Tom Stevenson

Profile: Full name: Tom Stevenson Area of interest: Finance: Investment Journals/Organisation: The Daily Telegraph Email: tom.stevenson@telegraph.co.uk Personal website: https://www.fidelity.co.uk/investor/news-insights/expert-opinions/tom-stevenson/tom_stevenson.page Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/tom-stevenson/ Blog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tom-stevenson Representation: Networks: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/tom-stevenson/19/791/127

Biography: About: Education: Durham University; Clark University Career: Written about investment since the early 90's - Investors Chronicle: Companies Editor; The Independent: City Editor. Also edited 'Investing for Growth', an investment newsletter and launched the investment email service Hemscott Analyst Current position/role: Columnist and investment director and head of corporate and investment communications at Fidelity International also writes/written for: Other roles/Main role: Other activities: Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: Broadcast media: Video: Controversy/Criticism: Awards/Honours: Scoops: Other:

Books & Debate: Latest work: Speaking/Appearances: Debate:

The Daily Telegraph: Column name: Investment Column Remit/Info: "Takes the pulse of the big issues and themes driving the world’s investment markets, from shares to commodities, behavioural finance to asset allocation" Section: City Role: Columnist Pen-name: Email: tom.stevenson@telegraph.co.uk Website: Telegraph.co Commissioning editor: Day published: Tuesday Regularity: Weekly Column format: Average length: 900/950 words

Articles: 2012 We are going to have to get used to volatile markets - If the past week feels familiar, there’s a good reason - 20th May Reports of the death of the equity are greatly exaggerated - When I started writing about investment 20-odd years ago, bonds were a minority interest - 13th May It's China's mass market that offers the best opportunities - One of the things which surprised me as I walked round a WuMart supermarket in Beijing recently was the number of Western brands on the shelves. Pampers, Quaker Oats and even Blue Nun wine at an eye-watering £18 a bottle jumped out - 6th May China, the gigantic Asian tiger, can still achieve a soft landing - I was unaware when I was planning my trip to China, starting today, that the timing would be quite so good - 15th April The market may wobble, but it still holds long term value - After the excitement of the best first quarter for more than a decade in some markets, there was always a risk that the beginning of the current three-month term would disappoint - 8th April Grannies will shape the global economy of the future - The Chancellor’s misreading of demographics and the Granny Tax ambush it triggered was the unexpected highlight of this year’s Budget - 1st April What is Goldman's case for equities and does it stack up? - The emerging science of behavioural finance has lots of fancy expressions for quite simple concepts. One of those sprang to mind last week when I read a note from Goldman Sachs called "The Long Good Buy: the Case for Equities" - 25th March The oil price is the new eurozone crisis - No sooner has the pressure on markets from the eurozone crisis begun to ease than investors have found something else to worry about – the oil price - 18th March Cautious optimism for Japan a year on from earthquake - Sunday is a grim anniversary for Japan – a year to the day since a powerful earthquake swept a wall of sea water many miles inland - 11th March Be a Buffett, don't back the benchmark - Warren Buffett’s latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders is the usual mixture of folksy charm and investment wisdom - 4th March Time to swim against the tide and dip into Europe again - 'Follow the money" was Deep Throat's famous advice to Bernstein and Woodward as the Washington Post reporters tried to stand up the Watergate story - 26th February It's hard to disagree with Buffett's enthusiasm for America - Looking at the Berkshire Hathaway website this week to find out when Warren Buffett's next letter to shareholders is due (at the end of the month, as it happens), I dipped into last February's missive. It was a good reminder of why he is one of the world's richest men and most of us are not – he sees things before we do - 19th February Lessons to be learnt from rampant inflation of the 70s - Contrary to a widely-held belief, equities are not a great hedge against inflation - 12th February Why Glenstrata puts Facebook on its mettle for investors - Well, thank goodness for that – it’s been a week in which investors have been given the excuse to focus on something other than Europe or macro-economics - 5th February Glass half-full again as investors take cheer from 'January Effect' - Since the New Year, Mr Market's mood has picked up dramatically and the price he is quoting us today is not far off last year's peak - 29th January The key to a resilient portfolio - Recent history shows that picking the right country to invest in matters - 22nd January How to ensure 'Je ne regrette rien' investment year - Drawing up a chart of the winners and losers in 2011 this week, I wondered how many investors are beating themselves up with painful and ultimately useless “why-oh-why did I do that?” tirades - 15th January Income, not growth, is once again the main driver of returns - For a couple of years in the 1990s I wrote a newsletter called Investing for Growth. Its approach was simple - 8th January Prepare your portfolio for another politically charged 12 months - I’m guessing you will raise a glass tonight to a better 2012. No one’s looking back fondly on the last year and I’m also hoping for the next 12 months to be easier - 1st January

