holdings will in the near future - rest of this year and next years - set its strategy concerning deploying 1 Manager a month, and in 2014 onward 2-3 Managers a month in more of an Asset Management framework, and explains the more competitive and receptive playing field for this kind of business in cities like New York or London compared to European Financial Centers.


Monday 22 July 2013

John Kay FT Comment

It is with a mix of emotion and praise that I post here this video depicting  Dr. John Kay's comment about Quantitative Easing and our current Economic predicament. Since I was living in the UK, I tried always to read and check Dr. Kay' work and articles. He is a respected and listened economist. And quite so that it couldn't disappoint with his take on the paradoxes about the current economic policies in place to deal with the consequences of one of the major Financial & Economic downturns of our recent History. Interesting to think and reflect about the bad balance achieved so far between Fiscal Stimulus, Quantitative Easing, Monetary Policy and the urgent need for Investment and Growth. The results speak for themselves, and the savvy but gentle warning of John Kay just add value to the judgement of all.



Really impressive to me is the recognition of the paradox that, despite our economies are living with real negative interest rates (which is a form of Government subsidy), the so called needed Investment on Infrastructures and sectors of the Economy vital and Strategic to long term Growth aren't taking off. What it all seems instead is that the QE money is being wasted or hoarded by the Financial System. It begs the question: Where do we go from here?!

Green Investment in Brazil

The videos in this Post are promotional clips from the Company Energy Crops Brazil. By a fortunate happening, this company has a Facebook page that is an active member of a Group of that Social Network that deals with Investment Issues called Investment thinkers, and of course a group that I am a member as well! Hope that it is to the enjoyment of everyone and a possible spark for future Green Energy Investments in Brazil or elsewhere.



These videos are part of a list organized by Energy Crops Brazil. It is actually visible the legend in the previous clip that there are 41 videos in the List.



There is space in this Post to present three of them. Check them all here.

Friday 19 July 2013

Occasional Dividends

From time to time I will post some interesting and opportune updates on posts from Blogs and networks dealing with Stock Dividends and Investing in Stocks that might be good value for investors interested in this kind of Investment! One of these is the Blog from Blogger The Div-Net from which I occasionally receive e-mail updates. This first suggestion concerns Wells Fargo & Co, an American Bank that is rightly associated with good value investing:

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Credit where it's due

A very nice conversation is presented in this post between FT fm and Graham Nielson from London based Credit Manager Cairn Capital. We learn about what is going on in the Bond Markets, the thin value in the Credit Markets due to Quantitative Easing and the opportunity created by investor sell-off of complex structured products in a liquidity squeezing environment. When someone exits a Market, someone else will fill the void. That's just logic in the Markets as well as elsewhere....:

António Horta-Osório

The recent Euromoney prize 'Best Banker of the Year Award' attributed to my compatriot António Horta-Osório is certainly well deserved. During the years 2005-2011 I was living in the United Kingdom. When I arrived in London, I acknowledge that Mr. Horta-Osório was already responsible for the Santander Business there and its acquisitions of Building Societies like Abbey or Bradford&Bingley at the time. I was looking in the press for some of the developments (I confess with some distance anyway...). Then there was the momentous shift to the Lloyd's Group command, and then I took a closer look. I was (and still am) a Lloyd's Customer!
It is absolutely wonderful, specially when you are an immigrant in a foreign country to pay testimony to the success of someone from your own Country; that feeling is great and something that Mr. Horta-Osório could manage to give for free to every Portuguese living in the UK. Of course he had to Manage much much more serious business than that and he delivered, despite some complicated setback in the fall of 2011 and the very begining of 2012, when he fell out with Psychological Burnout Stress due to excessive workload, that I was able to accompany through the press there and already in Portugal. He was able to get through and to get to this date still as CEO of the Lloyd's Group and receive this prestigious Prize. Congratulations to Mr. António Horta-Osório and to all Portuguese Executives all around the World! The Euromoney receiving speech video can be watched here

Buchanan on a Steve Keen's article

The Physics of Finance: Steve Keen on economic self-cannibalism: Great article by Steve Keen, reflecting on 40 years of change as traditional neo-classical economics has become less important and less inf...

Buchanan on Econophysics again


From time to time I will Reblogg posts from Mark Buchanan's The Physics of Finance:
The Physics of Finance: The Wall Street Journal weighs in on "econophysics...: Michael Casey has written a nice short essay in the Wall Street Journal on the topic of econophysics, and more generally the physics-inspir...

US dollar bull run

Big Data and stupidity may sometimes be positively correlated. But, and as long the analysis is good and robust enough, the data is certainly the best guide to decision-making in economic and markets settings. Following last week sell-off of the US Dollar it shouldn't be a surprise the bull run of this week, if only investors properly look at the recent economic data, and realize that everything is in favor of the Dollar appreciation. David Bloom, the global head of Forex Research at HSBC, rightly tell us in the presented conversation with  Authers Note of the FT that the Dollar story is the main driver of the Markets in pretty much any asset class, facts to be considered when allocating Capital for the near future.

