by David

As the US financial reform legislation nears completion, many investors are asking themselves whether they want to own financial stocks especially banks and investment firms, which took the brunt of the pain relating to the recent financial and economic woes. The political rhetoric attempts to put banks forward as the prime culprits to blame for [...]

by James

Blood on the streets? A lot has happened in the two weeks since the last Outlook & Review. The risk rally continued, under signs of considerable strain, as we projected, and then gave way. Now there looks to be increasing momentum to the downside, although it would be cavalier at best to call the top. [...]

by Dino

Pop quiz : What do Investment Banks do? The question was at the center of a hearing held on Tuesday April 27 and chaired by a US Senate subcommittee, the fourth hearing on the causes of the recent financial crisis. The exact name of the hearing is: “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: the Role of [...]

by Markus

Germany, the robust rock of the Eurozone, the growth engine of continental Europe, the top choice of FX traders in case the Deutsche Mark would still exist. A success story of the last decade. Germany, the country of hobby bankers in Landesbanken, semi-professionals in IKB and Hypo Real Estate. A country with top managed financial [...]

by Markus

How useful is financial engineering for economic development? Quants were the kings of the kings during the last business cycle, running the hottest story in town. A PhD in Mathematics with no what-so-ever market background was paid stellar money for number crunching to achieve decimal place performance optimization. An analysis.

by Jürgen

Finance is not standing still. At least not the technological side of the story. Stream-computing. High-frequency trading. And now optimised communication using meta-materials…
Time for an update, while discussions still go on whether ‘Innovations that reward companies that have invested in technology and ideas that make the markets more efficient’ are the best argument to justify this technologic arms race.

by James

Risk appetite was certainly the flavour of the (last) week. Equities soared almost everywhere, lifting other risk asset prices with them. Yet, the smart rebound after a protracted slide served only to trap markets within even tighter trading ranges. The S&P 500 rose 7.0% on the week, Russia leapt 10.8% (helped by oil prices ? [...]

by Gregory

Another week, another wrap and another pattern for the stock markets. As for the economic data, here is a summary. Euro area industrial output was less than expected in May (up 0.5%, but still 17% down from May 2008) while Euro inflation negative in June on an annual basis. In the US, retail sales also [...]