Review of Financial Markets: Q1 2019

In this issue of Review of Financial Markets (RoFM), we bring together some of the
best of academic and institutional thinking to consider markets, long and short term, and
future trends in learning and cooperation between universities and our sector.
edited by George Littlejohn MCSI, senior adviser to the CISI

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Join Russell Napier at our Chartered Members and Fellows masterclass: What the hell is water?"What the hell is water?"
Russell Napier's quarterly Solid Ground analysis – from which we are privileged to glean some wisdom in this RoFM, takes a much-needed long-term view of economies and markets. His followers, of whom there are many round the financial world – know that he currently expects a deflation shock before we have an inflation shock. “Inflation has steadily undershot expectations since the global financial crisis and will continue to do so,” he says. “A key part of any undershoot is highly likely to involve further declines in commodity prices, particularly as we witness ever-lower nominal GDP growth in China.”

Meanwhile in the US, from 1994 to 2014, US Treasury ownership shifted from savers to central bankers, depressing the risk-free rate and creating money and growth. Now a move in ownership from central bankers to savers is under way and the result will be higher risk-free rates, less money, less growth and lower equity valuations. What pointers for investors from global trends?

Bringing bright, young, global brains to bear on finance analytics
The CISI is working with the University of Edinburgh Business School to engage its finance master’s students with the sector through company-sponsored dissertations (CSDs). These – which involve no fees either way – involve a student carrying out an authoritative piece of work on a business analytics issue identified by a project client. The work typically takes an in-depth look at a defined research area and results in a substantial report containing extensive research, rigorous analysis and practical conclusions.

The school currently has more than 120 students studying on its postgraduate one-year MSc Finance programme, which has three specialisms: corporate finance; finance and investment; and energy finance and markets. The students are drawn from almost 40 countries, from Afghanistan to Vietnam. Over 90% are from outside the UK. 

If you are interested in submitting a project topic for next year’s scheme, please send a brief outline of the project topic to Aidan Hetherington, at the address in the PDF below, p.7.

Scylla and Charibdis: The investment odyssey continues
DWS, the asset management wing of Deutsche Bank, has entertained and informed CISI members in recent years with tales of Odysseus and his struggles with the two great nautical monsters, Scylla and Charybdis – in the DWS model, taking market and economic form. Francesco Curto, DWS head of research, active and passive, was our latest guide to the markets’ Odyssey – his analysis is available on CISI TV. Here, with his colleagues Colin McKenzie and Sarvesh Agrawal, he gives an introduction to the theme and the analytical basis that underpins it.

A time for thematic investing?
In a well-received event for CISI members at BlackRock in February 2019, managing director Alastair Bishop delved deep into the theme of thematic investing, with a particular emphasis on transport. We present some edited highlights of the talk in this piece. The entire talk is available on CISI TV. 

Reconceptualising learning in the digital age
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been hailed as a disruptive and democratising force in education, providing free education from the world’s top institutions to students of all ages and abilities wherever they are. But are they the panacea that they seem? A new book, Reconceptualising learning in the digital age: the [un]democratising potential of MOOCs (Springer; 2018) by Professor Allison Littlejohn, chair of learning technology and academic director at Britain’s Open University, and Nina Hood of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, examines these claims, identifying characteristics that influence their development.


Download the Review of Financial Markets

  Q1 2019 edition

 
Q3 2018 edition

 
Q2 2018 edition

 
Q1 2018 edition

 
Q4 2017 edition

 
Q3 2017 edition

 
Q2 2017 edition

 
January 2017 edition

 
September 2016 edition

 
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December 2015 edition

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Published: 02 Apr 2019
Categories:
  • Wealth Management
Tags:
  • thematic investing
  • Russell Napier
  • MOOCs
  • RoFM

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