Alpha Publications

Sound nuts to you?

 19 October 2015

We recently learned of a £37,000 project to make music from the sound of beech mast falling from a giant 100 year old beech tree in Bristol. The project has been funded by a grant from Bristol City Council from its 2015 European Green Capital fund.

Hard or soft landing?

 12 October 2015

Its more than 50 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to venture into ‘outer space’. Throughout the five decades of subsequent space flight, just over 550 individuals have made the journey into space.

Taking the long term view

 5 October 2015

Good news! The ONS has recently announced we are living longer. A new born baby boy could expect to live to over 79 years and a new born baby girl almost 83 years.

Storm brewing?

 28 September 2015

Members of the public are to be given the opportunity to name wind storms affecting the UK and Ireland. It is hoped that naming storms will help raise awareness of severe weather conditions and ensure people protect themselves and their property before it strikes.

Flagging danger signals

 21 September 2015

With the Rugby World Cup underway many fund managers will no doubt be out the office at various matches. Talk of rugby and thoughts turn to the favourites, the New Zealand All Blacks.

Reading the tea leaves

 14 September 2015

As a nation, we are well known for turning to a nice cup of tea in a crisis. Which got us thinking. With all the recent financial turmoil arising from China, investors should have been drinking more tea, but apparently not so.

Dismaland

 7 September 2015

Bristol street artist Banksy has recently opened the Dismaland Bemusement Park in the derelict former Tropicana lido in Weston-Super-Mare. The exhibition, which is a dark take on theme parks includes a dilapidated fairy castle and a boat pond where all the boats are filled with models of migrants.

The Great Fall of China

 1 September 2015

The Great Wall of China actually comprises many different walls built over successive periods by the Chinese to control the migration of marauding hordes of invaders. Which got us thinking.

Game of drones

 25 August 2015

Last year the CMA issued a record number of licenses to fly small drones in the UK, which was up a staggering 80% on the previous year. However, this could well be exceeded in 2015 as a drone is apparently the must have Christmas gift this year. This could well create challenges in itself from privacy infringement to aircraft safety.

Some like it hot

 17 August 2015

Unfortunately not the classic comedy film starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis but office air conditioning! Our office is, no doubt, like many others in that there is usually a lively debate about the temperature.

Oh NO…2

 10 August 2015

A recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court has set a deadline of the end of the year for plans to improve air quality in the UK and tackle dangerously high levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). Currently diesel cars produce less CO2 but emit much more NO2 and it is estimated that diesel road traffic is responsible for 40% of London’s NO2 emmissions.

Who has got the hump?

 3 August 2015

To mark Bristol’s green capital status, a sculpture of two life sized whales has been made from Somerset willow and 70,000 old plastic bottles. The blue whale and humpback whale weigh a whopping six tonnes. The bottles were collected from the Bath half marathon and Bristol 10K race. The sculpture highlights the threat of plastic pollution to the world’s oceans, particularly from plastic bags.

It never rains but it pours

 27 July 2015

In the musical ‘My Fair Lady’, Professor Higgins (Rex Harrison) drills Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) with speech exercises such as ‘The rain in Spain, stays mainly in the plain’ to help drop her ‘mockney’ accent.

Gone with the wind

 20 July 2015

Walking into work recently, past a tall building, I was almost blown off my feet by a sudden gust of wind. Apparently accelerated winds near skyscrapers is caused by the ‘downdraught effect’. This is where air hits a building and with nowhere else to go is pushed up and down and around the sides. The air forced downwards increases wind speed at street level.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 13 July 2015

No, not the Alpha Team, although some of you may have spotted a familiar looking Mexican moustache!  However, spaghetti westerns got us thinking about ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’. In this case, perhaps the USA, Greece and China?

Time to get out?

 6 July 2015

With all the negative financial news headlines on Greece, the glorious weather makes us look forward to the weekend and enjoying the great British countryside.

Lost in translation

 29 June 2015

We keep hearing of the term ‘global market place’.  At a time when the fabric of the EU is being tested by the prospect of a Greek debt default, it is perhaps worth remembering the ability to trade freely in a ‘common market’ was one of the original pillars of the European Union.  Globalisation is changing the way business is being done. The EU is the largest economy in the world, along with being the biggest exporter and importer.

