Above: Figure 1: The increasing demand for pork belly has led to large gyrations in prices Pork bellies – yes, the pork that comes from the belly of a pig, was an iconic commodity for the futures market’s representation in pop-culture. While it might be surprising that the financial market
Raising capital is essential to the long-term health of every company and organisation. Fresh capital is required for hiring more personnel, investing in new technologies, and expanding operations, among other purposes. Equity constitutes one way of raising the sum of money necessary. In general, equity is the measure of ownership
To many of us, a market is where we visit to purchase groceries. However, in the financial application, a financial market is where a transfer of capital from the people who supply it, to the people who demand it takes place. Financial markets play 3 important roles. Firstly, they play
At the beginning of last year MiFID II was introduced to make the financial industry more transparent. One key aspect of this is the move from bundled to unbundled products brokerage firms provide. Previously, a fund manager buying a security through a broker would pay a hefty commission. This would
In an economically uncertain environment subject to policy-driven volatility, the underperformers would be high beta stocks such as the technology sector. The friction and tension surrounding the US-China trade war uncertainty has dampened the forecasted earnings of technology companies such as Apple who recently revised their first quarter earnings forecast.
Investors are typically faced with the question of how much a stock (equity) is worth. To answer this question, there are two ways to value equities. The first method involves the use of ratios and comparison with other equities – relative valuation and the second method involves the use of Discounted
The month of April marked a historic moment for the financial markets. The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) had its debut international bond issuance. A titan in the world of oil and gas, whose pulse is closely monitored by financial markets as a proxy to the health of one
The ride haling app has lowered its expectations from a rumoured IPO valuation of around $100 billion to between $80-90 billion. This would still be the largest public offering from Silicon Valley since Facebook, with the company pitching an initial price range of $44 to $55, even as many other
Monetary and Fiscal Policy are the two most widely used tools governments and central banks use to control a nation’s economy. You may have read in FT about how the Federal Reserve, the US Central Bank has become “dovish”, due to its overly “hawkish” stance last year due to
Globally, of all new bridges opened in the last five years, 50% was built in China. Chinese investment has also funded numerous engineering projects in Europe; from an engineering standpoint, China matters deeply. If your ambition is to design a bridge in the next ten years, work from Shanghai! At
CG stocks tend to be low-innovation, mature companies that rely on big brands and timeless products and pay regular dividends. As defensive stocks, CG stocks are more likely to outperform in bear markets than in bull markets. In recent years, CG stocks have widely underperformed in the broader market for
Warren Buffet has described them as “financial weapons of mass destruction”. Robert Kiyosaki said that the subprime Morgage Backed Security (MBS) disaster was a result of them “exploding in financial institutions such as AIG and Lehman Brothers”. So, what exactly are derivatives? A derivative is a financial security with a