BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Whyperion]

These algorithms are written by top Mathematicians who look at probabilities as well as actual numbers. They also use some of the fastest computing power available.

You're spot on there Plaques, it was bad enough when it went to algorithms but the big change came more recently with high-frequency trading (HFT), soaring computer power allowing trades in one 64 millionth of a second. The traders don't hold any stock at the end of a day, everything bought is sold off. They're just creaming off the profits. It's diabolical, it doesn't do anything to improve the lot of the average person but simply makes traders rich. I'd call it gambling with our pension money but it doesn't even expose the HFT trader to risk as gambling does. It ought to be banned and the traders made to do something that benefits the world's population. [Rant over!]

NB. Let's not forget `dark pool trading' which can exaggerate the impact of HFT .
Dark pools are private asset exchanges designed to provide additional liquidity and anonymity for trading large blocks of securities away from the public eye.
Dark pools provide pricing and cost advantages to buy-side institutions such as mutual funds, and pension funds, which claim that these benefits ultimately accrue to the retail investors who invest in these funds.
However, dark pools’ lack of transparency makes them susceptible to conflicts of interest by their owners and predatory trading practices by HFT firms. Investopedia

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I would have thought a safer clearer system would be to have price settlements every 15mins , with full settlement at the end of each day ( at one time "bargains" became due for settlement 14 days after execution (from memory of the LSE approx).

[Stanley]

One of the great con tricks of modern times is the canard that the stock market is essential for industry to manage their capital and borrow for investment. That could well be true if there was no such thing as merchant banks but what they don't also make clear is that it makes the ideal playground for those who deal in shares and use their knowledge to run rings round the amateurs and fleece them of their money which is where most of the profits that the parasites live off come from. They spend far more time on this pursuit than in financing industry!
Then they take advantage of the High Frequency trading, automatic trading and other sophisticated instruments which have nothing to do with financing industry and everything to do with increasing the trader's chances of making money.

[Stanley]

Heard this morning, a very respected economist giving his opinion that the next change in interest rates at the B0fE has to be very radical, at least one full percentage point.
If he is right the prospects are even more grief for anyone paying or contemplating a mortgage. 6% might look very cheap soon....

[Stanley]

After Hunt's slash and burn attempt to get the UK economy back into orthodoxy everything is up for grabs. Mortgage holders are going to see anther sharp rise, we can forget any increase in benefits and if anything else needs to be done to sate the appetite of the markets for profit it will be done.
The politicians hope we will all forget that this has nothing to do with looking after the ordinary voter but obeying the dictates of The Market!

[Stanley]

Looking back over recent events, one lesson we should take to heart is that if we weren't aware before of the power of the capital holders and the markets, we must be now. They are dictating the course of politics in the UK.
The thing that really worries me is that it would be in their best interests to keep in place the team at the head of politics who have demonstrated by their actions that they have learned a painful lesson and are toeing the line, in other words Hunt and Truss.
Oh Dear!
I have another suspicion.... Could Hunt possibly be using the economic crisis as an excuse to go further than the market has demanded. This would be a good time to change the relationship of pensions to cost of living to one with earnings. The latter can be regulated by politicians, the former can't. He also has a good excuse for further tightening of the screws on welfare and benefits. Add this to the already announced changes to aid with energy costs and the 'little people' could be in for a very hard time.....

[Whyperion]

It is being floated in the FT that Hunt is thinking of a rate of tax of 33% on Bank Profits. This of course will lead to higher rates to borrowers and lower rates to savers, it sounds more like a labour policy than a tory one. Do our troubles go back to 1968 and the loosening of credit controls ?

[Stanley]

I see that inflation is officially back in double figures. More than that, food prices have increased by 14.5% and inside that figure items like milk, up 42%, are even worse.
Much of the increase is down to the current economic pressures but shortages also play a part. These shortages will get worse. I warned they were coming early in the year, I am sorry to say it looks as though I was right and the effects are hitting us now.

