Here is this week's news from ShareSoc, followed by a curated selection from the rest of the financial media. 

Don't forget, you can comment on all these articles and share your insights with other members via our Weekly Newsletter Forum.

Flybe shareholders have reached out to ShareSoc to help them spread the word regarding their action group. Are you able to help? 

SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new online group for those interested in income investing. The group will meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30pm. Investors of all levels of experience are welcome to join.

Investors and industry are still feeling the impact of Woodford's 'legacy'.  
 
'W4.0 is like having Neil Woodford by your side' is the promise, or threat, on the website of the former fund manager’s new venture. Desperately seeking redemption while contesting FCA sanctions, he needs to remember he left over 300,000 investors in the lurch. 

The story that keeps on giving. Talk about free publicity, thanks to his own notoriety. The question posed here, is whether Woodford's new investment tips offering needs to be authorised or not. Never mind whether it's good value, or whether his tips are worth following (given the undisciplined approach and terrible performance of his picks in later years). We do wonder if some brave folks might actually pay up to find out more.

A Holy Monday launch? Maybe it's because he is praying it works? The FT suggests his approach is like copy trading but without the actual execution. Thing is, the FT points out that eToro does exactly that and even the best traders on eToro virtually never beat the index, so what's the point of copy trading never mind a pseudo halfway version? 

(Financial Times Subscription Required)

FT reports that Hargreaves may reduce its high fees when in PE ownership, at the same time mentioning that the original co-founder, Peter Hargreaves, rejoins the Board. 
FT continues to make no mention of the Woodford debacle nor the risk of the large RGL Claim to compensate affected investors.

(Financial Times Subscription Required)

Looks like Boaz Weinstein's Saba Capital's round 3 set of trust attacks may not be far off, as his war chest is bolstered by exits from UK trusts and a huge $650m windfall from Blackrock US closed-end funds. The Investment Trusts sector and their Boards better look sharp.  
 

After ESCT's 42.5% tender offer, Weinstein took to X to hail the ‘latest win’.  

‘For those keeping score on the seven trusts we launched our campaign against in December: three down, four to go — with many more to come'.  

That may be spin as he massages his own ego but he did opportunistically make serious money. Seems like the fat lady hasn't sung. Yet.

Jarvis Securities selling broker to Interactive Investor and winding up other operations 

A smooth handover of Jarvis Broking “execution only” activities (to interactive) seems the best and most likely outcome, as Jarvis share price crashes 58% in one day. 
NB: Not all accounts will transfer. There is a useful FAQs page on the Jarvis website. https://www.jarvisim.co.uk/faq.pdf

The threat of 'Mandation' is gone. UK Pension funds have been forced to agree to invest 10% of savers' assets into unlisted assets, with half invested into the UK, by the end of the decade. Great timing, just as Private Equity heads into a downcycle and Private Credit starts to look even more shaky. This revised Mansion House Compact will do nothing much for UK equity markets, and the broadly supported growth decisions, such as abolishing stamp duty etc, have, as usual, been ignored.

Cash has low long-term growth, even at current 4% rates, but this article suggests drip feeding cash into good dividend payers, while share prices are suppressed, is a good strategy. Sound interesting?

The Times experts provide what is probably a very sensible set of answers to that question.

(Times Subscription Required)

"Investing really is the Triumph of the Optimists" says the author. And bear markets are a natural phenomenon that we should learn to love, as markets have always recovered their losses before.

Markets are pretty much where they were pre-crash, with the exception of a few big winners and losers. Yet the author points out that post dip rallies often get swamped by further dips i.e. dead man bounces, and with all the political unpredictability, caution may be the better part of valour. Patience.

(Times Subscription Required)

Deflationary / recession risks spur a cut in EU interest rates cost of borrowing for the third time this year after the European Central Bank cut its main interest rate to 2.25% in response to slowing growth and the risks imposed by Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Yet more evidence that peak USA may have already passed in terms of investment flows. That money is now heading elsewhere. But into what, Bonds, Gold, Crypto, other commodities or dare we say it... UK and European Equities?

Don't panic, this technical trading 'indicator' only predicts a crash half of the time it occurs. It basically says recent trading momentum has slowed, so demand is falling for equities. But demand can be capricious, just like Tariff policy, so who knows what will actually happen.

Shorting is not universally popular, even if it's claimed to make markets efficient and identify frauds. But the very odd and barely noticed removal of UK rules to report significant shorts is highlighted by the news that Donald Trump’s fledgling media firm Trump Media & Technology Group has urged market regulators to investigate ‘suspicious activity’, claiming uncovered naked shorting (which isn’t allowed), after a London-based hedge fund disclosed a vast bet against his company. Maybe he's just worried the value of his 53% stake won't keep defying reality and comes home from Neverland. 

A record number of institutional investors are seeking to reduce their exposure to the US stock markets as President Trump’s tariff war drives global growth expectations to a 30-year low, according to a survey of the world’s leading fund managers.

(Times Subscription Required)

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