I hope you enjoyed Kit Winder’s note yesterday. I was working on the latest issue of Zero Hour Alert last week, and I’m just getting caught up now. It was worth it though – that issue is a winner. Using Germany’s oft-forgotten “no-deal exit of 1948” as a historical example, Nickolai Hubble has laid out a compelling, yet staggeringly bullish case for certain British stocks.
Such opinions, regardless of the evidence backing them, are rarely tolerated within the mainstream asset management industry. Hell, Hargreaves Lansdown’s investor’s guide to navigating a no-deal scenario – which it give out for free – claims the referendum happened in 2018, as that’s when the FTSE’s bull run after 2016 finally stumbled…
I’ll try and set my cynical hat aside and hope that was an administrative error on its part, and nothing more sinister.
A rummage through the post box
Last week, in Let wealth disparity fill your sails (October 3), we made a bullish call on Ferretti, an Italian yachtmaker currently issuing shares on the Milan stock exchange. Our case is simple: we believe that the coming rate cuts and quantitative easing (though the term used for the printing of money may be given a new, though equally nebulous name) will further enrich the wealthiest in society, and thus further increase their demand for yachts.
We also dwelled on the topic of living on a narrowboat as a method of unplugging your livelihood from the property ladder game, similar to purchasing physical gold as a means of unplugging wealth from the financial system, and asked if any readers had any experience or thoughts on the topic (your thoughts on my scribblings are always welcome: [email protected]).
I received some great responses – thanks to all who wrote in. Here are a few.
Bought my 62’ narrowboat “ ” in 2005.
Since then I’ve travelled probably 85% of the inland waterways in England and Wales – there are about 2,500 miles to explore…
The moment I step on to my boat I feel all my cares and woes lift from my shoulders – the peacefulness and tranquillity is something to experience.
I’ve been to Bristol, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Lancaster, York, Nottingham, Newark, York, Selby, Nottingham, Northampton, Reading, Paddington Basin, Brentford, Twickenham, Oxford, Peterborough, Goole and Lincoln – just to name a few. All at 4 mph or less, lots of exercise and open air, single handed.
Although not as tall as you I don’t have a problem with the height of the ceiling as most of the time, when not asleep, I’m outside…
Now that sounds like the life! Thank you for the letter, dear reader – it will become a key talking point in my campaign to get my girlfriend onboard with the idea of life on a narrowboat.
Hey Boaz,
Nice one, except “The free float required for the purposes of admission to trading of the [shares in Ferretti] will be achieved through a private placement (the “Offer”), reserved exclusively for qualified investors in Italy and institutional investors abroad…” so that’s me ruled out.
Good thought exercise though. Sounds like it could do well in the run up to the big crash but then what? I guess that depends how catastrophic the crash is…
I’ve got a couple of friends who moved onto a custom-built long boat around 2 years ago. I’ve not had a chance to visit them on it but they seem to be loving mooching around the canal network as the fancy takes them.
Shares in Ferretti should only be off-limits to retail investors until after the IPO – by 16 October they should be available to us mere mortals. But you’re right, it’s no hedge for systemic risk. At least with a narrowboat you’d be somewhat “offshore” from the chaos, though you would be at risk of being left high and dry if somebody drains the canal dry by mistake in the chaos. That happened last year when somebody forgot to close the lock gates on the Kennet and Avon Canal. I can only imagine such risks would increase during a societal breakdown.
Hi Boaz,
I have never owned a narrowboat.
I did consider buying one, but gave the idea up pretty quickly when I looked into the details.
The big problems were: –
1 . Finding and affording a moorage: There was always a severe shortage of moorings and mooring rent was astronomical anywhere near London.
2. Maintenance: The thing needs to be dry-docked every few years for corrosion to be cleared from the hull and be repainted.
3. Security: Burglary risk was always a problem. Look at this one very carefully before you invest – even for a weekend hobby boat.
Duly noted. From what I understand, you need to move the boat every week or so to avoid the exorbitant mooring rent. And getting it repainted every couple of years can be a blow to the wallet – though not as painful as the London property ladder I reckon.
The boats also use a lot of diesel, often of the red variety, which will likely get ever more politically targeted. Perhaps the feds will outlaw diesel narrowboats in favour of electric ones as a test or “dry run” before they move on to automobiles…
Boaz, before you take any steps up the gangplank, you MUST read ‘Offshore’ by Penelope Fitzgerald, which won a Booker Prise in 1979 and describes, with hilarious pathos, her life as a newly-single mum in a houseboat on the banks of the Thames. ..
Offshore is on its way from Amazon as you read this, dear reader! Colour me intrigued…
Until tomorrow,
Boaz Shoshan
Editor, Capital & Conflict
Category: Market updates