Weekly Roundup- Tuesday 10th September

Propelle Events – What’s Next?

Our webinar this month is on “Investing Made Simple”. It’s really at the heart of what we believe here at Propelle- that investing doesn’t need to be complicated but the cost, particularly to women, of not investing is huge. So join us to find out which bits you need to know and how to get them right. 

Propelle founder (and ex Goldman Sachs wealth adviser) Ayesha Ofori will be making a return to webinar hosting to deliver this one for us. So if you have any questions for Ayesha on how to make your investing more simple but more effective, this is the webinar for you!

And if you miss any webinars, as a Propelle Pro member, you can always check back. 

BTS at Propelle

We’ve been all together this week at Propelle with an office day bringing together the tech, product and content teams as well as a shoot for some more in app video content. And as we’re a startup, there’s always a sprinkle of inventiveness that is required- whether its using coat stands to prop up photography lights or tying up the super scandi lights to avoid a bulb in the middle of the image, we’re always thinking on our feet! 

Last Week’s Major Indexes

Before we dive in…

Indices are lists of major sections of a market. Basically, they give a gauge of the health of a certain financial market. Often when the UK market is strong, the FTSE 100 index (measuring the 100 biggest companies on the London Stock Exchange) will keep moving up. Conversely when markets are bad they fall. You’ll see below the value of the index, as well as how much it changed last week, with a percentage.

FTSE 100 (UK): 8,227.70 (-1.63%)

S&P 500 (US): 5,403.42 (-3.64%)

Euro Stoxx 50 (Europe):  4,774.61 (-4.08%)

Nasdaq (US): 16,690.83 (-2.55%)

Dow Jones (US): 40,345.51 (-2.47%) 

Source: Yahoo Finance

N.B these figures are accurate for market close on Friday 6th September 2024

Mini Market Deep Dive

ESG funds in Europe have doubled their defence holdings since Ukraine invasion

The Financial Times reported this week that ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) funds in Europe have more than doubled the amount of defence stocks that they have in their portfolio. The cause? The invasion of Ukraine. Whilst this might seem quite outrageous, only around one third of ESG funds have defence stocks in their portfolio. Still feel pretty outraged? It seems that the invasion of Ukraine has sparked a debate as to whether defence can be considered ‘ethical’. Whilst it’s well accepted controversial weapons, such as cluster bombs and landmines, are not part of a sustainable portfolio, some fund managers are now arguing for the ethical case of investing in companies that might help try to defend (rather than attack) to preserve freedoms. It’s certainly an area that is riddled with dilemmas and controversies- as any ESG investor may well know. What do you think?

Source: Financial Times

Little Learn of the week

ESG stewardship

As the world of sustainable investing (and finance in general!) is littered with jargon and complex terms, we always try to break any jargon down so we can be as helpful as possible. One term that pops up frequently when delving into the world of sustainable and ESG funds is ‘stewardship’. This is where investment goes beyond just the face value of putting money into an asset and progresses to the fund manager directly engaging with the company, or project, in question in order to ‘steward’ i.e. guide towards a better future. This can be both reactive or proactive. In the former, it’s in response to events that breach ESG norms such as human rights or environmental considerations, as a way to avoid a repeat. In the proactive format, the ESG steward in question may take actions such as voting in company AGMs or influencing company policies via lobbying to improve the direction of the company, with sustainable considerations in mind. So next time you see an ESG investment, don’t think just of the face value, but question what’s going on behind the scenes too. Ask yourself what the stewardship also looks like.

Stat / Chart of the Week

£6,900

The amount of the daily fine that a Brazilian would face if they try to access X (formerly twitter) through a VPN, aka circumventing the country wide ban that’s currently in place. This is just another one of Elon Musk’s (CEO of X) ongoing spats with various governments around the globe. 

Source: Bloomberg

Fear & Greed Chart

The Fear & Greed Index is a way to gauge stock market movements and whether stocks are fairly priced. The theory is based on the logic that excessive fear tends to drive down share prices, and too much greed tends to have the opposite effect. It’s made up of seven different indicators that measure some aspect of stock market behaviour. 

This matters to us in the UK because it helps us to understand where general sentiment of the US market sits, which is often closely tied to the movements of other global stock markets, including the UK’s FTSE 100.

The chart is hovering at 47, which still leaves us in neutral territory, suggesting that the September scaries haven’t hit the stock market too hard yet. 

Source: CNN

Q&A of the week

Where our members ask us any questions they have. Big or small. Complex or not. We’re here to help.

What can I do to help my investments ride out the wave of one of the worst months on the stock market?

“We mentioned it right at the beginning: September is historically one of the worst months in the year on the stock market. There are loads of theories as to why, but as with many things stock market related, there’s no definitive answer, just lots of speculation.  What we often find here at Propelle is that it’s all about controlling your emotions, rather than doing anything specific with your investments. By taking the steps that we teach in our membership, and also having a long term time horizon, a diversified portfolio and regular contributions, you should be relatively well set up for long term investment gains and be able to weather downturns. We all know that familiar tug of panic as we see all of the red numbers flash up, and this month inevitably will be the same for some of you. So take a deep breath and know you’re not alone and this has happened before. Want to know what else has happened before? October. October has often seen a rebound in the markets, and most investment portfolios. There’s no guarantees with investing, and past performance doesn’t mean it will be the same in future… but this has been the case since at least the 1950’s. So keep on keeping on with your investments. We’re here to help you through the good, and the bad times. “