It’s the end of the month and the end of the quarter. This is a combination post with my usual monthly portfolio performance along with a quarterly review of how I’m progressing on my goals for 2017.
What happened in March? The UK saw its first terrorist outrage for years, with the disgusting car/knife attack at the Palace of Westminster. While five people died (about the same as an average day of car fatalities, in fact), over 70 people were injured – which is thousands of people in families/friends affected. It reminded me of the January Melbourne attack, in which a malcontent killed five people and injured 30 in a drug-fuelled car-only attack on the busiest street in the city centre.
Why in London there were twice as many people injured (or half as many people were killed, relative to total casualties), as in Melbourne I have no idea but would be interested if anybody has any insights.
What I can say is that I think London’s authorities/emergency services did an amazing job, with the criminal apprehended (erm, shot fatally) 80 seconds after the attack started, no collateral damage and lots of heart-warming stories of common sense, thinking under fire, charitable support and so on.
The other thought that will have occurred to lots of us is how thankful we Brits should be for our (almost) gun-free culture. Extremists in the US do a lot more damage far more easily.
From an investment / UK markets perspective the big event was probably the UK government formally triggering Brexit via Article 50. This event was so well choreographed that it had a negligible impact on the markets. While I am no defender of the current UK government, in fairness to them they ended up implementing a Brexit process that they had laid out around six months ago, with zero amendments. They do deserve some credit for remaining in control and being true to their word.
By contrast, March also saw the UK’s first budget under the new(ish) regime. This led to a farcical U-turn around National Insurance (the UK’s social charge, a.k.a. a tax on work). Unlike the Brexit saga this showed our senior leaders at their anti-leadership worst, in a petty dispute which did nobody any credit. But nothing in the budget made any impact on markets /etc either.
Overseas, the main news in the markets was the defeat of Trump’s repeal of the Obamacare bill. This wasn’t what pharma investors wanted. But the wider impact is to call into question the Republican regime’s credibility, which in turn suggests they may not achieve the market-friendly changes to taxes and regulations that many hope for.
So in this environment, how did markets fare and how my portfolio perform?
Continue reading “March ’17/Q1 progress: HMS Brexit launched”
FIRE v London 