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More inspiration for your ISA
Thursday 30 Mar 2017With a new tax year just around the corner you might be wondering which investments to place in your ISA. The annual allowance is increasing to £20,000 on 6 April, giving you greater scope to put your hard-earned cash to work in a tax-efficient manner. In last week’s issue of Shares we gave some...
Private equity: James de Bunsen on its bad rap and broad opportunities
Thursday 30 Mar 2017Allocating that marginal pound of savings is unquestionably hard following an eight year rally in equities (let alone a 30-year bull market in bonds). It requires a firm view that the forces that have sustained that rally will remain in place for some time, or that new, beneficial, forces will...
How do train operators turn a profit?
Thursday 23 Mar 2017Every day millions of us struggle with the constant grind of commuting, facing delays ranging from signal problems to more anarchic excuses like swans running loose on the tracks. While experiencing these hold-ups, do you ever stop to think about how transport companies turn a profit? In this...
How to find the right shares if you want to reinvest dividends
Thursday 16 Mar 2017Would you like some help in spotting individual companies that could be interesting candidates for a dividend reinvestment strategy? This article discusses a way to find stocks that are highly cash generative and so have the potential to pay more and more dividends each year. We also run through...
Europe in a world of ‘alternative facts’
Thursday 02 Mar 2017These are interesting times. Suddenly everything is different – populism has become protectionism under the mantra of ‘Make America Great Again’ and Brexit is set to lead the UK to sunnier climes. A few minor details, such as the interconnected nature of global supply chains and the relationships...
Make a decent return via peer-to-peer (P2P) lending
Thursday 23 Feb 2017Interest rates on traditional savings accounts are at record lows and even if you are prepared to tie your money up for five years you would struggle to earn 2%. The poor returns have resulted in thousands of savers switching to peer-to-peer ( P2P ) lending as a more lucrative alternative. P2P...
Take your forex trading to the next level
Thursday 16 Feb 2017You have set up an account and are itching to start trading forex but first it is worth getting some answers to some common questions about the currency markets. What strategy should I use? This is the number one question for new traders and is the most difficult to answer. There is not one ‘silver...
The impact of the pound on your portfolio
Thursday 09 Feb 2017One of the most striking aspects of 2016 was the impact of currency returns on investor portfolios. The sharp fall in the pound after the EU referendum meant that sterling finished the year down 16% against the dollar, 14% against the euro and 19% against the yen. UK-based investors with exposure...
Are share splits a waste of time?
Thursday 02 Feb 2017Have you ever seen a share price automatically shoot up 1,000% or suddenly become a fraction of the price it was the previous day? If so, these are likely to be a result of a company undertaking a share split or share consolidation. This can involve cutting the number of shares in issue to make the...
The UK’s little-known communications gems
Thursday 26 Jan 2017The UK telecoms and internet infrastructure industry is dominated by a handful of giants. Look a bit deeper and you’ll find some lesser-known but very interesting players. Most people associate this sector with the large companies such as BT ( BT.A ) and Vodafone ( VOD ) . They tend to be natural...