Articles: 2011 Risk re-evaluated in 2011 due to leaders’ lack of gumption - This has been a trying year for investors and an odd one too, one that has left many of us rabbit-in-the-headlights, scared to do anything much at all - 18th December A silver lining peeps through the UK's economic cloud - He had no choice in the matter, of course, but the Prime Minister could not have picked a worse weekend for Britain to start enjoying its own company on the edge of an increasingly hostile Continent - 11th December Be defensive, and remember that this too shall pass - So let's just recap the string of "good" news fuelling the best week for global stock markets since November 2008, a week in which shares rose by almost 9pc, a kind of reverse correction - 4th December America still the best place to find safe-haven stocks - Thanksgiving really was the appropriate word this year. Whatever else our American cousins have to be thankful for, they are particularly grateful that they are safely on their side of the pond right now - 27th November Bond market vigilantes turn on Italy - I remember a former editor of this newspaper instructing the City desk in 2006 to get up to speed on collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) - 13th November The thing most companies seem to fear at the moment is fear itself - An interesting question to ask this weekend is what the market would do on good news - 6th November Why the population boom is significant to the world's investors - Sometime tomorrow, if the United Nations has done its sums right, the world's population will hit seven billion for the first time - 30th October EU talks: five things investors should look for - No one who has watched the recent fudge and procrastination of eurozone politicians will be surprised that Super Sunday has been postponed until the middle of next week - 24th October For the slow route to riches use equity income investment - On a recent trip to the Middle East, two questions cropped up repeatedly. What did I think about gold and banks as investments? - 15th October Finding the next Apple may well be impossible for investors - Maybe it's pushing it to call it a JFK moment. But the airline flying me back from a trip to the Middle East on Thursday considered the death of Steve Jobs significant enough to flash it up on the seat-back screen I was watching - 8th October Buying shares at their current prices stacks the odds in your favour - A miserable quarter for investors came to a close on Friday, with UK shares ending September around 15pc lower than they stood at the end of June and down by a similar margin for the year as a whole - 2nd October ETFs have potential to become the next toxic scandal - Who says regulators are only good for slamming the barn door after the horse has bolted? - 18th September Summer of volatility gives way to a mood of quiet resignation - The market's response to the speeches made last week by US President Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, spoke volumes - 11th September August's market bloodbath points the way to the developing world - No one is going to be sorry that August is out of the way - 4th September A week that knocked the financial world off its axis - Just another quiet summer week, really. The FTSE 100 started at 5,247 and ended at 5,320. It was hardly worth coming out of the sea to check your BlackBerry - 14th August S&P downgrade gets to the heart of the current crisis - First, the bad news. The downgrading of US government debt by Standard & Poor’s gives markets something new to worry about on Monday morning so it would be too optimistic to predict that last week’s carnage, which saw the world’s main equity benchmarks fall by more than 10pc, has run its course just yet - 7th August Let us hope that the US realises quite what a mess it’s in - "America will always do the right thing, but only after exhausting all the other options." Winston Churchill's words ring truer than ever today, with just over a week remaining before the US Government's cheques start bouncing - 24th July Euro debt crisis germs will spread unless politicians act - the only sustainable solution to the eurozone debt crisis is greater fiscal integration and until politicians respond financial markets will remain volatitle - 17th July Four ways investors can protect themselves from a company's loss of reputation - Shares in BSkyB began last week at 849p but ended it at 750p as investors saw the hacking crisis as a potentially fatal blow to its proposed takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation - 10th July Scuttlebutt: an enduring strategy for smart investors - The vocabulary of investment analysis is not pretty on the whole, with its metrics and ratios and tracking errors, but there is one investment term that is particularly delightful – "scuttlebutt" - 3rd July People power takes the economic stage, for better or worse - As a general rule, the best thing that politicians can do with regard to financial markets and the economy is to leave well alone - 26th June