Comment
'Go back home, but pay my pension first'
I have a particular book that generates a mixture of disgust, fear and general misery to others whenever I am carrying it. It’s named “Fundamentals of Private Pensions”, it has a dark cover and worst of all no pictures – except for a couple of graphs. Despite being a darn good book, pensions aren’t exactly a “sexy” topic yet they have been back on the...
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EM bonds, hard and local currency issuers
Emerging market (EM) bonds over the years have increased in their popularity amongst investors, as we saw new entrants (in the form of bond issuers) to this segment both from a sovereign but also from a corporate perspective. That said, we have...
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Malta in the making
A first of its kind legal framework regulating cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies, consisting of three separate pieces of legislation, has finally come into effect. More than a year from the initial inception of the legal...
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Change of control clause
In a recently approved corporate admission document on the Prospects MTF, a “Change of Control” clause was included as part of the offering; a first in the local corporate bond market. This is commensurate with a push for features included in...
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Adopting different management styles to generate investment returns
The process of investment management can take various forms, with the more traditional type taking either an active or passive approach in an attempt to generating investment returns. The passive approach generally consists of the process of...
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It is the time in the market and not its timing
It is a state of fact that the gains seen within the fixed-income asset class over the past years is one of the longest streaks, undoubtedly well described as a strong bull market. Market participants have been questioning, since mid-2013, whether...
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Coming to terms with financial markets
Heading into the final straight of 2018, with the final quarter of the year merely a few trading sessions, it is important for market participants across all the capital markets spectrum, asset managers, advisors and investors alike, such as...
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Credit impacted by ongoing macro and political issues in 2018
At the turn of the year, we had anticipated 2018 to be a topsy-turvy for credit, and anything short of that would have, at least for us, taken us by surprise. So far, this year has lived up to its expectations and is proving to be the most...
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Jackson Hole keeps markets looming
August has been an uncharacteristically eventful month this year as fears surrounding imminent budgetary concerns in Italy and weakness in a handful of Italian banks, coupled with the crisis in Turkey, have resulted in a marked increase in risk...
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Turkey and the recent market movements
In the initial months of the year we had predicted that 2018 would be, a difficult year for investors and the word volatility will be the order of the day. Many market participants, including us, were aware that the prime concern were the...
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It's all gone cold Turkey
The summer months for global capital markets, particularly the fortnight over mid-August are usually commensurate with low levels of investor activity, low trading volumes, low levels of volatility. We call it the lull of the summer months, where...
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Volatile session for BOV shares
Following yesterday’s decline of 1.6%, the MSE Equity Price Index rebounded by 1.1% to 4,373.547 points today, driven by the strong gains in the share prices of BOV (+5.2%) and MIA (1.9%) which outweighed declines in three other shares. Trading...
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Following volatile period, is it time to dip in?
If we thought that the 2018 was going to be a continuation of the performance registered during 2016 and 2017, we were mistaken. 2018 has been a topsy-turvy year so far, and that’s putting it rather mildly. Markets corrected in a magnitude few...
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Hold recommendation on GO plc
The equity research team at Calamatta Cuschieri recently made available to its clients a report on GO plc (GO), whereby it was given a “HOLD” recommendation with a one-year target price of €3.52, giving a potential capital upside of 2.8% to the...
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Beta in volatile markets
Many might not be familiar with the theoretical financial terms beta and alpha, however both are very important in guiding investors. Beta is simply the sensitivity of an asset class or sector to the market as a whole. In simple terms, it is the...
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Weibo Corp – A new equity on our list
We started coverage of Weibo Corporation with an overweight recommendation and a price target of $116 per share. Weibo will issue Q2 2018 results on 08/08/2018. We see the recent weakness in the share price as a buying opportunity. Following a...
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A guide to Malta’s new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies
The MFSA has, for the past months, been actively working on a framework that supports innovation and new technologies in the field of virtual currencies. It is the MFSA’s policy that the regulatory framework in this field should be robust and one...
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Why is financial education important?
Those who know me well know that, for a number of years now, I have been opining on how I strongly believe that financial education is becoming ever more critical in this day and age, not only for investment purposes but also for our day-to-day...
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The inflation preposition – a big shift?
Undoubtedly, rising inflation expectations had their fair share in negatively affecting spreads, with bond yields rising across the globe over recent months. To many market participants this comes to no surprise given the uptick in global growth...
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Royal Dutch Shell shares – remaining overweight in the oil & gas sector
Royal Dutch Shell sits on an oil and gas throne higher than that of Exxon Mobil. The oil supermajor has worldwide proved reserves of 13.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Operating in over 70 countries, Royal Dutch Shell pumps out 3.7 million...
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Key traits for the modern investor
Putting it mildly, there are a handful of textbooks and articles written on what it takes to become a successful investor. There are a number of traits which make some investors more successful than others – for the inexperienced investor,...
