Yang Wen-li’s Dilemma – Democracy, Revolutions & thoughts on Financial Markets

In Yoshiki Tanaka's epic science fiction thriller, 'The Legend of the Galactic Heroes', Yang Wen-li is caught between the horns of a difficult dilemma. Staring at the vast open space of stars from his flagship's bridge, the awkward but astute admiral contemplates the never-ending wars between his home planetary system (the democratic Free Planets Alliance) … Continue reading Yang Wen-li’s Dilemma – Democracy, Revolutions & thoughts on Financial Markets →

Trade Deal? The Chinese may not fold yet

The Fourth of May is commonly known in modern day pop culture as 'Star Wars Day'. It is a catchphrase among Star Wars fans and geeks, and they greet each other with the longer phrase 'May the Fourth be with you', using 'Fourth' as a pun for 'the Force', which is the name of the … Continue reading Trade Deal? The Chinese may not fold yet →

The Fed did not make a U-Turn

Last week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in the U.S. took the financial community by storm as its January policy update were seen by investors and market observers as an outright 'U-Turn'. However, it may not be so. The most talked about was the change in the middle portion of the Fed's statement during … Continue reading The Fed did not make a U-Turn →

Reviewing 2018, & what’s next?

It's time for a review of 2018, and I have to say that I managed to protect my capital (which is great and am fortunate) but I did not capitalise aggressively on opportunities that I was aware of. But for both Wall Street and Main Street and for investors who have to be invested from … Continue reading Reviewing 2018, & what’s next? →

Trade deal or no trade deal? It does not matter…

'We, the Chinese nation, after fifty years of sanguinary revolutions and five and a half years of sacrifice in the War of Resistance, have finally transformed the history of a hundred years of the Unequal Treaties of sorrow into a glorious record of the termination of the Unequal Treaties' ~ Chiang Kai-Shek, January 1943 Somewhere … Continue reading Trade deal or no trade deal? It does not matter… →

If there’s one thing to know soon, it’s MMT

MMT stands for 'Modern Monetary Theory', and it may be the next must-know term to know and understand before it becomes mainstream. OK, but what exactly is Modern Monetary Theory? The Roosevelt Institute published an article about it eight years ago, and it simply describes a school of thought in macro-economic thinking that revolves around … Continue reading If there’s one thing to know soon, it’s MMT →

Weekly Observations: Central Bankers as Gamemasters

An excerpt from a week's journal: 20 August 2018: Observations & Thoughts Today was generally a risk-on environment, with Chinese equity indexes leading the way in Asia Pacific (Japan and South Korea lagged). Indian equities continued to climb higher. The Yuan has also somewhat stabilised and has strengthened against the USD since last week. Chinese … Continue reading Weekly Observations: Central Bankers as Gamemasters →

Weekly Observations

An excerpt from a week's journal: Weekend 4 - 5 August 2018: Observations & Thoughts What a crazy week of a series of risk-off days. It’s time to reassess the macro liquidity landscape: US high yield bond credit spreads remain under control and are still relatively tight: The Chicago Fed’s ANFC Index is still at … Continue reading Weekly Observations →

3 areas to steer clear of & 1 chart to monitor

The investment landscape is changing for the first time in 8 years. According to the IMF's data, America's economy is operating at if not above capacity (output gap closing), with a relatively tight labour market and leveraging by both corporations and households. A pickup in investment began early last year, as growth accelerated and companies … Continue reading 3 areas to steer clear of & 1 chart to monitor →

A Great Podcast not to be missed

Swiss investor Felix Zulauf is a pioneer among global finance. He joint the industry before Wall Street became 'Wall Street'. He anticipated the great equity bull market in the early 1980s, made a killing for his clients during the infamous 1987 market crash, and foresaw the Asian Financial Crisis back in the 1990s. How brilliant … Continue reading A Great Podcast not to be missed →