We look after your interests
Torres Sarrià, Carrer de Can Ràbia, 3-5, 4ª Planta BCN 08017
Pº de la Castellana, 93 2nd floor MADRID 28046
En el mundo de las finanzas y los negocios conviven animales muy distintos, y a veces se mimetizan de tal modo que a primera vista pueden confundir a muchos. Y la mayoría pueden caer en la tentación de creer argumentos que a menudo circulan como si de leyes universales se tratasen, cuando en realidad no son más que Mentiras Arriesgadas. Veamos, antes de enunciar la lista de una veintena de ellas, los 5 tipos de inversores en los que nos podríamos circunscribir casi todos los mortales: (more…)
In this day and age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a safe haven for our money, and indeed for any type of asset. The safe investments of the global economic paradigm of the past no longer exist. How easy it was for the investor who wanted security, a decade or two ago, to place assets in fixed income or bank deposits, with the only worry being that inflation would not eat them up, wasn't it? (more…)
Most of you will no doubt remember the famous Spanish film entitled “Why do they call it ‘Love’ when they mean ‘Sex’?” in which Verónica Forqué plays a charming porn actress. We’ve borrowed the title of that film to name this article, in which we’ll attempt to explain the confusion (for want of a better word) that reigns in the financial sector – that is, amongst banks and their various clients and investors – when it comes to distinguishing between risk and volatility. To lighten the mood a little, we’ll be interspersing this article with a few cartoons by Forges, who is a master at laying bare the banking sector’s shortcomings. (more…)
Over the last 10 years, there has been a proliferation of stock market “courses” catering to all tastes. Some purport to teach how to trade derivatives, others show how to carry out technical analysis of charts to theoretically beat the market on a consistent basis, whilst others even sell their winning trading algorithms and strategies. All of them are advertised as the panacea that will make anyone who buys them rich. There is a whole world of techniques to choose from for supposedly getting rich on the stock market, with very little effort and very quickly, as their adverts claim. However, they all have one thing in common: their sales generate profits for their creators that the latter have not been able to achieve in the markets using their own methods – at least not consistently over time. (more…)
It is very interesting to note that the majority of Spanish investors have a very poor impression of the quality of investment fund management in general. So much so that a great many investors opt for simplicity, diversification and the low-cost of ETFs, fed up with paying high fees in exchange for sheer mediocrity, to put it politely. But let’s not forget that ETFs are nothing more than pure replicas of indices and benchmarks of all kinds, and their appeal lies solely in their diversity, low fees and lack of active management (assuming that is a virtue). In this way, investors ensure that returns will not fall below the respective benchmark indices, as no mediocre decision on the part of the fund managers can worsen the linked return… but at the same time they resign themselves to not even having the possibility that active management might outperform the markets. The fact is that, unfortunately, there are an increasing number of disillusioned Spanish investors who have given up on the idea that their investments might outperform the market in a clear and consistent manner over time. They regard it as a pipe dream, an unattainable and utopian dream. And the culprits are none other than banking advisers and Spanish regulation. (more…)
There is no greater failure than that of someone who gives up on success. Something similar happens to investment funds that stick to their benchmark indices, confident that, despite their mediocrity, the firms they work for will have no trouble marketing these funds on a massive scale, and will never blame them for failing to shine. A bank’s commercial capacity is directly proportional to the mediocrity of its investment products. Perhaps it’s because Necessity is the mother of invention, and fund managers at independent fund management firms (which do not belong to banks, at least not directly) can only compete for a place in the investment sales arena by demonstrating sheer quality and superior returns compared with their competitors. (more…)
There is something worse than being poor and insolvent, and that is having to hide one’s poverty whilst feigning opulence and grandeur. Woe betide anyone who has to pretend to be rich, when they are not, just to keep their business afloat! For insolvency and poverty, when faced with sincerity and honesty, become more dignified, more hopeful and less miserable. The fact is that working in a sector such as banking—which necessarily requires those in the business to feign wealth and stability in order to win the trust of their customers—is something one can live with when the bank is genuinely wealthy and solvent. But when the business goes awry and the leverage inherent in banking itself completely erodes the solvency and soundness of the institutions, that façade of opulence becomes a macabre lie, resulting in the schizophrenic loss of all contact with reality (as we said inEuroschizophrenia) on the part of the salespeople. It’s like crossing the desert wrapped up warm, without any water, and having to act all cocky and haughty as if the heat, the exhaustion and the thirst didn’t exist. Surreal.
This week I came across an article published in FundsPeople titled «Client risk in private banking management«. These are obviously arguments put forward by bankers and former private bankers, which already distorts considerably the reality of what wealth management in general and financial investment in particular should be, as we said back in 2008 in «...".«The unbearable lightness of management»(private banking). We advance this warning because the FundsPeople article only deals with the management of bank investments, i.e. money invested in bank investment products, shares handpicked by the bankers and ex-bankers on duty and other investment funds listed in the bank's sales catalogue. We want to make it clear that there is a fundamental deviation from the way we should treat families' money, which should include investments in unlisted companies (private equity), real estate investments and other assets in which, in order to invest, the money must come out of the bank's account. Obviously, private banks do without such investments, as their mission is to keep their clients' money in the bank that generates their income at the end of the month.
We had already warned of this in the first part of this article. It has been a masterstroke, not because it has outmanoeuvred Merkel and her reluctance to let the ECB assume the country risk of the periphery, but because it has squared the circle at a political and pseudo-economic level. It is called LTRO (Long-Term Refinancing Operations). This move is nothing other than the ECB opening the floodgates for European banks to borrow € (and $) without limit. But the secret of the potion lies in the repayment term, as the funds have been lent on demand, at a ridiculously low rate, but for a whopping three years. That is the key. And consequently, a second round has been announced for February this year, for those who were too slow off the mark to catch the first train to the paradise of infinite and cheap liquidity. (more…)
Just a few days before it was announced the news In the wake of Argentinian president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's cancer, a new "corralito" is sweeping the South American country. Illegal outflows of US dollars from Argentina have been a constant in 2011, reaching 20-year highs. According to the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), this year will end with approximately 24 billion dollars in outflows. The volume is also increasing every quarter, which is why the government of Kirchner's widow has taken certain measures that are reminiscent of the corralito that occurred a decade ago. (more…)
We care about transparency both in management and in our own way of working. Leading wealth management and family offices company
Torres Sarrià, Carrer de Can Ràbia, 3-5, 4ª Planta BCN 08017
Pº de la Castellana, 93 2nd floor MADRID 28046
We have been made aware of phishing and spoofing attempts involving fraudulent email addresses and domains that closely resemble our official company communications. These unauthorized communications are not sent by our company and may falsely impersonate our employees or representatives.
Our company is not responsible for communications, requests, or transactions originating from fraudulent or unauthorized email addresses or domains. Please verify that all communications originate from our official email domain before responding or sharing any information.
If you receive a suspicious email claiming to be from our company, please do not respond, click any links, or provide any information. Contact us directly using the contact information published on this website to verify its authenticity.