Editorial Contributor
ZAk MiR’S ToP PiCk FoR FEBRuARy In the meantime, it would be interesting to see how much of the fully tax paid, non-money laundered safe haven seeking cash that currently resides in the London real estate market decides to stay on if Sterling tumbles...?! 2013 has already been a momentous year for the financial markets. The “fiscal cliff” debacle was solved (OK well, in part) at the beginning of the year, the FTSE 100 finally decisively cut up through 6,000 after many attempts and, perhaps even more shockingly, at the time of writing, remained there. Perhaps most importantly of all, however, I finally got to meet with “Keyser Soze” of the spread betting world, the editor of Spreadbet Magazine which was accompanied by some appropriate breaking of bread — in this case a sadistically spiced Real Man Pizza! But, this does not mean that there are no big events to look forward to for the rest of the year. For instance, we can bet our bottom dollar that the UK will lose its triple A credit rating, something it should have lost the day after Northern Rock fell, in my opinion. There will also probably be a triple dip recession and, if our Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t sharpen up his act, the UK could deliver a rather amusingly coined “Brexit” (short for British Exit) — and head off out of the EU.
RECoMMENDATioN SuMMARy As far as my stock tip is concerned for February, one of the fundamental underpinnings to this is actually based upon a piece of information provided by ICAP CEO Michael Spencer on November 14 last year. He described conditions for the interdealer broker as the worst in 36 years. Quite understandably, given the high esteem this former Entrepreneur of the Year is held in, the share price of the financial services giant — the largest of its kind in the world — crashed to year lows. They fell out of their previous £3.10 to £3.60 range, and hit as low as £2.72 the day after the shock revelation. In fact, this was a good example of why I always attempt to read between the lines of news flow rather than necessarily take things at face value. At least as far as the share price of ICAP was concerned in the following days and weeks, the mid-November warning was in fact a purchase opportunity and not a message to dump stock.
February 2013
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