Well, it’s that time of year again. The time I traditionally throw a cat amongst the pigeons to get everyone to think carefully about what they are doing and to question whether they should continue with it next year. This year, I have deliberately fired up the ether with a claim that a particular stream of charting or technical analysis is rubbish… Let’s see whether anyone can conjure up evidence that ‘support’ and ‘resistance’ stands up to the scrutiny of mathematical and statistical evaluation. Continue reading →

One of the things that keeps the equity markets interesting is the way different investment attributes fall in and out of fashion. For example, in recent times we have seen a marked preference for large, dividend paying stocks, which we expect is a reflection of record low interest rates, and a quest for better income returns with low perceived risk.

A slightly less obvious development has been a move by the market away from high quality companies and into lower quality issues. Continue reading →