Finding the safest port in a storm

 22 June 2015

The old sea-faring expression is ‘any port in a storm’. Which got us thinking. We suspect for financial markets, it is actually not a case of finding ‘any port’ but more importantly the ‘safest port in a storm’. This is because, we are currently sailing in unchartered waters.

Stuffed Turkey?

 15 June 2015

Last week, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to win a majority in the parliamentary election.  This in turn led to considerable volatility in the Turkish stock market.

The struggle for power

 8 June 2015

China has an insatiable appetite for natural resources to meet its long term economic growth ambitions and as a result appears to be putting its footprint down from the South China Sea to the Antarctic. The former sea has a number of countries contesting ownership of the potentially natural resource rich waters including China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Things that go bump in the night

 1 June 2015

It’s a curious thing. Why do some people like the feeling of being scared while others don’t? One only needs to consider the growing hype surrounding Halloween to see the commercial value we put on being scared.

A lack of liquidity

 26 May 2015

According to the US National Atmospheric Administration, global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have reached a new monthly average record of 400 parts per million.  As a result, global levels of carbon dioxide are estimated to be at the highest level for over 2 million years!

Are they nuts?

 18 May 2015

No, not politicians, nor Greece but pistachio nuts! We have been keeping an eye on developments in the Middle East, but had assumed that, when sanctions are lifted on Iran, it could lead to oil flooding onto the global market. Instead, it is likely to be pistachio nuts, as Iran is the world’s leading producer alongside the USA.

Between a Spock and a hard place

 11 May 2015

Who’d have thought it? Now that the dust is beginning to settle, the post- election recriminations and investigations have begun. One thing for sure is that the new Parliament will have a very different look to the last.

Some assembly required

 5 May 2015

With just a few days to go until the UK General Election the polls are suggesting a hung parliament with the likelihood that the Conservatives will just about win the most votes and seats, but not enough to form a majority on their own. In addition, the SNP continues to look the most significant minority party with possibly over 50 seats.

At face value – something to take note of?

 27 April 2015

Some of the World’s leading global economies are being challenged to consider putting a famous woman on their banknotes. American bills have portraits of the country’s founding fathers and former presidents, Chinese notes have Mao Zedong and India have Mahatma Gandi, but none of them feature any women.

Survival of the fittest?

 20 April 2015

We recently read that a rare first edition of Charles Darwin’s Insectivorous Plants book was returned to the Camden Library in Sydney, Australia, after 122 years! The late fees were thought to be in the region of £22,800, but the book was astutely returned during the library’s ‘fine amnesty month’, although one senses that the library was just over the moon to get the first edition back.

Would you ‘Adam and Eve’ it?

 13 April 2015

A new global code of conduct is being introduced in the foreign exchange market by the world’s major central banks. This is designed to stop traders and dealers sharing information and is part of efforts to head off abuses after two years of scandal over currency manipulation.

A storm brewing?

 7 April 2015

We recently read that a keen eyed shopper had noticed that Unilever has reduced the amount of tea in its PG Tips tea bags, as a pack of 80 regular tea bags now weighs 232g, down from 250g previously.

Our approach to lower risk investing

 1 April 2015

We have recently received a number of approaches enquiring about the recent moves in the fixed interest market and for our take on things.

A kite dancing in a hurricane

 30 March 2015

Later this year see’s the return of Daniel Craig as 007 in the latest bond movie ‘SPECTRE’, an incredible 24th in the franchise. In the trailer, Bond is likened to ‘A kite dancing in a hurricane’. Which got us thinking. This seems like a pretty good description of Greece currently.

As safe as houses?

 23 March 2015

The top end of the London property market has had a stellar run in recent years. This has no doubt reflected central banks printing money as well as supportive Government measures for the housing market.

Is someone taking the proverbial?

 16 March 2015

Many of you will be aware that Bristol is currently European Green Capital. To reflect this a new bus service is being run between Bath and Bristol Airport using a ‘Bio-Bus’ which is powered by bio-methane gas generated from human sewage and food waste. Locally it has been nicknamed the ‘number two’.

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