Street Smart
Inside knowledge on UK financial markets and investing. How the City actually works — and what that means for the private investor.
Tree shakes: how market makers move small-cap prices
Tree shakes explained: how market makers, liquidity and quote moves can affect small-cap investors before they react to price action.
Pete and the tree shake: a market maker’s day in plain English
Tree shakes can make small-cap price moves look more meaningful than they are. Learn how to read the screen without…
Gareth Hall, drip-fed exclusives, and the smaller-company PR underbelly
Not every "exclusive" you read in a tip sheet or trade publication arrived by accident. Some of them were placed…
Hostile takeover: how the headline battle is fought
When two PR teams fight over the same story in a hostile takeover, every headline is a move. Inside the…
Inside the press release: how a 20% profit fall becomes ‘resilient results in a year of extraordinary volatility’
Every results announcement tells two stories. One is in the numbers. The other is in everything around them. Here is…
The DOJ table, then and now: what 25 years of insider dealing prosecutions actually show
The FCA's own conviction data tells the same story Ian Lyall told with DOJ figures in 2010: insider dealing is…
Vanity, egotism and fear: the three forces that get RBS-shaped deals approved
Most big takeovers destroy value for the buyer's shareholders. Vanity, empire-building and fear explain why. RBS and ABN Amro is…
From ADVFN to Reddit: the coordinated share ramp has just changed channels
The City Slickers case showed how share ramping worked in 2010. The mechanic has not changed, but the channels now…
Pump, dump, and the Telegram channel: how the 2010 boiler room moved to your messaging app
The pump-and-dump hasn't changed since 2010. The boiler room of cold calls has moved to Telegram, Discord and TikTok. Recognise…
The seven rules continued: who you know, dispassion, and why time in the market beats timing it
Monty's last four rules: the City information network, dispassion at the ticker, averaging down, and time in the market over…