Shareholders feel boardroom failings where it hurts most - Big investment houses are accused of not engaging enough with companies on governance issues, although the reality is that many more conversations take place behind the scenes than get reported - 12th June The spectre of slowing growth makes for a nervous summer - It's all worryingly familiar, a kind of Groundhog Day for investors. During the summer of 2010, markets had a nasty wobble and volatility spiked as investors worried that major economies, the US's in particular, were heading back into recession - 5th June Why boring is often best when it comes to investments - It felt quite like the old days last week. For the first time in a decade, investors faced a choice between the old and new worlds, between the gritty reality of stuff dug out of the ground and the exhilarating untapped potential of the internet's social media revolution - 22nd May Why a tight belt is the best way to strangle inflation - One of the surprising things about last week’s Inflation Report was its lack of impact - 15th May The truth behind the popular markets adage of 'sell in May' - Goldman Sachs' flotation marked the top of the equity bubble in 1999, while Blackstone's IPO rang the bell for private equity in 2007 - 8th May What history tells us about returns over the next 30 years - Looking at the economic backdrop for the royal wedding in 1981, there are more than a few similarities with the outlook today - 23rd April Why valuations matter in US and China's tale of two economies - The two biggest economies in the world could hardly look more different this week - 17th April Eurozone's woes create opportunity for investors - Three years ago, the European Central Bank (ECB) took fright at soaring commodity prices and raised interest rates by a quarter point in the face of an easing of monetary policy in the US and UK that had been running for nearly a year - 10th April We’ll soon find out if superior growth in the US is justified - Taking stock at the end of the first quarter, two things strike me about the performance of the markets over the past six months - 3rd April Two reasons why Japan represents a buying opportunity - Even by the standards of Japan, where the job for life is still a reality, my colleague Yasuo Kuramoto has shown remarkable loyalty - 27th March Budget 2011: Chancellor must look beyond fixing the balance sheet - George Osborne’s second Budget will allow us to focus on something other than the relentlessly depressing news from Japan and the Middle East but next Wednesday’s speech is unlikely to provide much of a diversion. If we’re frank the Chancellor would prefer not to start from here - 20th March Japan could emerge stronger from this catastrophic quake - The topography of Japan ensures it is unusually vulnerable to the appalling combination of earthquake and tsunami that struck on Friday. The mountainous country lives on its coast so the position of the epicentre off the eastern seaboard could hardly have been worse - 13th March It’s mind-bogglingly simple: high-yielders work over time - Three of the big five UK-listed banks increased their payouts to shareholders for the year to December 2010, but the hikes were cold comfort for investors who had become used to a steady and high income from the sector before the financial crisis pulled the dividend rug away - 6th March Tunisia, Egypt, now Libya - how investors can protect against a soaring oil price - While investors could shrug off the upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt – neither is of global economic significance – Libya is a different matter - 27th February India corruption worries shouldn't dishearten investors - Manmohan Singh, the embattled Indian prime minister, will be hoping that the Cricket World Cup which starts this weekend will provide the bread and circuses his government desperately needs - 20th February Sorry investors, there's no such thing as a free lunch - There is a good reason why some observations on financial markets or investor behaviour become the conventional wisdom - 12th February Rising food and energy prices could be here to stay - Shortages of all commodities can cause hardship, but only food and water exact the ultimate price - 6th February Spectre of inflation not to be taken lightly - If you’re worried about inflation you are in good company. From Beijing to Berlin and the Bank of England, rising prices are top of everyone’s list - 30th January Emerging markets will sound their own note - The mood music around emerging markets has become a lot less soothing in recent weeks. The same investors who couldn't get enough of India and China a few months ago have now shifted their affections to Japan and, to a lesser extent, the US and UK - 22nd January The harsh arithmetic of an ageing society - The scrapping of the default retirement age last week focused my attention on the wildly different financial worlds inhabited by my parents, who are in their seventies, and my children, the oldest of whom will soon be heading off to university - 16th January Cloud of ageing has a silver lining for investors - Ageing is not all bad news, as baby-boomers entering retirement hold promise for some business sectors - 9th January Investors' intentions for 2011 hold some surprises - There's no particular reason to choose this time of year to re-assess our investments, but a surfeit of spare time and a seasonal urge to do better ensures that many of us will be doing so this weekend - 1st January

