USING STRIKE PUTS AS PORTFOLIO PROTECTION

28 April 2025 Using Strike Puts as Portfolio Protection Contents 1. Introduction 2. What is a Put Option? 3. How Buying a Put Protects Your Portfolio 4. Understanding the Cost of a Put 5. The Role of Volatility (VIX) 6. A Worked Example 7. Advantages of Using Strike Puts 8. Disadvantages to Consider 9. UK Platforms offering options trading 10. Conclusion 11. Reminder 12. NOTE on the VIX 13. For a lively discussion…14. Glossary 1....

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RECAP OF TRUMPS MAGANOMICS

26 April 2025If america can't run its economy with twin deficits, then unlikely the UK can.The idea now seems to be in the words of trump or pretty much his words."We don't want your money china".Why, because china has been reinvesting its profits into american financial assets. This has plumped up their value, which has been great for rich americans and chinese, but no good for the economy, or the people who've seen their wages stagnate.Instead, what Scott Bessent wants and trump too is for the money to be invested in real assets, for example,...

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IS ZELENSKY UKRAINIAN

21 April2025Is Zelensky Ukrainian? Some people think he is.He couldn’t recognise the reasons why Russia intervened in Ukraine. That’s one thing - OK. But it’s hard to believe he is of the Ukrainian people, considering what he has put Ukraine and Ukrainians through in the last three years, especially when there were plenty of opportunities to stop the slaughter. From his behaviour, you might think he is a Russian émigré of Jewish extraction -...

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WHY GOLD IS GOING UP

18 April 2025  Why Gold Is Going Up https://youtu.be/1rBemqiLsCg?si=J1AXAsaQzn1CLbHFIn this and other videos, Chris says gold is "on a tear", while saying that he has been sitting on the sidelines for these last six weeks. There are others who say that the gold price is rising because of institutional buying (by central banks and other institutional investors, who are selling their US dollars to buy gold) and that “retail” (the likes of you...

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THE STEPPE: HIGHWAY FOR THE RUSSIAN BOGEYMAN

The Steppe Highway: The Deep Roots of Russophobia For millennia, the great expanse of the Pontic-Caspian steppe has served as the launchpad for mass human migrations and military invasions into Europe. This flat, open corridor stretching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe offered an unobstructed route westwards — a natural highway used repeatedly by nomadic and imperial forces alike. From the Scythians and Sarmatians, to the Huns, Avars, Bulgars,...

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AMERICA HAS BEEN FIDDLING AND FINANCIALISING WHILE THE WORLD DIALECTIC MOVES ON

13 April 2025 This post began as a reply to a reader who is frustrated at the headlines, the markets, and the mockery being hurled at the only Western leader who for all his faults, seems to grasp the scale of what’s happening in global geopolitics."Even Yellen is lecturing Trump. How bad can it be!! Looking at the big picture i think it's too late for America to challenge China. China is already too independent and economically powerfull....

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WILL AMERICA BOMB IRAN

12 April 2025 The Coming Storm Stealth bombers soar towards a smouldering Middle East, where fire, smoke and ruin mark the stakes of the next great war. Below them, gold and oil stand as symbols of what remains to be gained, or lost. A wide-angle glimpse into our geopolitical future: cold strategy, hot conflict, high stakes. 1. The Historical Dialectic: Clash and Consequence Dialectic means a process where opposites (thesis and...

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TARIFFS ARE THE SYMPTOM, NOT THE CAUSE

12 April 2025 A Legacy Moment: Trump on the MountThis shows Trump at the end of his term, as a kind of modern Moses (I know, I know...). Shield in hand, he has held back the storm, tariffs being a temporary defence buying time for the deep reform the American economy so very much needs. Behind him is the old world of outsourced industry, financialisation and economic vulnerability. Ahead, the path of reform, passing by education, infrastructure,...

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TARIFFS DEBACLE

11 April 2025 For anyone who sold gold on Thursday 10th, yesterday, they might have been reassured to see prices continue to fall, but then horrified as in later trading, prices started to pick up. Time for a lessons learned.In the immediate market rebound, what we hadn't appreciated was that tariffs were still in place, but only suspended; and that they've been reduced, but not completely, just to 10%; and that China's tariffs were raised...

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YOUR INVESTMENT STRATEGY

10 April 2025YOUR INVESTMENT STRATEGY Your investment strategies are clear - for short-term projects such as saving for a deposit on a house*, then put your money into something safe - a single government bond that matures in a few months to coincide with your anticipated purchase; or even easier is a money market fund.- for longer term projects going as far as retirement, just carry on drip feeding into a world index with a low...

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WOULD YOU LIKE THE GOOD CARBS FIRST, OR THE BAD

10 April 2025your-guide-to-eating-healthy-carbs Carbohydrates are your body’s fuel—your engine runs on them. But not all carbs are created equal.Simple carbs are like jet fuel: fast-burning, fast-crashing. They spike your blood sugar and often come from added sugars—look for sneaky names like sucrose, dextrose, or fructose on labels. Soda? Cereal? That sweetened latte? Packed with them.But it’s not that simple. Some healthy foods naturally...

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MAGANOMICS - COMPARE TARIFFS WITH INCOME TAX

9 April 2025 We'd need to compare tariffs with income tax, as ways to fund federal operations.One thing to keep in mind is that income tax accounts for 50% of federal income and tariff's account for 2%....Well that's currently.Tariffs were superceded in 1913 by Amendment 16. So in this sense, you could say they are a pre-industrialisation, pre-globalisation relic, a time when the state was small and the budget with it.It is noticeable...

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EARTHQUAKE CONDOS CLEARANCE SALE

6 April 2025 Haggling for a condo dealAre there any property bargains to be had after the earthquake? Far as I can understand all these recently built condo blocks are built the same way: they just ram pillars into the ground and run some beams across and then they fill in the gaps with block work and render over to keep the partitions all together and then a coat of plaster to give a smooth surface over which to paint. They're...

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