Podcast: Many Happy Returns

The investment world is full of attempts to milk us for fees and capital. But how is it done? Simply take a humdrum product, dress it up in exciting clothes, and sell the dream. Is your active fund secretly tracking an index? Is your favourite meme stock hiding faltering performance with gimmicks? Who’s actually paying...

Investment decisions always involve trade-offs. Spend vs save. Risk vs return. There’s no way around them, no matter how many times you rejig your spreadsheet. We look at five trade-offs every investor has to face: Spend vs save Risk vs return Ethics vs diversification Reliability vs excitement Liquidity vs lifestyle choices And in today’s Dumb...

Which countries will deliver world-beating returns to shareholders over the next four years? That’s the question we ask in today’s unofficial and unscientific Stock Market World Cup. We have four closely fought international matchups to decide: UK vs France Germany vs China USA vs Japan India vs Brazil And in today’s Dumb Question of the...

The worst in cryptocurrency history saw FTX implode in a storm of allegations that culminated in bankruptcy. The failure of the second-largest exchange and standard-bearer for the industry has left everyone asking: what next for crypto investors? The fallout is ongoing, with customers nursing heavy losses, investigators circling and the industry teetering. We delve into...

The pandemic delivered a massive simultaneous shock to the world economy. But which changes will outlast the pandemic, and should they cause us to rethink our investments? Alongside six million deaths and the largest peacetime fall in GDP since the Great Depression, Covid upended our way of life and put novel technologies centre stage. Pandemics...

It is often said that failure is a better teacher than success. This week we discuss how to live with and learn from your investing mistakes. Spotting errors is not as easy as it might sound, even with the benefit of hindsight. But there are strategies we can employ to stop them from derailing our...

2022 has been a horror show in markets. A nightmare on Wall Street. But every crisis presents opportunities for investors. This week we look at six different assets and consider if they may be about to rise from the grave. US small-cap stocks Chinese equity TIPS Commodities Ethereum Annuities And in today’s Dumb Question of...

The gilt market was the last place anyone expected systemic risk to almost blow up the UK pensions industry, force the Bank of England into emergency bond purchases, cause the chancellor to be sacked, and make the government reverse its flagship economic policy. But are we now out of the woods? And what other markets...

Interest rates are rising at breakneck speed and the impact on the value of assets is profound. We look at how stocks, bonds, gold and property respond to climbing rates. And consider whether any assets might actually benefit from rising rates? We dig into why interest rates are so influential for asset prices. So if...

Everyone loves a list: Buzzfeed, Santa, even God himself. But if you had to list the ten most important investing principles, what would you choose? These are our guidelines for how to sustainably grow your wealth while enjoying the journey and avoiding catastrophic loss. And in today’s Dumb Question of the Week: What is asset...

On Friday, the UK chancellor unveiled his ‘mini-budget’ with the most significant tax cuts in 50 years. The market reaction was swift and brutal. Sterling crashed to a record low versus the dollar, and UK borrowing costs spiked. We ask why the market reacted so negatively and what it means for those of us who...

Mary Childs (financial journalist and co-host of NPR’s Planet Money) joins us to discuss her recent book The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All. This is the story of Bill Gross, the legendary investor and fund manager who revolutionised the bond market.  Before Bill Gross, bonds...

Many forecasters think that recession is imminent in the UK and Europe, with the US not far behind. But how deep will the downturn be? How long will it last? And will the economy emerge stronger on the other side? We discuss how this recession could compare to ones in the past and which assets...

This episode is sponsored by NOA: Click here to get the free months of NOA premium. Some claim that artificial intelligence will trigger the fourth industrial revolution, upending traditional ways of living and doing business. This week we look at how an AI and big data arms race might change the world of investing. We discuss...