Spring arrived this week
You may have heard that the British spend a lot of time talking about the weather. It’s true. But there is another nation that beats us on this score, the USA. In my view, they spend more time discussing the weather in the USA. They even have a dedicated weather channel on TV. Anyone following the US weather will be aware of their big winter freeze this year with exceptionally low temperatures. In her recent testimony to Congress, even Janet Yellen spoke of the impact of the freezing weather on economic activity in the USA. She mentioned that more data is needed as it is difficult to...
Read MoreOut of the Woods
The non-farm payroll (NFP) figures a week ago did not suggest to me that we are out of the woods just yet. After strong numbers for several months on the spin, January’s low numbers weren’t significantly revised upwards and the numbers for February came in on the low side. This suggests that while growth in the world’s largest economy is continuing, it is not doing so at the pace set last quarter. This is two months of lower than expected jobs growth. Not the end of the world by any means, as it is only two months of data. Maybe the frozen weather conditions are slowing the rate of growth?...
Read MoreHow I Started Trading by Mark Walas
The first time I bought shares in a company was in 1978, in a business in the IT industry. Six months later, I sold these shares and had a profit of more than 60% on my original investment. With an experience like that, it’s hardly any wonder that I continued investing in companies to profit from share price movements. I traded firstly in stocks and shares and then, as my confidence grew, in foreign exchange. It was most certainly exciting, Forex often moved more in a minute than a share did in a week. It also proved costly as, like many traders starting out, I made many mistakes. It looked...
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