[Tizer]

`Profits at UK banks to hit £33bn: Interest rates boost earnings as tax changes loom' LINK
Banks risk a backlash next week as their results will show their margins have been buoyed by higher interest rates which they have not passed on to savers. Britain’s four biggest banks are set to report combined annual profits of about £33 billion this year thanks to rising interest rates as speculation mounts that Jeremy Hunt will raise taxes on the industry to repair the public finances. Third-quarter results next week from HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Barclays are expected to show they are on course for a strong year. The scale of their profits, based on analysts’ predictions, could bolster the case for Hunt, the new chancellor, to hit the industry with higher taxes.'...

[Tizer]

I've received a letter from a company called Mercer who have taken over the pension scheme from one of the companies I worked for. They want all members to sign up online and deal with them online in future. They give a web address to use for signing up. I tried it but all I got was a blank page except for: `Loading...'. Tried again. Got the same. Whitelisted it in my adblocker and got through to the Mercer page. I'm always suspicious of businesses that use advertising widgets on their web sites - if they really cared about customers they'd know to not do it. Then I did a search on the web for information about the company and found this from January. Businesses like this should never be allowed to handle people's pensions...
`Anger grows over Mercer UK’s ‘awful’ treatment of pension savers' LINK

[Stanley]

Two comments Peter....
"Hunt, the new chancellor, to hit the industry with higher taxes.'..." (The Banks)
And guess what the banks will do, recoup the loss of profit from their customers. I.E.. The customer pays in the end.
As for Mercer's, I agree with you Peter. The attitude seems to be that they are dealing with old people and everyone knows they are slow and quiescent so they can be treated as milch cows.
Governments do nothing about them because they are part of the huge power base of the ultimate capital holders. Ask yourself how the big accountants and financial institutions get away with their actions. Shades of Northern Rock and RBS.

[plaques]

Not quite the banks but the money markets. I put this chart up without comment. The figures speak for themselves.

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Dollar V Pound.jpg

[Stanley]

That can't be true..... Aren't the Tories the Party that really understands money?
Later... Ratings company Moody's have changed the UK outlook rating from stable to negative.
LINK

[Tizer]

Another example of how little the banks care for their customers, especially the older ones. On our way home after a walk today we came up from a path at the far end of the cul de sac. Before us was a man, about my age or older, standing in the middle of the street in his slippers and a cardigan. As we walked up the street he came over to us and said `Excuse me but have you got good hearing?' He seemed unlikely to be a hearing aid salesman so I pointed to my aids and said Mrs Tiz had excellent hearing. He seemed very relieved and explained that he was trying to contact his bank but they made him receive a telephone code and he couldn't understand the message. His neighbours normally helped him with such problems but they were on holiday.

We went into his hallway and Mrs Tiz took the phone. His wife was sitting in an armchair in the lounge and I suspect she had mobility problems; she was agitated and saying to her husband `You can't just ask anybody off the street to do this, Harold'. While Mrs Tiz got the phone sorted I told the lady which house we lived in, which was not far away and she new it immediately. She too was very relieved!

We got the call set up and Mrs Tiz listened and even she was a bit thrown by it at first. We managed to get the code but what was causing the problem for the man was the way the automated voice spoke it: `six hundred and thirty six thousand and nine' and it was spoken very fast. Mind boggling! Why not simply say (slowly) `six - three - six - zero - zero - nine'? It's done by machine so it should be even easier to do it the latter way. How the banks think it's OK to carry on like this defeats me. They're full of their fancy (and often misleading) Environmental and Social Governance credentials but can't make things work better for the people who keep them in business. I think the bank was TSB but others are probably just as bad.

[Stanley]

A prime example of how any care for the needs of the customer has gone out of the window Peter. I feel so sorry for that couple and understand their problem well. I'm afraid that customer care is not an issue and what there is must be run by young people with perfect hearing. They certainly don't understand the problems that come with old age!

[Stanley]

The official inflation figures for October from the ONS aren't due until later in the month but if you can stand it, have a look at THIS BBC report of the views of the British Retail Consortium. Sorry, but it's not good news.

