tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post156229540961945001..comments2024-03-21T09:29:25.220+00:00Comments on The Financial Crimes: My other investment scheme is a PonziAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13775753218753337766noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-17838827671979241552009-04-09T17:38:00.000+01:002009-04-09T17:38:00.000+01:00Cheers Alex, must change my Oh dear to Oh f**k. It...Cheers Alex, must change my Oh dear to Oh f**k. It's worse than I thought! Have a good weekend dudeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-83951250412074226062009-04-09T12:10:00.000+01:002009-04-09T12:10:00.000+01:00@harmonyfuture:You want a translation of that?"In ...@harmonyfuture:<BR/><BR/>You want a translation of that?<BR/><BR/>"In the long term oproperty has a value as as useful asset in terms of accommodation. OK, it lose value in a bad economy, but not by nearly as much as the the value of money which is being driven down by quantitative easing. If the relative value of money declines by more than the value of property, it will look as though the value of property is stablising or increasing."Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13775753218753337766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-50945134542947571972009-04-08T22:50:00.000+01:002009-04-08T22:50:00.000+01:00The Bank of England printing money through quantit...The Bank of England printing money through quantitative easing will, we think, set a floor under the corporate bond market and underpin real estate prices. Our upgrades indicate positive real estate returns in 2010, with REIT shares leading the recovery by 6-12 months.<BR/><BR/>From a Guardian article on Property Company share prices. Oh dear.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-22183247922175386832009-04-08T10:59:00.000+01:002009-04-08T10:59:00.000+01:00@harmonyfuture:That is not a slip. My socks are b...@harmonyfuture:<BR/><BR/>That is not a slip. My socks are black and long. Any cash stored in them on 1 January 2008 would have retained its value on 31 December 2008, and so they outperformed most fund managers in 2008, particularly equity funds, and every major equity index, although their fee basis is eminently reasonable.<BR/><BR/>I should add that they are not currently regulated by the FSA.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13775753218753337766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-55062727358903508882009-04-08T01:05:00.000+01:002009-04-08T01:05:00.000+01:00Hi Alex, as a regular reader I marvel at how you f...Hi Alex, as a regular reader I marvel at how you find the time to enlighten us whilst performing your many other tasks, so it causes me no concern when the odd keyboard typo slips in. However I am left reeling with laughter at your 'outperforming socks'. Typo or not my wife swears a pair of mine could give yours a run for their money!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-42107853405062978812009-04-07T21:16:00.000+01:002009-04-07T21:16:00.000+01:00"You may not believe it, but there are legions of ...<I>"You may not believe it, but there are legions of people in the fund management industry who have spent entire working lifetimes genuinely trying to do the very best they possibly can for their clients."</I><BR/><BR/>Client advisory work is very different from fund management. I work in the former where the interests of the client are paramount, and the client typically pays only for success. Retainers and per diems are rare. I know plenty of private bankers who think they have a measure of trust from their clients, but the trust is more typically with the institution and may wealthy indiviuals will change advisor from time to time because they simply don't want to use the same advisors all the time.<BR/><BR/>Fund managers are by nature working for the fund and not the individual customers of the fund.<BR/>There is an inherent compromise between the collective benefit of the fund and the benefit of a particular customer. <BR/><BR/>That said, I fuind the fee levels in investment management extraordinarily high for the level of risk and the knowledge and skill required, particularly when the bench mark for success is a relative measure. As I pointed out at the end of last year, in 2008 my socks outperformed every major index and most fund managers as an investment vehicle.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13775753218753337766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6093560390959788459.post-30873059229145481842009-04-07T15:46:00.000+01:002009-04-07T15:46:00.000+01:00Hmmm. There are plenty of examples of ways you ca...Hmmm. There are plenty of examples of ways you can brow-beat the industry and these are particularly bad ones: you are right, but you're only half right.....<BR/><BR/>People forget that one of the main functions of a Private Bank, for example, is to actually do whatever it is the client wants to be done. i.e. to enact whatever it is that they want to do with their money.<BR/><BR/>One of the skills in Private Banking - other than to be truly trusted (which you can't buy for love or money) - is to know what the best way might be, given the circumstances, risks etc, and given what the client tells you and how the client thinks etc, because there are billions of different products out there, some of which might be quite specific, and useful in the right circumstances, and just the thing.<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately the world is not perfect, and mistakes do happen (the AIG Enhanced Fund springs to mind) either through incompetence or fraud, as the examples you give, or just through plain bad luck or the fundamental unpredictability of financial markets. So the business of "running people's money properly" is's not actually as easy as you might think.<BR/><BR/>For example, who says that you have to use active managers? So if you decide not to use active management, how do you propose actually to do it? Etcetera.<BR/><BR/>You may not believe it, but there are legions of people in the fund management industry who have spent entire working lifetimes genuinely trying to do the very best they possibly can for their clients.<BR/><BR/>Like you?Sir Inglegramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17054654821777389211noreply@blogger.com