Good morning!

Paul is writing again this morning, with additions to yesterday's article. He will be adding:

So if you're interested in reading about them, his article is here.

Over here, I'm planning to start with:

And then I'll see if there are any other interesting stories to cover.

Cheers!


Market movements: a quick follow-up on the general market level. The FTSE is in the red today, at 7140 as I write this. This compares with 7780 on January 12. So we have a lot more potential bargains lying around than we did a few weeks ago.

Last year's low was around the 7100 level, so I'll reiterate that this is a key "level" - I think the mood would start to get a lot more bearish if we retraced back into 2016 territory.

I am still 25% in cash and have placed a few bids under some stocks I'm interested in. If somebody hits my bids, I'll be pleased. Or if the market doesn't drop low enough to hit them, then the rest of my portfolio will probably be doing ok.

Don't forget to bear in mind the potential impact of a stronger GBP on your stocks. One of the big-caps I own is British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and I need to remember that its earnings in dollars aren't worth quite so much as they were before, when converted to GBP.

I'm also still playing with the idea of shorting the NASDAQ or some component of it, to hedge my exposure to market sentiment. However, the logical side of my brain is telling me that the hedge has a negative expected outcome and that it's a fine strategy to remain unhedged while also holding plenty of spare cash in the event of a major market crash.…

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