[plaques]

Quote from BBC report of the views of the British Retail Consortium.

By raising rates, the Bank aims to encourage people to save more and spend less, in the hope this will stop prices rising as fast. It has increased rates seven times in a row since December as it tries to bring inflation back down to its 2% target.

This sounds like a variant of the trickle down theory. raising rates puts prices up. Ordinary working people will have to spend on higher essential goods like food etc until they have nothing left to spend it on . At this point they give up buying anything else they would like to have and saving becomes nothing more than an aspiration. So with no money to spend the economy goes into recession and prices plus jobs disappear. Thank you Liz Truss.

[Stanley]

I keep asking myself what the difference is between now and the last time we had double digit inflation. The nearest I can come to an answer is that there weren't as many temptations to spend money as there are these days. (Think of the ease of credit and on-line buying.) and the price of essentials was more in line with wages. If you had a jib you had enough money to live as a rule. That's no longer true with even nurses and teachers patronising food banks.
In this climate, talk about encouraging people to spend less and save more is pie in the sky!
I note that the debate over whether we are actually in recession now has gone quiet. I suspect because everyone has realised that we are definitely in recession but to mention it might encourage panic......
The BofE sets the interest rate today and are widely expected to put the rate up by the greatest amount for many years. The US Federal Reserve has set the bar high and the BofE rate is expected to end the day close to 3%. This is bad news for mortgage holders...... (And the rest of us!)

[Stanley]

I'm listening to a woman who is on Jeremy Hunt's advisory committee and she expects bank interest to rise to 4% and possibly 5% if 4% isn't effective at bringing inflation down. Not reassuring news.

[Stanley]

The rate has risen to 3% and some commentators say it could get close to 5% eventually.
I think people are accepting that we are in recession.

[Stanley]

I am listening to Mark Carney speaking about climate change and the economy. Well worth looking it up and listening again. Today R4 at 08:10.

[Tizer]

One of those `I just don't believe it!!' moments. First its cryptocurrencies, now this...
`Billions being spent in metaverse land grab' LINK

[Tripps]

One of those `I just don't believe it!!' moments.

You are right to be alarmed. What are people thinking about to get involved with this sort of stuff. First it's imaginary currencies (BItcoin etc) now imaginary real esate. Not forgetting NFT's - Non Fungible Tokens - imaginary objects.

I saw this a while ago and it's from the same stable as the above. Block Chain Gold

I think that the speech Boris was about to give for mega bucks in Singapore, when he felt the whelming urge to suddenly return home to serve the nation once again was that class of enterprise. It all smells of a pyramid - first in get rich - the rest get robbed. It's the new Carbon Credits.

That said - there are plenty who think the current set up is not all it seems. This is interesting Can we have our gold back please?

PS Why would you swap this LME Open Outcry tradingfor an algorithm?

[Stanley]

The LME did have the merit that it worked and was dealing in tangible objects, masses of metal. The whole structure we see now of Bit coin, NFTs and metaverse land grabs is a symptom of a society that is retreating from reality into an imaginary world.
"It all smells of a pyramid - first in get rich - the rest get robbed. It's the new Carbon Credits."
David is right as well. There is more than a hint of the con-trick about all these new forms of block chain wealth.
(I write that and I don't even know what a block chain is!)
The world is going mad.
(Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad)

[Tizer]

That said - there are plenty who think the current set up is not all it seems. This is interesting Can we have our gold back please?

Note the sentence in that link: `In May Austria, perhaps unnerved by Germany’s experience with their bullion and mindful of Brown’s Bottom, sent a team of auditors to check on gold held by the Bank of England.' Brown's Bottom

[Tripps]

Little doubt there is skulduggery in the gold bullion reserves game. There is even talk that some of the bars are not even gold - just coated with gold. Probably insignificant in these days of Quantitative Easing.

Keep a couple of sacks of Chapatti flour flour - you can't eat gold.

Gordon Brown has a lot to answer for. Ask Mrs Duffy from Rochdale.