Articles: 2010 Take a long-term view on emerging markets - Investment is sometimes a case of getting one or two big decisions right - 26th December Forecast for Europe not as icy as it appears - It is a fitting coincidence that my spin round the world's major markets over the past few weeks should return to Europe just as the cold snap bites again. Last week's thaw accompanied my look at the US, where recovery is slowly but surely getting under way - 19th December Why US equities could be hard to beat in 2011 - Hosting a debate between a panel of fund managers and asset allocators recently, I was struck by the unanimity of their views on what would be the best-performing geographic area next year - 12th December Big companies offer some warmth for a chilly Britain - Looking out of my window at an unseasonal foot of snow, I am trying not to allow the level of the mercury to influence my outlook on the UK economy for 2011. Try as I might, however, I can’t avoid concluding that things look pretty chilly next year - 5th December Forget the dollar and gold, here are the real safe havens - Contemplating eurozone disintegration, renewed hostilities in Korea and an anti-inflationary clampdown in China, investors' default reaction has been a time-honoured retreat into the perceived safe havens of the dollar, Treasuries and gold. I'm not sure this makes much sense - 28th November Lessons from history in China's inflation crisis - History makes clear why the Chinese are so twitchy about their rapidly rising consumer price inflation. The governments of poor countries (even ones that are getting rich as rapidly as China) know that hungry people are quick to take to the streets - 21st November For most, equities are still a step too far - A feature of investment markets this year has been the so-called risk-on, risk-off trade whereby investors have swung between an appetite for more risky assets like shares and commodities and a desire to play it safe in the perceived calm havens of government bonds and cash - 14th November Fed's reflation express must keep on rolling - The governments of China, Brazil and Germany may think it's worth squaring up to Ben Bernanke, but investors in the UK stock market and plenty of others around the world are wisely acting on that old investment adage: Don't Fight the Fed - 7th November A must week in the US markets for investors - The US stock market struggles to generate the same sort of interest as the readily understandable and exciting emerging markets narrative - 31st October It's every nation for itself in the devaluation race - Is it really only two years since the world's most powerful nations stood shoulder to shoulder, promising to do what it took to haul the global economy back from the brink? - 24th October For the markets, there is a silver lining to the dark cloud of spending cuts - When Gordon Brown ditched prudence eight years ago, a group of service companies saw their opportunity - 17th October Why I'm with Warren Buffett on bonds versus equities - Follow the herd or follow Warren Buffett? That sounds like it should be a pretty simple choice for most investors given the average investor's consistent ability to buy and sell at the wrong time and the sage of Omaha's ranking as one of the world's richest men - 10th October Brazil's destiny assured under former Marxist guerrilla - Brazil goes to the polls today looking almost certain to elect a former Marxist guerrilla as the country's first-ever female president - 3rd October Vince Cable was right on the evil of short-termism - It was a shame that Vince Cable chose to dress up his speech to the Liberal Democrat conference as a populist rant against the evils of capitalism because there was some sensible stuff lurking behind the rhetoric. In particular, he was right to worry about short-termism - 26th September September is a tricky time for investors - The middle of September is not the easiest time for investors to keep their nerve, so I suppose I should not have been surprised to read references in an otherwise mainstream piece of market analysis to next week's autumnal equinox and full moon - 19th September As prices soar, give food some thought - Food has hit the headlines again in a reminder of the spiralling inflation and social unrest that swept through the developing world in 2008 - 11th September Has the bottom fallen out of equities? - Asked what he thought about the French Revolution, Chairman Mao famously replied that it was "too soon to tell". His point, I suppose, was that events which seem important at the time may be less so when viewed as part of the great sweep of history - 5th September With investors out of Africa, it's time to buy in - When I started out in financial journalism, I was handed a book called How to Read the Financial Pages. It was an excellent primer for someone with the ambition to write those financial pages but as far as I can remember it didn't tell me the most important thing about how an investor should read the business press, which, in a word, is backwards - 15th August A franc exchange just proves the argument - I was reminded this week of some excellent advice in one of Warren Buffett's letters in the Berkshire Hathaway annual report - 8th August Plenty of good news, but hold the champers - Where's Cerberus when you need him? The mythical canine could look