David Parkin on shrewd investing and muppets at the Winter Olympics
HAVE you been following the Winter Olympics?
No, neither have I.
It appears the only place where the events of Sochi have caused huge excitement is in the BBC TV commentary box.
I heard a clip of the coverage of our only medal winner so far the other day and it must rank as the most cringeworthy piece of commentary in TV history.
The three individuals providing the commentary on Jenny Jones were so excited about the medal achievement that they really just ended up screeching into their microphones.
Their argument in defence of this behaviour was that they are all friends of Jenny Jones.
This really is broadcasting for the Facebook generation. Fine if you work in the commercial media, it has to pay for itself so can do what it likes, but we expect better from the BBC.
I for one, don’t want to see my licence fee used to allow a bunch of amateurs to go on an extended winter holiday interspersed with a bit of chat about sports I have never heard of.
Maintaining that professional approach is not easy, even for the most experienced broadcasters. I remember Harry Carpenter’s shrill cry of: “Get in there Frank!” after Frank Bruno landed a solid left hook to the chin of unbeaten heavyweight champ Mike Tyson during their first fight in Las Vegas.
After decades behind the microphone, Carpenter earned that momentary lapse in his unbiased outlook as a sports commentator.
The muppets the BBC have sent to Sochi certainly haven’t.
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VETERAN stockbroker Keith Loudon has seen most things in business and so his observations are always worth listening to.
This week Keith was presenting the prizes in the annual virtual investment club challenge run by Leeds Metropolitan University in partnership with his firm, Redmayne-Bentley.
And for the third time in a row, students from China won the competition.
Over 50 students across 14 different teams took part in the virtual investment challenge which offers a prize for the biggest return on investment over a six week period.
The winning group of final year accounting & finance students earned a profit of £6,716 on an initial investment of £100,000, equivalent to an annual return of over 58%.
Meiyi Lei (Leo), Zongyan Li (Lee) and Xiaojing Yang (Bella) are all from Shanghai and are on Leeds Metropolitan programmes from the Sino-British College, USST, but are completing the final year of their degree in Leeds.
Keith said: “I’d like to congratulate Leo, Lee and Bella on their success. With the winning team once again coming from Shanghai, I think it is a marvellous achievement and demonstrates the Chinese’ shrewd approach to the stock market. This is a really well received initiative and we’re proud to be working together with Leeds Metropolitan University in delivering it.”
As Keith pointed out, after decades of communism, China doesn’t yet have a thriving stock market or even a culture of investment among the majority of its people.
Yet these students proved their worth in a competition where 16 of the teams recorded a profit and a further six of them broke even. City firms will be clamouring to get them on board, they can’t do any worse than most traders.
The competition is facilitated by Leeds Metropolitan economics graduate and Redmayne-Bentley stockbroker, Lauren Charnley and was created to try and give students a better understanding of the stock market, something that can often be difficult to achieve without practical experience in the industry.
Paul Houghton, Leeds Business School lecturer, added: “The aim is to provide students with an opportunity to more closely understand how the financial markets operate, to gain insight in to a possible future career path or even just to be more equipped to manage their own financial circumstances in the future.”
Each member of the winning team received a cheque for £100 together with a certificate in celebration of their achievement presented by Keith Loudon, senior partner of Redmayne-Bentley, and Damian Ward, acting dean of the Faculty of Business & Law at Leeds Met.
But with their annual rate of return, that will be £158 this time next year.
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WHEN my column is either a briefer than usual, or a trifle uninspiring my one regular reader often texts me with the words: “Were you short of ideas or did you have a heavy night last night?”
Well the answer today is yes and no.
But not necessarily in that order.
Have a great weekend.
