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Market Dynamics Smart Alpha

Am I hallucinating?

As the (still ongoing) fallout from the market turmoil starts to be evaluated, there has been a natural temptation to rationalise and understand recent activity through the traditional lens of cause and effect:  “… (A) market response to an (un)anticipated event occurred because Event X threatened to provoke subsequent (negative) Outcome Y and markets reacted […]

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Smart Alpha

The Weather Forecast : Q2 2025

Welcome to the Weather Forecast
As we continue to roll out our Smart Alpha strategies, we are publishing a regular newsletter – the Weather forecast that looks at how Smart Alpha strategies can help navigate the current investment climate.

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Smart Alpha View from the Edge

How to be Smart with Alpha

The team here at Libra Investment Services have been analysing global economies and markets for the best part of 40 years and, over that time have seen how the interaction of macro and micro trends, stock level financials and thematic and sector dynamics influence  and, ultimately, drive the complex adaptive system that is the financial market. […]

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General Smart Alpha Stock View View from the Edge

The answer to the obvious question

In the same way that many investment advisors failed to sell certain stocks when the time arose (see previous posts) they may not have the skillset or process that allows them gauge when to buy. In markets such as this, an answer is to be found in Benjamin Graham’s Margin of safety. The principle of […]

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General Smart Alpha Stock View

Fly me to the moon…

Knowing when to buy a stock is one thing but understanding the risk of loss is another skill altogether.

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General Smart Alpha

Euro banks are in the red

In May 2007 the sector traded at €200. During the GFC (Great Financial Crisis) the sector hit a low of €24 in March 2009 and from that moment until September 2023, the sector was an investor’s graveyard. In October 2022 Apollo deep value signals appeared equivalent to the GFC and Covid period. A Need to […]

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General Market Dynamics Smart Alpha Stock View View from the Edge

Tesco – Sale!

As someone who has been around long enough to be following Tesco’s stock market journey since the late 1980’s I found myself bemused by the share price reaction to the news that Asda was on the verge of announcing a price war. Over the years we have got used to price wars, particularly the threat […]

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General Market Dynamics Smart Alpha

When the cockpit goes dark

Investors thought they had entered the year with complete clarity. US exceptionalism being just one of those factors. Last years winners would be this year’s winners etc. Sure, there would be change under Donald Trump’s presidency but no-one forecast what has happened and would happen and for investors, to use an excellent analogy the cockpit […]

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Uncategorized

Losing weight in all the wrong places

Novo Nordisk (home to Ozempic) released results this morning have left the shares wallowing – 9.5% which now takes the shares down by -41% over the past 6 months. Those are the sort of numbers that only the Ozempic taking customers would be proud of if they applied to their waistlines. The writing has been […]

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Uncategorized

If you don’t know what the market is thinking. What are you thinking?

It’s been some time since I posted content from our Apollo EDGE platform but to those that follow our work, the Investment Cycle and Implied cost of capital model are key to understanding when stocks enter periods of change.In the images below you can see the Investment Cycle evolution over time. Nvidia entered a de-rating […]