The End of the Beginning?

I’ve stolen the title of today’s post from the GSL Summit that was held yesterday.  The timing of yesterday’s conference was meant to coincide with the expiry of the ban on short selling UK financial stocks. Before Christmas there was huge pressure from some politicians for the FSA to extend the UK ban, and I am pretty certain that when a number of European countries announced extensions to their own 31 December expiry dates, the people at GSL must have been more than a little bit nervous. 

However, in the end, the FSA held their nerve and stood up to the clearly unwarranted hype and the restrictions in the UK do indeed expire tonight.  Interestingly, the Swiss announced yesterday that they too are following suit and lifting their ban tonight.  Still, there is little consistency amongst regulators as the Dutch AFM announced yesterday they will be extending their restrictions until the end of February.  That puts the Dutch in the same camp as France, Germany and some others.

Why do I say unwarranted hype?  All the evidence shows that short selling UK financials has more to do with the fundamentals of the bank stocks and market environment than it does with short selling.  Click on the chart of the FTSE 350 Bank sector and it will open a new tab.  Looks like the ban worked!  NOT.

GSL Summit
Getting back to the GSL Summit – what a turnout!  It looks like there were about 170 attendees there yesterday.  I think there was some interesting and valuable discussion, but as can often be the case, the real value is in the networking and private conversation before and after the event and during the coffee breaks.  Hopefully similar events will follow.

It was a really meaningful event, hats off to GSL.  They taped the event and I have asked for more information on when and how the video will be released.  I’ll keep you posted.

Global Custodian Multimedia
While we are on the subject of video … this week marks the first in a series of videocasts that I am doing in conjunction with Global Custodian Magazine.  I have known Dominic Hobson, the Executive Editor for many years and in my opinion it is the finest magazine of its kind.  They have been expanding their reach into multimedia for some time and I jumped at the opportunity to help this growth.  I jumped until I realised that video is a different medium than I am accustomed to.

If you are not familiar with the magazine, please take a few minutes to look at the Global Custodian website and then if you want to laugh at an amateur, please watch my video by clicking here.  Look for it weekly!  They say that blogs are all about content.  I would ask that you judge the video on content, not my impersonation of a news reader!  Be kind.  Or not as the case of a number of you who have already contacted me!  LOL

Have a great weekend.