into the past, present and future with his three heads - 1st August Beating the market is dogged by difficulty - It is a weakness, I know, but when I see the words "Simple investment strategy that WORKS!" I can't help reading on - 25th July Overhaul of retirement regime is long overdue - The Government's new pension plans will be a breath of fresh air, but if you don't start saving early you will still lose out - 17th July Why history takes the side of the optimists - Stock market history never repeats itself exactly, but sometimes the similarities are uncanny - 11th July Re-linking pensions to earnings is a gamble - 27th June Budget 2010: time to go back to the future - Tuesday's emergency Budget will be a throwback to the days when the Chancellor's words mattered more to the City - 20th June BP was a lot more vulnerable than its blue-chip status suggested - I was chatting last week with a retired BP exploration man who had worked for the company in the Gulf of Mexico. He said ruefully that his overall net worth had been hit hard by his old employer's troubles - 13th June Gold is a great safety net if things go wrong - In these uncertain times, strong cases can be made for and against most investments - 6th June Don't panic, there is good market news - The world's stock markets are increasingly joined at the hip, moving up and down in lock-step. So when major indices diverge significantly over a period of time, it's worth asking: "What's going on?" - 23rd May The love-in is over and taxing times lie ahead - Even before Friday's euro-related wobble, the great Con-Lib love-in had elicited only a subdued response from investors - 23rd May Market pressure will set summer agenda - There's not much to smile about from a UK market perspective this weekend but there is one piece of good news. If nothing else, the Bank of England is almost certain to leave interest rates on hold at 0.5pc tomorrow for a 14th consecutive month - 9th May More domestic tragedy awaits the Greeks - It is fitting that Greece is at the heart of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis because the financial calamity which began three years ago is unfolding with all the grim predictability of a classical tragedy - 2nd May Savers and investors deserve answers - It is no coincidence that next week's final leaders' debate is on the economy. If ever an election has had an over-riding theme, this is it. It is also unsurprising that the key economic issue – reduction of the £163bn budget deficit – has been the elephant in the room that no one has wanted to talk about - 25th April Election's economic stakes unusually high - Most general elections are a non-event from an investment point of view because markets have plenty of time to price in the likely outcome and regular opinion polls ensure that genuine surprises are rare - 18th April Why we can't leave Asian markets alone - Since the curtain came down on Thailand's absolute monarchy in 1932, the country has seen 11 military coups, 18 constitutions and 27 prime ministers. Political upheaval is a way of life and investors have learned to accept periodic turmoil as the price for access to a rapidly emerging market - 11th April Investors need to know the truth on tax - This has been quite a week for the "do as I say not as I do" school of public policy. Two major public statements within a couple of days of each other, two completely different interpretations of financial transparency - 28th March Budget 2010: reasons to be cheerful - Next Wednesday's Budget is in some regards not the one we should be concerning ourselves with. What's likely to be Alistair Darling's last set piece as Chancellor is still part of the pre-election fiscal phoney war. - 21st March Dotcom bust taught us how to love hi-tech - You wait for ages for an anniversary and then they all come along at once - 14th March Four ways to solve our savings crisis - That ticking sound you can hear is the time bomb of pensioner poverty. No one knows when it will go off, but if we continue on our current reckless trajectory it most certainly will - 28th February Simple investment strategies can be the most deceptive - The investment business works on the "kiss principle" (keep it simple, stupid) -21st February How much should you be risking in the East? - There's an amusing scene in Diner, a wry and touching film about a group of young blue-collar lads in 1950s Baltimore. In it, Mickey Rourke drives out into the Maryland countryside, spies a pretty and obviously rich girl on her horse and asks his friend: "Do you ever think there's something going on out there that we don't know anything about?" - 14th February Seek divergent views for better investment - One of the hallmarks of a successful investor is the desire to seek out people holding diametrically opposed views, to test a conviction against a strongly-held counter-argument - 7th February Eastern promise can't be broken by jitters - It is a tale of three corrections... - 31st January Raise your half-full glass to a positive market - Most people see themselves as glass-half-full or glass-half-empty types. They think their view of the world is consistent. But when we operate in financial markets, our sentiment is constantly fluctuating and heavily influenced by our recent experience. What matters is not so much where we are now as where we have just come from - 24th January Interest rates: the lower the better - There's nothing like buying a house to concentrate the mind on the future path of interest rates - 17th January Retail shares show you why 2010 will be the year for the skilled stock picker - The performance of retail shares over the past week holds a lesson for all those deciding which shares to buy in 2010 - 10th January Investors face a fret, relax and worry cycle - Investors are only rarely granted the luxury of great conviction. Most of the time markets are neither very cheap nor very expensive - 3rd January

