Essays

Thoughts on investment and the wider world of finance, previously published on Medium and since July 2023 in the ETF Insider magazine.

Should passive investments be taxed?

Are index funds parasites free-riding on the active stock pickers who do the hard work of identifying value? Yes, according to one controversial proposal

What would a Labour government mean for investors?

Investors seem to have little to fear from a Starmer administration keen to emphasise its commitment to fiscal responsibility

How to invest in China (the easy way)

For long-term investors the balance of power between China and the West matters less than the continued growth of the global economy

How to Fund the Life You Want: a review

Robin Powell and Jonathan Hollow’s new book on financial planning isn’t afraid to spell out the right and wrong ways to invest

How to Invest: a review

A new book in The Economist series offers a comprehensive guide to investment principles but is perhaps not for the complete beginner

The space economy: real and imagined

What the Starship launch indicates about the future of investing in the space industry

Saying good-bye to a ‘forever’ stock

On the peculiar difficulty of letting go of a fund that had been intended to be held for the long-term

The harpoon and the net

A simple image for picturing active and passive investment – and why we think one is more deserving than the other

Thematic ETFs: no more — and no less — than good stories

ETFs that promise to follow a market trend may not make you rich – but perhaps that is to miss the point