SGM-FX insights

British Tourists: Shock Story   This week the theme has been shock horror GBP buying less foreign currency than a year ago. Readers of our Daily will have had ample chance to buy their currency in advance for this summer. Travelling abroad on business last week I was indeed duly shocked to be offered just […]

The Evening Standard yesterday ran with an editorial wedged between the questionable and the totally unreadable – usually about page 8 for those unfamiliar with the free London newspaper edited by former Chancellor George Osborne. They attempted to depict the future dichotomy that their inevitable Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will face: between a swift US […]

Miami Real Estate   Representing real and increasing value, Miami has some stunning real estate which has long been popular with SGM-FX clients. Novak Djokovic who is not a SGM-FX customer (yet) has just snapped up a $6.4 million apartment at 87 Park which overlooks Miami Beach and is surrounded by a 35 acre park. […]

Howzit China?      Not so good apparently! Gross Domestic Product figures have grown by their slightest margin on record since official observations began on Chinese economic growth in 1992. Still, the economy posted a growth rate of 6.2% year-on-year for the second quarter of 2019 showing that whilst growth is still resilient, the emerging […]

Turkey and Trump(TNT-hopefully not)   With Turkey taking delivery of the first batch of Russian S400 missile systems last week, it was inevitable that POTUS would retaliate by imposing sanctions this week. It is unclear what those may include and there is a range of possibilities from the withholding of the F35 jetfighter manufactured by […]

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 […]