Paraphrasing T. S. Eliot’s lines from The Wasteland: ‘April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain’. The poet believed the season gave false hope of what […]

You probably remember this expression from the film ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. This makes sense, because in those days Spanish coins were minted with silver mined in Latin America, based on a system of 8 ‘reales’ – as Brazil’s currency is known today (real). In 1537, after some debasement, Spain introduced the escudo (as Portugal’s currency was later called) gold coin, worth 16 reales. After further debasement, the gold doubloon (from the word double) was introduced and worth 32 reales. I remember trading and charting – on appropriate graph paper – gilts in thirty-seconds – as US Treasury bonds are still priced today.

The wild gyrations in global markets since the Brexit vote to leave the EU have brought out the best and the worst in markets and pundits.  Volatility in UK shares following the vote to leave the EU is “no reason […]