SGM-FX insights

Gold versus Silver   With gold having run up to over $1400 an ounce, market sages are dusting off their files and looking at the Gold to Silver ratio. At present that stands at 92.4 which means that gold is 92.4 times as expensive as silver. The thinking goes that rather than buy gold which […]

Fed Up   Powell’s on board – we think – following his testimony to the House Finance Committee yesterday afternoon. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, the United States’ monetary policy and interest rate setting authority, spoke to politicians yesterday offering a dovish testimony that saw the value of the US Dollar fall sharply. The […]

Jeremy Corbyn-the Harry Houdini of UK politics(maybe)   After weeks of prevarication  despite intense pressure from his MPs, the Leader of HM’s opposition has said that there should be a further Referendum on the EU and at that time, Labour will campaign for the UK to remain in the EU. Brilliant! There is either zero […]

Swing Low   The carry trade is a favourite in foreign exchange (or indeed any) investment: use something cheap to buy something rewarding that you hope in turn is still worth something at the time you decide to cash your chips in. For example, with the Rand yielding 6.75% due to its underlying interest rate […]

Greece   Exit polls are reflecting what was widely expected: a widespread rejection of Syriza and incumbent PM Tsipras. The New Democracy Party led by Kyriakos Mitsokakis has a clear lead with 38% of the vote over Syriza with approx 28%. This will further strengthen Greece’s standing and build on its recent acceptance by the […]

Gold and the US Yield Curve   With gold over $1420 there is still more buying this week due to the fact that 3 month US Treasury Bill Yields are higher than the 10 year US Treasury Bond Yield. This bellwether indicator is closely followed because each time this has happened in the past 50 […]

La-En-Garde!     The bond market was on guard yesterday, with money flooding into fixed income assets in anticipation of an even longer than foreseen period of accommodative monetary policy. Record yields were produced once again yesterday both within Europe and across the Atlantic. The reason? Among the leading causes of yesterday’s bond rally is […]

Italy and its Budget: a contradiction in terms   As described here two weeks ago, Italy is pushing hard against tough budgetary restraints from the EU. The gap is €40 Billion. Italy’s Deputy PM is playing hardball and has reminded the EU just how much Italy owes to the rest of the EU with the […]

Pocahontas     Even the pros at Disney might have trouble thinking up and depicting the delicate rise and fall of emotions between China’s Xi Jinping and the States’ Donald Trump. Following this weekend’s summit, we’re closer to the resolve, the closing credits and watching the fully grown man in the back row pretending he […]

Trump and G20   It was even more compelling watching than Glastonbury with multiple sound stages and even more multiple sound bites. The SGM-FX elves were hard at it trying to decipher whether Mutti Merkel was simply suffering from stress or something more serious, what that meant for Germany and Europe and whether PM May […]

End of Quite a Week   With this weekend’s G20 meeting there really is so much that could go right -or wrong- and markets are rightly fixated on signals regarding USA-China trade talks; European economics; British politics; Gulf tensions and in particular the potential for Iran to abandon the nuclear agreement plus last but not […]

Wrecking Ball     We’ve had baby Trump in a diaper hovering tens of feet above parliament square but I’ve got a new idea for all you Trump sceptics out there for your next false idol before the President. A Miley Cyrus ‘smash hit’ – Wrecking Ball – inspired figure featuring Trump on a wrecking […]