For some years now US employment data, released on the first Friday of the month, has been the most closely watched – and speculated on – economic release; this wasn’t always the case. I remember when it was Thursday’s weekly […]

Almost 40 years ago I started on my quest to learn about derivatives markets and how to use technical analysis on their price charts. My ‘speciality’ – if one can call it that – was being a few steps ahead […]

Years ago a very pushy journalist from India’s Hindustan Times badgered me for the opportunity to look around our London dealing room and quiz me about my views on financial markets. Eventually, against my better judgement, I caved in to […]

Delivered via webinar, the technology ‘du jour’ of the 2020s, Dr Alexander Aburumieh was confident, presentable and speaking very elegant English from Vienna. His biography is brief: trained as a physician at Vienna’s Medical School, he left the profession in […]

The countries which make up the G7 ( Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and USA) have met each year since the 1970s. The 2021 summit will be the 47th meeting to take place and the first to be […]

Herr Becker is a very personable and confident man; he apologises for his (very slightly) broken English – but there really is no need. He is also an optimist, with a 3-year old and a 5-month old children to bring […]

I’ve been using Reuters news and terminal products since 1982; I still do. The company has now rebranded itself as Refinitiv – Financial Solutions-Advanced Tech, Data, Expertise. Owned by the London Stock Exchange Group since 2018 when Thomson Reuters sold […]

My heart sort of sank when it was announced that his system involved technical analysis, fundamental analysis and macroeconomics; not only that, these were then integrated in three dimensions. Things looked up when Jeff Boccaccio MSTA introduced him, and Tom […]

‘The song [written by Paul Simon when he was 21 years old] makes an allusion to the extreme capitalism and consumerism that is suffocating society – “the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made” (neon represents the […]

This book’s title has a little in it for just about everyone. Money, power (including political), avarice, swindling – not forgetting deforestation and climate change. I recently read its review, by Felix Martin of fund manager 1167 Capital, in FT […]

I’ve always enjoyed reading and, more importantly, widely. Never confining myself to one genre of literature, or tunnelling into my specialist subject, I’ve roamed far and wide, especially when it comes to current media. Daily and evening newspapers, free weekly […]

March’s STA Monthly Meeting was yesterday, Tuesday the 9th, via Zoom webinar. Introduced by Jeff Boccaccio (who apologised for his long hair) our guest speaker, Niels Kaastrup-Larsen in Zug, Switzerland, was looking very dapper with neat greying hair, while his […]

Let’s face it, those who can WFH are among the luckier ones in the current – and ongoing for too long – pandemic. The set-up may suit some, and not others, depending on the domestic situation and physical space; but it has made us all re-think priorities and re-write our wish-list.

Up-to-date connectivity and technology (which one is confident using) are key, so much so that some politicians are suggesting these should be made basic citizens’ rights, much like clean water and efficient sewage. Personally I would also suggest that a decent desk and good chair to work at, hopefully with enough space, light and quiet, are too.

Now a fixture of the STA monthly meeting calendar, January is when we round up three or four candidates and ask them to outline their outlook for financial markets in the coming year. Hosted in conjunction with ACI (FX association), […]

An album of satirical songs recorded live by Tim Lehrer in 1965, and originally written for NBC’s TV series ‘That Was the Week that Was’, somehow it sums up the year of the pandemic. But that’s not what I’m thinking […]

On Saturday, the 12th December, I went up into the loft to get down the Christmas decorations. Unsure as to whether I’d get it all sorted in a day, I started with the wreath on the door. Then, if I […]

The year 2020 has been like no other – that I can remember – and the festive season is too. A time when corporate and social entertainment goes into full swing, the pandemic has put paid to all that. Well, […]

Woke up this morning in a bit of a flap; had forgotten to get an advent calendar for my daughter. Brain kicks in and I realise my daughter is a grown up and lives abroad. However, she had remembered to […]

As a very difficult year limps into its last lap, the toll to health, sanity and the economy is probably far higher than many would admit to. Imprisoned in our homes, worried about job prospects, barely able to socialise, exercise […]

Rather than chamomile tea and a collection of soothing fairy tales for your night table, I have better ideas as to what you should read this winter. Not horror stories or fantasy gladiators, but cautionary tales; sort of in the […]