The Edge

Richard Northedge takes on corporate finance

Archive for the ‘trading’ category

Suspending share trading hurts investors

Who gains when share dealings are suspended? Not the shareholders if they cannot sell. And not the shareholders if the company calls off bid talks rather than suffer a suspension. Finally, the listing authorities have realised the folly of demanding a halt to trading.
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Good time for American companies to buy into Europe

Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury has generated more than enough heat to melt a chocolate bar but the surprise should be that more US companies are not bidding for British businesses. There may never be a better time for American bidders to pick up cheap UK companies.
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Don’t make everyone adopt Walker’s rules for banks

Bang! Sir David Walker’s report closes the banks’ stable door after the money has gone. But how long before his tough boardroom measures become ‘best practice’ for all companies, i.e compulsory?

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Knocking Tesco is now so yesterday

Tesco is the retailer that everyone loves to hate – but where everyone shops. One day it will become a mature business but for now it is teaching rival corporations that big companies can still be flexible.
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An outsider’s guide to insider trading

I don’t know what the definition is of insider-dealing in Sunderland, but in the City it means trading shares with privileged information. It doesn’t mean writing newspaper stories that move share prices.
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Aviva takes long time to reject short selling

If you spend years feeding the bears you can’t complain when they bite you. Now that Aviva (LON:AV) has been the victim of short-selling the insurance giant is belatedly thinking it should not be lending them the stock to sell short.
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TV show makes hedge funds a loser

A reality television show based on hedge funds looks as mis-timed as all those property programmes that are beyond their show-by dates. But is BBC2’s Million Dollar Traders intended to make us envy hedge dealers or hate them?
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Short-selling wasn’t the cause of banks’ problems

Ending the ban on short-selling financial stocks is not only good in principle, it is also encouraging for investors. When other arms of government are tightening controls, the Financial Services Authority has signalled that there is light at the end of the credit crunch tunnel.
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Share suspensions are the worst false market

Stopping a clock does not stop time and suspending dealings in shares doesn’t stop their value falling. As directors of an investment house, New Star Asset Management’s board, of all people, should know that.
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Could the share shorting ban be causing volatility?

Is the ban on short-selling shares working? No-one can say, so let’s set up an experiment that allows hedge funds to deal in half the stocks while the rest remain protected.
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