EU Shadows

Confirming all that investors are thinking about the political challenge across the European Union, the recent influential voices correctly point the seriousness of the Political dysfunction of most of the European Countries composing the Single Currency Euro. Credit analysts in the Global Banks are rightly positioned to view this issue given the importance of Capital and Credit Markets for political and Economic developments in the Eurozone, and as Alberto Gallo from RBS tells John Authers in the video below the operational challenges are huge and specially so for Banks in France, Spain and Italy.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Transparent Investment Management

This is a kind of introductory post on Investment Management. It features a FT fm brief talk with Daniel Godfrey from the Investment Management Association.


Monday 15 July 2013

Debt-fuelled World

In the John Authers video presented here is a fascinating work done by Principal Global Investors, joining a group of studies of investing for the long term and the Return landscape for Asset Classes ranging from Equity, Bonds, ETFs and so on. Quite interesting to note some of the conclusions of the Report, like the potential increasing allocation to Real Estate and Alternative Credit Markets and the potential for Institutional Investors other than Global Banks to take these Investments (really good from my point of view). Further it is instructive to learn that gold is an opportunistic short-term investment (besides the value it creates) that have high costs of holding, which explains poor performance. Finally ETFs turned from being a good beta (market exposure parameter) investment to being a tactical asset class and losing status from asset allocation to opportunistic. The brilliant Report and the accompanying video discussion can be downloaded here.

Bruegel: Europe must clean the banks!

The excellent video that accompanies this post is from the European Think-thank Bruegel. And it is a very clear vindication for the enforcement of a sound Banking system in Europe and in the Southern Countries of the Euro area in particular. Along the way it is proposed a few ways to financing Small & Medium Enterprises (SME), like the creation of fully Public backed Investment Banks or the granting of access to securitisation for SMEs (my preferred). The full report (pdf) can be found here, where you will check the source of the video as well.

Investing against all tides

As I've remarked here before, the business of investment is sometimes perilous and for the strong of heart and mind. Nevertheless it is to be done. Despite the odds or the apparent disadvantage. In this FT fm (fund management) video we notice just this and although the situation in Egypt might seem to prevent investment, that is not really the case and there is certainly good opportunities to take. It might only take a big heart and a strong mind.

Friday 12 July 2013

Volatility profits...?

The Financial Markets are a very dangerous place to invest! We all already knew that. But it is certainly where money and profits are made. And that can be possible with taking the opportunity of gains in its inherent turbulence. The recent events in the US Federal Reserve or the Markets' movements due to Political or institutional developments are good examples where the so called Volatility Traders will be busy and attentive. As FT's Ralph Atkins documents in the video with this post:

Wednesday 10 July 2013

European Financial Information Summit

Promotional post. This is as way of gratitude to Incisive Media publications. During the years that I lived in the United Kingdom and even now that I live in Portugal, this publication kind of kept a relationship with me and my hypothetical or real purposes with attentive quality. Thank you!

Friday 5 July 2013

The Politics of Global Markets

Nice to watch this weekly resume from Royal London Asset Management's director and Head of Fixed Income Jonathan Platt. I think I am safe to say we had an eventful week on many fronts of the Global Markets, specially in some Eurozone countries as well as in Egypt. In matters concerned to the Eurozone it is interesting to note the relatively noncompetitive Italian Labor Markets largely compensated by the good National Saving rates of this Eurozone Country in contrast to others....Looking elsewhere it is also interesting not to notice a mention to the East Asian Markets, perhaps understandably as it is indeed mentioned the good economic performance of the US economy in comparison to other Advanced Economies. And the tapering will eventually occur, and the markets aren't ready!  And finally Emerging Markets (like Brazil or Turkey) are really under-performing and seeing a capital flight and growing inequality that alerts us for Political Risks and its consequences.  

 

Wednesday 3 July 2013

The Case for Tax Evasion Crack down.....?

I would really like to see a proper, comprehensive global tax evasion crack down. And I believe that with good and proper tax laws, in the end we all benefit (and can afford lower rates of tax), and of course those on lower incomes! The real Economy would cheer as well.

Europe's woes still around

As the short video below sketches Europe's economic prospects are still shadowed by very dark clouds indeed. It is specially remarkable the comparison with the American's economic situation and the narrow or in-existent real value of investing in European Companies that at a first look might seem to be under-priced or in need a market correction. And the Markets are unforgiving to Political turmoil as the recent activity over the Portuguese Crisis well illustrate.

Deutsche Borse Group

This is a presentation. I hope that (unlike myself) anyone watching will perfectly understand the German Language without reserves or difficulties. It is kind of inspirational for me to try and definitely learn this important European idiom.