Articles: 2009 This shares rally can't hide a lost decade - If someone had told you in December 1999 that 10 years into the future the FTSE 100 would stand at around 5,200 your response would likely be one of incredulity - 20th December The UK is worryingly similar to Greece - On Tuesday, Greece's sovereign debt was downgraded by Fitch, the ratings agency. Then, within 24 hours, Alistair Darling failed to reassure nervous international investors that he is a man with a plan to reduce Britain's yawning budget deficit - 13th December The time for action, not words, has come - How will the markets react to next week's pre-Budget report (PBR)? - 6th December Dubai: an emerging market wake-up call - The reaction to this week's events in Dubai says a lot more about investors' nerves after one of the fastest market rallies since the 1930s than it does about the real significance of a largish property bond default in the Gulf - 29th November The 'January effect' is a familiar pattern - It is human nature to look for patterns. They are how people make sense of the world and it would be unusual if investors differed in this regard from anyone else - 22nd November It's time to move into quality and end 'the dash for trash' - John Maynard Keynes famously likened investing in the stock market to a newspaper beauty contest in which contestants rank a number of faces in order of attractiveness. The winners in this game are the players who pick the most popular face - 15th November Japan on track for Warren Buffett-style flutter - Warren Buffett's $44bn purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway is a classic Berkshire Hathaway acquisition - 8th November The best of the market rally is over... but don't despair - Anyone with experience of young children at Christmas will know that it can be better to travel than to arrive. The anticipation of the longed-for present is often more exciting than the reality once the shiny paper's been ripped off - 1st November Gold gives a precious insight into economy - What a strange and fascinating commodity gold is – a store of value that is no one's liability, which cannot be printed or debauched by governments but which, with no income stream, has no objective value. A simultaneous hedge against both deflationary slump and inflationary spiral, it is little wonder gold should be the investment of choice for the Armageddon crowd - 25th October Message in a bottle at Asian auction - Another nail was driven into the coffin of Western economic dominance this week when a Chinese buyer paid $93,000 (£58,000) for an Imperial bottle of 1982 Chateau Petrus at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong - 11th October Isa handout may be a sop, but investors should seize it with both hands - The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away – like the Government really, which has made an art form of fiscal distraction, waving a high-profile giveaway in your face while jabbing in a much bigger tax grab under your ribs - 1st October Isa handout may be a sop, but investors should seize it with both hands - The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away – like the Government really, which has made an art form of fiscal distraction, waving a high-profile giveaway in your face while jabbing in a much bigger tax grab under your ribs - 30th September His dark misgivings make King’s universe the bleakest of them all -Tom Stevenson sees comparison between Philip Pullman's novel The Subtle Knife and the parallel realms of opposing financial thinkers - 23rd September At the risk of stating the obvious, markets can be very unpredictable - What has the investment business learned since the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago? Not a lot is the tempting answer - 16th September A compelling reason why gold could be poised for a meaningful rise - How significant is gold's break through $1,000 on Tuesday? We have been here before, most recently in February, but each time the yellow metal has failed to hold the line - 9th September Since the Great Depression, September has been the worst month for US stocks - If you are returning to work this week quietly confident about the outlook for the market then you are (marginally) in the majority, but probably not a student of stock market history - 2nd September More green lights than red on the rocky road to a sustained recovery - When the stock market has rebounded as strongly as it has since March, an obvious question arises: have shares moved too far, too fast? - 12th August Today's market euphoria is not as widespread as the investor gloom of March - There are some good reasons why shares should have rallied in the way that they have and could go further still - 5th August The FTSE's legs may given up at 11 but there are reasons for optimism - In the end it wasn't to be. A 12th consecutive gain for the FTSE 100 on Tuesday would have been its longest sustained rally since the UK's benchmark index was created 25 years ago - 29th July The wishful thinking about house prices smacks of dotcom delusion - The current housing market optimism is a rose-tinted view - 22nd July Football managers and the argument for active fund management - Many professional stock-pickers will look back on the last 12 months as their annus horribilis - 15th July Young investors should set their sights on a market of eastern promise - Compare and contrast. The FTSE 100 index hit bottom on March 3 and had risen 28pc by the beginning of June. It has since fallen back by 6pc. