Globally, the most significant upcoming election is in the US, but of course, the UK election is also expected towards the end of this year.
There are similarities to US and UK politics in that it is generally a race between two parties,
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As our world becomes more interconnected, financial fraud has become a means of exploiting our vulnerabilities. The statistics paint a stark picture: in 2022, £1.2 billion was stolen, with a further £1.2 billion stopped by the banks (source: UK Finance).
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Over the longer term, investors expect a positive, after inflation return from investing in company shares and lending money to governments and companies by owning bonds. Unfortunately – and inescapably – in the shorter-term market returns are anything but predictable. They contain a lot of noise, as the market absorbs new information into prices. High inflation in 2022 led to a rapid rise in interest rates around the world, contributing, in part, to the fall in global bond and equity prices.
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Rather than supposing that firms who have done well recently will continue to do well, systematic investors can rest easy knowing that they will participate in the upside of the next ‘Big Five’, the ‘Big Five’ after that and each subsequent ‘Big Five’. Those who can block out the noise of good stories and jumping on bandwagons are usually rewarded in this game.
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The tapered annual allowance rules kicked in on 6th April 2016, when those with taxable earnings over £210,000 per annum were limited to pension contributions of £10,000 gross each tax year. This was a controversial piece of legislation and also quite complicated. The rules were altered from 6th April 2020, whereby those earning in excess of £312,000 are now limited to an annual allowance of £4,000
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One of the hardest concepts to grasp in investing is that a ‘good’ company is not always a better investment opportunity than a ‘bad’ company. If we believe that markets work pretty well – not unreasonable given that few investment professionals beat the market over time - and that they incorporate all public information into prices pretty quickly and efficiently, all of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ news should already be reflected in these prices.
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