The universe of possible Brexit outcomes now more than ever resembles an outstretched Chinese hand fan. Spanning a spectrum of some 180 degrees from hard Brexit on 29th March 2019 through to its polar opposite, no Brexit at all, the decisions facing the Prime Minister, and increasingly facing Parliament, are growing ever more complex. Tabling an amendment to the government’s motion yesterday, the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, has explicitly opened the door to a second referendum. Mr Corbyn, who still finds himself at loggerheads with Theresa May over her refusal to rule out a no-deal Brexit, has proposed identifying Parliament’s feelings with respect to several possibilities. Firstly, Labour’s amendment requires “ministers to secure sufficient time” in order to consider opposing options. Most importantly, however, the amendment suggests “legislating to hold a public vote on a deal or a proposition that has commanded the support of the majority of the House of Commons”. So what does this mean in English? Well, should a deal be provided for by the collective will of the house of commons or majority position found, the public should be consulted on whether or not it wishes to accept it. To you and me, this means a second referendum on Brexit containing whatever question the House of Commons has managed to agree upon. Whatever this means to the UK, to me, to you, one thing’s clear; markets liked it, bidding the Pound up some 0.5% on the day.
Discussion and Analysis by Charles Porter

Missing haven At the start of the year, the Franc had performed well as a safehaven. As a result of political and economic developments in Japan, the Yen was not abiding by its usual safehaven form. Therefore, defensive plays within FX only had two credible places to go: the US Dollar or the Swiss Franc. […]
Battle of the banks Market volatility continues amidst unclear messaging from both sides of the conflict in Iran. The President’s position has continued to flit between seemingly concrete positions of absolutely tangible progress and bombing the nation back ‘to the Stone Ages’. Since the start of the war, smarter money has acknowledged that predicting the […]
Questioning Truth Adopting the same handle as his now rather redundant X account, @realDonaldTrump shocked markets yesterday using his own social media platform, Truth Social. During Trump 1.0, the legitimacy of a President using an unofficial X, then Twitter, account was questioned. Now under Trump 2.0, it’s seldom questioned when he is the majority shareholder […]