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Learning from the Experts 2 – Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust

A previous blog post covered how one could learn from experts such as Harry Nimmo at Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust. Another company, but a very different one, I hold is Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) and I thought this comment in their recently received Interim Report was worthy of note: "Outlook: There is a strong structural asymmetry in equity market returns, given the potential for a successful company to grow to many times its size. This means it is of ...

Pension Protection – It’s Easy

The question of whether to apply to HMRC for “Pension Protection” is something that investors might wish to consider. With the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement coming up on Wednesday (23rd...

FCA Study of Asset Management – Interesting Interim Results

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published an interim report on its Asset Management Market Study. Some of the results are not that surprising, but others are. For example, it reports that around half of retail investors were not aware that they were paying fund charges. Needless to point out perhaps that can be linked to another conclusion. Namely that there is weak price competition. How can investors be expected to compare prices when they are not even aware of the charges? Indeed ...

Rolls-Royce Accounts Adjustments – Were They Prudent?

Rolls-Royce provided a trading update today, and covered the impact of IFRS 15 which is probably a lot more important. IFRS 15 is a new accounting standard concerning revenue recognition which will come into use in 2018. It will have a major impact on the figures reported by Rolls-Royce because of their past recognition of revenue and profits from long term maintenance contracts. For example, Rolls-Royce report that when looking at the 2015 accounts the "Changes result in adverse notional adjustments to ...

Trump Victory – What’s the Impact for Investors?

With Donald Trump being elected President of the USA, what is the impact for investors? Will he create "high anxiety" as the unexpected head of that great democracy in the same way as the Brexit vote has in the UK? In other words, uncertainty about the future which tends to spook markets. But readers should bear in mind that the President has limited powers (much less than a UK Prime Minister). There are numerous checks and balances in the US constitution. Indeed ...