Good reads from around the Web.
Well it wasn’t a long-game April Fool. As we all know Britain has triggered Article 50, and the process of giving up a lot for a little has begun.
I don’t intend debating the pros and cons again today. Regular readers know my views. Some old regular readers never forgave me them and left the website, which is fair enough.
The PM Theresa May made a good fist of trying to promise everything to everyone. That’s probably the only sensible strategy at this point, although it might bite us back down the line.
But I preferred President of the European Council Donald Tusk’s statement [1], obviously:
“There is no reason to pretend that this is a happy day, neither in Brussels nor in London.
“After all, most Europeans – including almost half the British voters – wish that we would stay together, not drift apart.”
Yes, nearly half. That’s not something you hear much around our part of the world, eh?
A friend summed up her feelings with the following photo. Some of you can have a snigger at the back if you want to. I’ll delete anything nasty in the comments.
Source: A friend.
It will be interesting to see if triggering Article 50 does lead to any concrete changes in the UK economy. So far we’ve been running on the powerful momentum we had despite, you know, being shackled to Europe and all that, but juiced by the low pound. (And, I suppose, by many households made cheery by what they see as a brighter future, and spending more.)
Like most investor types, I was wrong-footed by the UK’s strength following the vote, though I’d argue I realized and admitted [2] it sooner than most.
Normally uncertainty derails markets. At the least I expected inward investment to fall (which matters because as a nation we’re funded by the kindness of strangers) and the London property market to roll over (which matters because we’re probably in a house price bubble).
Neither occurred. Was it a Wiley Coyote moment due to the delay with Article 50 (which David Cameron had said he’d trigger right away) or has the invisible hand divined things won’t be so bad for Britain?
The crash in Sterling suggests the jury is out, and ordering pizzas and coffee.
Here are a few quick takes on the investing consequences from around the Web:
- Article 50: Reactions from The City – Financial News [3]
- Basically the same trawl, but with a few additional voices – Independent [4]
- What does it mean for UK investors – Money Observor [5]
- What now? [More passive-minded] – Nutmeg [6]
- What triggering Article 50 means for investors – FT Advisor [7]
Elsewhere, hope your boat – or goat [8] – wins!
From the blogs
Making good use of the things that we find…
Passive investing
- Evaluating AJ Bell’s new passive funds [See the comments, too] – DIY Investor UK [9]
- Keep calm and carry on – Retirement Investing Today [10]
- How to persuade your millionaire friend to try passive investing – Fire V London [11]
- A startling admission from Blackrock – The Evidence-based Investor [12]
Active investing
- James Montier: 6 impossible things before breakfast [PDF] – GMO [13]
- Are we neck deep in a bull market or not? – All Star Charts [14]
- Is Judges Scientific a miniature Berkshire Hathaway? – Richard Beddard [15]
- Nice interview with Brent Beshore, private equity investor – Morgan Housel [16]
- The secrets of startup guru Gil Penchina – Startup Grind [17]
- Hedge fund investors favour names with gravitas [Research] – SSRN [18]
Other articles
- A picture is worth a thousand calculations – Portfolio Charts [19]
- The difference between a prediction and a probability – Pension Partners [20]
- Evaluating true diversifiers [Bit US, but relevant] – Longboard Funds [21]
- The hidden risk of holding cash [Chart] – Richard Dyson [22]
- Folktales of financial faux pas – The FIRE Starter [23]
- Get rich watching films: part 3 – The Escape Artist [24]
- Have Canadians not seen The Big Short [25]? [via Gregory] – On Beyond Investing [26]
- Lessons learned when personal finance goes viral – The Financial Samurai [27]
- Here’s what to do before the robots take over – Raptitude [28]
- What are the world’s most pressing problems? – 80,000 Hours [29]
Product of the week: They’re not inclined to throw money around in God’s Own Country, so perhaps there’s a catch – but Yorkshire Building Society [30] now provides the highest paying easy access savings account, according to The Telegraph [31], at 1.15%. You have to open the account by post or in person, and you can only withdraw money on one day of the year. Which isn’t my definition of ‘easy access’, but then this is Yorkshire we’re talking about, we’re grading on the scale. Note some current accounts pay more. You can get 1.5% (with a bit of effort) from Santander [32], for instance.
Mainstream media money
Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view these enable you to click through to read the piece without being a paid subscriber of that site.1 [33]
Passive investing
- The conventional wisdom of active fund management – Vanguard Advisor [34]
- Matt Levine: Equity fund management is a solved problem – Bloomberg [35]
- Blackrock ditches expensive stock pickers – Value Walk [36]
Active investing
- Some parts of the world are cheaper than others – Telegraph [37]
- Americans are scarily optimistic about stocks [Graph] – Bloomberg [38]
- Buy, sell, or adapt [Podcast, search result] – FT Alphaville [39]
- How the Yellen Fed got religion over stock market and policy – Bloomberg [40]
- Actually, is it time to bonds? – Yahoo Finance [41]
- Investment trust discounts are close to 15-year lows – ThisIsMoney [42]
A word from a broker
- “How much can I invest in a SIPP?”, and other FAQs – Hargreaves Lansdown [43]
- Brexit: Time for a bit of sense and sensibility – TD Direct Investing [44]
Other stuff worth reading
- The new Residence Nil Rate Band for inheritance tax is here – Guardian [45]
- How George Osborne might cope with the pensions taper [46] [Search results] – FT [47]
- You can get a mortgage when you’re self-employed – Telegraph [48]
- Karen Millen bankrupted by a tax avoidance scheme gone wrong – Express [49]
- Mortgage tax relief cut doesn’t add up for buy-to-let landlords – Guardian [50]
- Global house prices [With interactive affordability tool] – The Economist [51]
- When others die, tontine investors win – New York Times [52]
- The top 50 rural areas of the UK for quality of life – ThisIsMoney [53]
- George Osborne picks the perfect date to launch new fashion brand – Guardian [54]
Book of the week: Are you a stock picker? Don’t worry, you can whisper it here. Long time UK financial writer Phil Oakley is a fellow traveler, and he is now taking pre-orders for his new book, How To Pick Quality Shares [55]. Oakley will suggest a three-step process to selecting the best long-term investments, and also debunk the variously-stepped processes of others. I kid, but not unkindly. Personally I treat all these books like a five-year old enjoys a roast dinner. Have a ponder, stir with your fork, devour the bits you find tasty – and bin the rest.
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- Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”. [↩ [60]]