Jim Mellon: The things keeping me awake at night

Jim Mellon: The things keeping me awake at night By Jim Mellon With the gaggle of visitors to my Spanish lair abating with summer, I've had a lot of time for thinking lately. It's been a quiet time for markets, seemingly, but there have been opportunities, some of which we've taken, and others which we outright missed. But you only need one or two to stay ahead of the pack. However, the images out of Syria have been more than disturbing; they are horrific, and they represent two things. One, there are no easy solutions to badly drawn maps. And second, Syria is becoming a 'pocket' battlefield for Russia, which remains determined to regain its lost status. On the first point, the Sykes-Picot treaties/secret agreements of 1916, which resulted in a French administration being established in Syria after the First World War, have proved disastrous. The reason that Syria is in such a mess isn't simply because the Americans and Brits didn't intervene, or that Russia has been interfering, or that ISIS came along: it's because a flawed division unreflective of tribal realities – realities that persist today – was undertaken by the French and the British in a rushed division of assets post the Great War… Click Here To Read The Full Story The Master Investor Market Report The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,818.04, a decrease of 91.39 points. The FTSE 250 fell 200.28 points to finish at 17,722.80. The FTSE All Share dropped 47.53 points to finish at 3,714.32. The FTSE AIM All Share ended the day at 816.73, up by 0.72 points. Precious stones producer Gemfields (GEMS) earned revenues of $193.1 million (£149.2 million) during the year ended 30th June, a 12.6% improvement over the previous year as it achieved record prices per carat at auction for its higher quality emeralds. Profits before tax shot upwards to $41.8 million (£32.3 million) as unit costs fell considerably alongside the increase in revenues. Shares in the business rose sharply this morning before settling back to close at 45.25p. Don't miss our September issue! Click HERE to read. Financial services outfit Standard Life (SL.) announced that it's UK real estate fund will reopen on the 17th of next month. The firm had closed its fund as investors tried to withdraw funds following the Brexit vote. Analysts said that a further rush to withdraw from property funds was possible, but that the high levels of liquidity required to facilitate these withdrawals would also act as a drag on returns. The shares dropped by 3.1% to 342.30p. Shares in retail and promotional specialist Spaceandpeople (SAL) plunged 34.18% to 26p today after it booked a pre-tax loss of £0.72 million for the six months ended 30th June, largely as a result of a £0.55 million charge linked to the discontinued operations. Management are hopeful that new arrangements with National Rail and British Land will provide value going forward.   Tomorrow's news today Wolseley (WOS) will release final results. Quote of the day "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot Latest Stories Barratt Developments: Imminent triangle breakout targets 350p By Zak Mir While the housing market is clearly still one of the main topics of conversation at dinner parties, and continues to hold up despite a fall in mortgage approvals by a fifth in August, the real issue is perhaps whether the rebound for housebuilders can continue… Click Here To Read The Full Story What the European Bank Stress Tests Don't Tell Investors By Victor Hill European bank stocks have fallen to historically low multiples. The earnings outlook is uncertain and the banking environment is in flux. Tighter regulation, coordinated at the EU level, and challenging market conditions have forced banks to refine their business models and strategies… Click Here To Read The Full Story Seeing Machines has 8p target in its sights By Zak Mir It seems somewhat ironic that in a week dominated by Apple's potential takeover of McLaren in order to go further down the road of driverless cars, one of the best performing stocks of the week on the UK market has been Seeing Machines… Click Here To Read The Full Story Why I bought more Billing Services By Evil Knievil Somewhere in Aldershot in a Nissen hut, a door, marked Legal Secretariat, is knocked: "Permission to speak, Sir" "Yes, what is it Atkins?" "It's my pay slip, Sir" "And?" "I only get £10 this month"... Click Here To Read The Full Story Central banks: Another fine mess you've gotten us into By Filipe R Costa The world of central banking continues to delight. This particular niche has delivered the greatest advances in economic knowledge, outputting refined new tools to improve the way our economy works… Click Here To Read The Full Story Join the movement on social media: Copyright 2016 Master Investor Ltd, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. If a Daily Bulletin is too frequent, why not opt in to our once weekly mailing list for a round up of the week's news straight to your inbox. Once Weekly Round-Up Our mailing address is: Suite 88, 22 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JE Master Investor is a trading name of Master Investor Limited. Material contained within Master Investor Magazine and its website is for general information purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon by individual readers in making (or refraining from making) any specific investment decisions. Master Investor Ltd does not accept any liability for any losses suffered by any user as a result of any such decision.

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