Advice to Avoid

The Nobel name dropping game

depends on which name you drop

Modern Portfolio Theory. Paul Claireaux

The Nobel name dropping game

depends on which name you drop

Working inside the Financial Services industry for 25 years, and observing it from the outside for another ten, I guess I’ve seen a lot of what goes on. I know what good (and fair priced) financial products, and financial advisers, look like, and many of those advisers are really good at their job. However, they’re…

Does your adviser really understand risk?

And should you find out sooner rather than later?

Mencken. Clear, Simple & Wrong. Paul Claireaux

Does your adviser really understand risk?

And should you find out sooner rather than later?

Benoit Mandelbrot had a beautiful mind for risk. A Polish-born, French and American mathematician – he was the guy who discovered the idea of “self-similarity” in nature. You may have heard the term ‘Fractal’ which he coined to describe the beautiful and ‘apparently complex’ shapes in nature. This extraordinary simple concept explains how snowflakes are…

It’s OK to miss the best days

So you can ignore that misleading nonsense

Lies, damned lies and Statistics. Disraeli. lies. Paul Claireaux

It’s OK to miss the best days

So you can ignore that misleading nonsense

If you follow the money pages of any newspaper, you cannot have missed the ‘missing the best days’ story. But what they won’t tell you is that this story is … well… complete and utter nonsense. So, let’s expose it for the grossly misleading rubbish that it is – before you base any of your investment decisions…

What stormy weather can teach us about stock markets

And why we cannot control either of them

What stormy weather can teach us about stock markets

And why we cannot control either of them

We regularly have stormy weather around the UK: Strong winds, flash floods, thunder, lightning and occasionally hailstorms strong enough to set off the alarms on cars. Believe it or not, thunderstorms can teach us a lot about economies, stock-markets and house prices too!

Why you need to beware of goal obsession

and how it could literally kill you

Aircraft into storm. Paul Claireaux

Why you need to beware of goal obsession

and how it could literally kill you

If you’re planning to travel by aeroplane again (at some time in the future!) you’ll be pleased to know that pilots are trained to avoid goal obsession. In this short Insight, I want to explore why you need to avoid goal obsession too – and why you need to be extra ‘wary’ of those around……

How to overcome fear

without trying to avoid it

Fear of freefall

How to overcome fear

without trying to avoid it

If you google ‘How to overcome fear?’ you’ll find c. 250 million results… and that’s quite a lot of stuff to read 😉 What’s interesting though, is that there are three times as many Google results (750 million) on the question of ‘How to avoid fear?’ So, when you get fearful about certain matters, as…

The myth of stability and certainty

And the truth about various economic schools of thought

Minsky. Stability to Instability. Paul Claireaux

The myth of stability and certainty

And the truth about various economic schools of thought

Whatever your interest (or leaning) in politics, and unless you’re very young, you surely can’t have missed Theresa May’s promise of stability and certainty in the run up to the messy 2017 UK election.