Good morning!

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I've been nominated for an award for writing these reports! How exciting. Let's hope the judges didn't see last Thursday's, when I was plastered. It's the 2016 Small Caps Awards dinner this Thursday, and I'm on the shortlist of 3 for "Journalist of the Year". Here is the link, it's the 7th section down. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

Fairly busy for results today, so thought I'd better start a bit earlier to fit it all in.

As no doubt you've already seen, markets are really going wobbly at the moment, with all this uncertainty about Brexit. I enjoyed our reader discussion in the comments section here after yesterday's report. If only the politicians could have such a sensible & courteous discussion as we managed.

Taking everything into account, the only bit I'm really worried about is the impact on the financial sector. Although City veteran David Buick reckons there's nothing much to worry about on that front, in this video.

There's also a fascinating article from former Chancellor, Norman Lamont, in which he runs through some figures which suggest the UK would have a better trading arrangement outside the EU. His argument is that paying the 3-4% external tariffs to the EU would actually be cheaper than our present arrangement, which works out as the equivalent of a 7% tariff! Plus of course we would collect in a mint from taxing German cars ourselves with a 3-4% import duty. I wish there had been more commentators who had actually crunched the numbers properly. It's mainly just baseless assertions from both sides.

The betting odds have narrowed sharply to about a 40% chance of Brexit happening, and equity markets are floundering, I'm sure most of us are taking some pain in our portfolios right now.

There are lots of bargains appearing, especially in illiquid stocks. In normal circumstances I'd be snapping up those bargains, but given the Brexit uncertainty am sitting on my hands for now, probably like most other people. So I think we could see some even better bargains appear over the next fortnight from panic selling.

Volatility is part of investing in equities. I think it's important not to get shaken out of great companies at the wrong time & price, only to miss the rebound. Having said that, this is definitely not a time to be geared, in…

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

Already have an account?
Login here