Brian Bollen's Blog

The Exciting Trevor Brooking

I am currently reading My Life in Football by Trevor Brooking, of West Ham United and England football fame. His writing is nearly as exciting as his punditry and analysis.

It's often possible to judge the quality of a football biography by how long it takes to degenerate into a game-by-game account of the subject's career. Usually, this happens somewhere after halfway through. In this case, it starts on page two...

I do despair about the BBC

I do despair about the BBC, I really do. Listening to Radio Five Live this morning, and its cloyingly titled Marginal Mystery Tour series, I was struck by two things.

One, the description of Selsdon as being in Croydon Central.

Two, the claim that New Addington Bowling Club is a stone's throw from Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace Football Club.

We lived in Selsdon for nearly two years in the early 1980s. I can state with some confidence that the town is in fact in Croydon South. I can state with even greater confidence that whoever is throwing the stone must have superhuman strength as Selhurst Park is a good 20-minute drive away from New Addington.

(just checked with the AA road map; it is 5.3 miles from my former address in Selsdon to Selhurst Park, which the AA estimates will take 18 minutes)

 

Tin ears at the BBC

Honestly, you couldn't make it up. BBC Radio Five Live did a story this morning about how one of the relatives of a Manchester bomb victim is complaining about being harassed by journalists.

The BBC then followed that up by doing a piece interviewing relatives of other disaster victims about how it felt to be harassed by journalists...

 

Frick joins SFG board

Fiona Frick, Chief Executive Officer of Unigestion, the boutique asset manager that focuses on guiding its clients with risk-managed investment solutions, has been elected to the Board of Sustainable Finance Geneva (SFG).  

Naught shall make us rue...

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge – May 23rd 2017

Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock them. Naught shall make us rue, if England to itself do rest but true.

Blain scaring the horses

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge

Wow. My current bearishness got me well and truly bull-pimp slapped yesterday!

Mad philosophers

According to Arthur Schopenhauer, a lump of rock is an expression of will. What were these philosophers on?

There’s no use in a-crying

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge

This is the second morning in a row where my computer has decided to switch itself off midway through writing the Morning Porridge. Fortunately we have a great IT team, but even they weren’t quick enough to stop a mini-tantrum as the Blair/Hulk went loco..…

Signed Eric Idle Airdrie top

The latest in the line of celebrity-endorsed Airdrieonians shirts bears Eric Idle's signature: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371952568990?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Giant spider spinning the universe from its abdomen?

I posited here yesterday that philosopher David Hume might have been mad. Having read a few lines of thought this afternoon about his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion I am now convinced.

Consider this: Another alternative explanation that Philo [one of the participants in the Dialogues, trying to prove the existence with God] toys with is that of a gigantic spider spinning the universe from its abdomen...

I rest my case....mind you, Immanuel Kant seems to have been even madder...

Deutsche Bank broadens Cadence Capital Management relationship

Deutsche Bank says it is broadening its existing relationship with Pacific Life Insurance Company through its subsidiary Cadence Capital Management LLC.

Was philosopher David Hume mad as a hatter?

I ask because I never quite understood him and his views when studying Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1974-75.

The importance of Nigella seeds

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge

I’ve been very fortunate this morning to spend 30 minutes in the company of perhaps the wisest man in the whole of London.

The joy of a new week

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge

Ah the joy of a new week! What’s the recipe for today then?

Outlook for the UK economy

Schroders' fixed income fund manager, Alix Stewart, comments on the outlook for the UK economy following the Bank of England's inflation report and interest rate decision today

How do you put a price on sell-side research?

This is the theme of a new report from Greenwich Associates with less than a year to go before the implementation of MiFID II.

Things look too good

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge

I’m worried – too many people think things look too good.

Independent INDOS Financial becomes full UK depositary

INDOS Financial Limited, a UK independent depositary, says it has received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority to extend its Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive (AIFMD) depositary permissions to become a full depositary.

BNP Paribas Securities Services selected as Partners depositary

BNP Paribas Securities Services has been appointed by Partners Group, a global private markets investment manager, to provide depositary, fund administration and transfer agency services for the launch of its first European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) in Luxembourg. 

BNP Paribas Securities Services says it was selected for its international reach and local market expertise in the product. The bank’s depositary network covers 13 fund domiciles. 

ELTIFs are a new type of collective investment vehicle operating under the AIFMD (Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive) regime. The ELTIF vehicle benefits from a European passport and can be marketed to both institutional and private investors across Europe. 

Surge in ETF sector investment

New analysis from State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset management business of State Street Corporation, shows there has been a fivefold increase in global assets of sector exchange-traded funds (ETFs) since 2008, reaching US$394bn in assets under management (AUM) at the end of 2016, with $35bn in flows last year alone.

The US experienced the greatest growth; there was a 548 percent increase in sector ETF assets there with $30bn in flows last year. Europe came a close second with a 487 percent increase in sector ETF assets and $3bn in total flows in 2016.

Since 2008, the top three sector ETFs for investors globally have been technology sector ETFs with more than a tenfold increase in total AUM; followed by real estate sector equity ETFs with a 919 percent rise in total AUM; and then energy equity ETFs, which underwent a 599 percent growth in total AUM.  

Antoine Lesné, head of SPDR ETF Strategy & Research, EMEA said: “Sector ETFs have seen a marked increase in popularity amongst investors likely due to their potential for a more targeted exposure than growth and style investing, while maintaining cost-efficiency. By investing in an entire sector, investors gain greater diversity, reducing single stock risk, whilst achieving a much wider dispersion return than style indices. A sector rotation strategy allows investors the potential to benefit from more predictable economic trends likely to impact certain industries. With the rest of the year punctuated with political events and the macro economic backdrop shifting, the popularity of sector investing is highly likely to continue on its current trajectory for the foreseeable future.”