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index turned the corner back in October 2008, It had risen 69pc by the start of June. Today, it is less than 2pc off this peak - 9th July FSA moving in right direction with focus on independent advice - Regulator's vision for an improved financial system sees better value for customers, more highly-regarded independent advisers and a first step towards closing the savings gap for all of us - 2nd July Recovery, what recovery? June nips economic green shoots in the bud - Recovery, what recovery? June, not April, has been the cruellest month in 2009, nipping green shoots in the bud and reminding us that recoveries after financial crises can be slow and fitful affairs - 25th June Investors are finally seeing the nonsense in the efficient market theory - The best response I've heard to the efficient markets theory that has dominated thinking about investment for 30 years or more is a joke. Two men walking down a street spot a £20 note on the pavement. One, an economics professor, says to the other: "don't bother to pick it up – if it were really a £20 note it wouldn't be there" - 18th June Coppock's score will encourage investors to strike up the recovery band - Nervous investors may be tempted to start buying again - 11th June Rising bond yields highlight fears about governments’ crisis skills - When Germany's Chancellor Merkel accuses the world's main central banks of aggravating the financial crisis with loose monetary policy, she says as much about her country's history as she does about today's challenges - 4th June To avoid pensions penury, follow Goethe: whatever you can do, start doing it - Anyone who gives a moment's thought to pensions knows we have a crisis on our hands - 28th May Sift the growers from the cutters and reap the dividends' rewards - Investors are going to have to become a bit smarter about getting an income from their shares - 21st May Emerging markets second wind blows in the face of short-term thinking - It's nothing if not fickle, the stock market. Six months ago I observed that investors had abandoned a couple of beliefs which half a year earlier had been universally held – the long-term investment attraction of emerging markets and the commodity super-cycle - 14th May This market rally seems built on something more substantial than hope - There are more reasons to be cheerful than the anticipation of the summer months to come. Whisper it, but some economies might be warming up too - 7th May Savers beware, the Chancellor may come to bury Prudence - That whirring sound is the Government back-pedalling on earlier hints that it would present a Budget for Savers next week - 16th April G20 hobbled by the fact our problems are global but politics remain national - Today's G20 meeting should be a defining moment in the fight against the global economic slump but it will more likely provide nothing more than a limp communiqué that barely papers over the cracks between delegates - 2nd April If this rally is the real McCoy, most people will miss out - Winter on the markets could finally be ending, but it will take time for investors to shed their bearskins - 26th March 2009 There's no silver bullet and no crowd pleasers in Turner's remedy - One message comes through loud and clear from Lord Turner's review of banking regulation – there is no silver bullet - 19th March Want to draw comparisons with 1974? It's the differences that stand out - A recent column highlighting the uncanny similarity between the final year of the 1972-1974 bear market and the recent performance of the stock market prompted a reader to send me a picture of the FT 30 index in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was not a pretty sight - 11th March The state of the market is no over-reaction but the odds are with investors - It is amazing what you can believe when your job depends on it. Which is why professional fund managers are well-advised to pay closer attention to the people they disagree with, than those who confirm their prejudices. Talking your own book, even to yourself, can be an expensive delusion - 5th March How lean is my valley? A 21st century blockbuster production - You do not have to be technical analyst to believe that something rather significant happened this week - 26th February Think twice about wasting your ISA despite the FTSE's dire performance - Over the next six weeks or so many of us will take the annual decision to use or lose our tax-free Individual Savings Account allowance - 19th February History of gloomy decades indicates a silver lining for equity investors - The Barclays Capital Equity Gilt study will confirm what every investor already knows. The last 10 years have been a grim "lost decade" in the stock market - 11th February

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