Month: October 2018

Wednesday, 31^st October 2018

Taking stock….

Stocks are down across the month of October. Not just in Britain – but everywhere. Significantly so….

The British FTSE 100 index is down 4.81% on the month….

The S&P 500 has fallen 8.6%….

The German Dax is down 7.21%. The French CAC 40 is down 7.5%. In Japan, the NIKKEI 225 has lost 9.6%….

It’s down, down, down – across the board – and investors are worried….

• Fear levels on the rise….

The VIX measures how fearful S&P 500 investors are feeling about the future….

The current VIX reading is not at the heights of mid-October’s 25.97. But yesterday’s closing mark of 24.70 says investors are still plenty scared….

Here in Britain, the Hargreaves Lansdown Investor Confidence Index says investor sentiment has fallen to a record low. The index fell five points to 53 this month….

That’s the lowest measure of sentiment towards the UK stock market since the Investor Confidence index was launched back in 1995….

And it’s not just man-on-the-street investors feeling fearful. US fund managers also have a stomach knot….

The latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch Fund Managers Survey says optimism among institutional investors about the outlook for economic growth and corporate profits has reached its lowest level since the aftermath of the last financial crisis….… Click here to read more

Thursday, 11^th October 2018

Warning tremor or just another blip?

Here at Money Truths we’ve been warning of trouble ahead for stock market investors for some time….

We were at it in March. And again, in September….

We’ve said it. And we’ve kept on saying it. And, so far, we have been wrong – consistently so. Our timing has been out. But sooner or later we know we are going to be proved right….

We will take no credit for it when that day comes. A broken clock tells the time correctly twice a day, as they say….

But the day is coming. Of that you can be certain….

And the signs suggest it is fast approaching.…

• Global stock slump….

The bull market in stocks has run on for close to a decade. It has been easy for investors to make money. Even the worst and the weakest of the breed have done well. It’s been as easy as throwing darts….

The bull market has been running up a head of steam for so long, we suspect many investors have forgotten that markets can fall too. Often just as swiftly – quicker even – than they rise….

For such investors, the last few days will have come as a jolt.… Click here to read more

Thursday, 4^th October 2018

The start of something? Or the end?

The month of October gets a bad rap….

As far as the markets are concerned, October is the bad-boy on the calendar….

Investors and financial commentators associate the month with calamity, catastrophe and sheer terror….

Memories are long. Old wounds run deep. Some scars never heal….

• Be reassured – or brace yourself….

It was the month of October that produced Black Monday in 1987 – and across that one month, the FTSE All-Share Index shed 27% of its value….

And in the year of global financial crisis that was 2008, the October curse (if that is what it is) struck again – with the FTSE All-Share Index losing 12%….

But we only need check the facts to discover that October’s reputation is entirely undeserved – a product of the media’s rabid imagination rather than hard-and-fast reality….

There is no need to be fearful….

Since 1990, the month of October has delivered losses on just half-a-dozen occasions. And the market has dropped just once in the month of October since 2010….

The historic record should reassure you that the market is as safe as houses during October….

Or you can take it as a sign that the return of the curse of October is well-overdue….… Click here to read more