All journal articles
Every English article in the TradeAlmanac journal: the Russian market, bonds, dividends, taxes, valuation and portfolio construction.
- How to measure your portfolio's return honestlyThe difference between opening and closing balances credits the portfolio with growth that came from contributions.Strategies89 views
- The government bond market: who is in it and whyThe finance ministry borrows, banks and funds buy, and a private investor gets the reference point for everything else.Bonds87 views
- How to read analyst researchA target price is not a forecast but a function of assumptions. Read the assumptions, not the conclusion.Fundamental analysis67 views
- A checklist before buying a bondEight parameters of an issue, any of which changes the meaning of the yield you were shown.Bonds55 views
- What dividends are paid out ofProfit, cash flow or debt — three different sources with different consequences for how durable the payouts are.Dividends61 views
- Crises of the Russian market: how they differed1998, 2008, 2014, 2022 — four episodes with different causes and different consequences for a private investor.Crises and market history54 views
- The 2008 crisis: how one segment's problem became the world'sLow-quality mortgages packaged into highly rated securities, and the chain along which the loss spread through the whole system.Crises and market history53 views
- Developed and emerging markets: the practical differenceA classification by market depth and institutional quality, not by living standards. It drives capital flows and the risk premium.Global markets52 views
- How the Russian market connects to the worldThe link runs through commodities, interest rates and appetite for risk. Each channel works with its own strength and its own lag.Global markets42 views
- How to compare two companies: the order of checksA sequence that stops you settling on the first metric that happens to look favourable.Fundamental analysis60 views
- Comparing against the sector: why absolute multiple levels are uselessA normal level for a metric is set by the industry, not by a general rule.Fundamental analysis56 views
- Profitability: how much a company earns on what was investedMargin shows the efficiency of sales; return on equity shows the efficiency of shareholders' money.Fundamental analysis55 views
- The balance sheet: what a company owns and what it owesA snapshot on a date: assets on one side, the sources funding them on the other. The two sides always match.Financial statements65 views
- The limits of technical analysisIt describes price behaviour and disciplines action. It cannot predict the future, and an honest discussion of it starts there.Technical analysis54 views
- Overbought indicators: what they actually measureThe speed and size of a recent move, not whether a price is fair. An asset can stay overbought for months.Technical analysis48 views
- Moving averages: smoothing rather than a signalThe average price over a period. It shows the direction of a move that already happened and lags it by construction.Technical analysis50 views
- Hidden concentration: when twenty securities are one betA portfolio can look varied and depend on a single factor. That is established by calculation rather than by looking.Risk and portfolio57 views
- Portfolio liquidity risk: how long an exit would takeWhat has to be assessed is not only a position's return but the time it takes to close without losses.Risk and portfolio51 views
- Anchoring: why the purchase price keeps influencing decisionsThe price you paid has no bearing on the security's future. The brain thinks otherwise.Investor psychology58 views
- Confirmation bias: why we only find arguments in favourAfter a purchase, attention selectively hunts for confirmation. That turns analysis into self-service.Investor psychology55 views
- Survivorship bias: why success statistics misleadWe see those who made it and not those who dropped out. That makes any strategy look better than it is.Investor psychology44 views
- When to change a strategy and when to sit tightTelling a broken approach from an ordinary bad patch is difficult and necessary. There are checkable criteria.Strategies53 views
- The benchmark: what to compare your result against honestlyA portfolio that beat a deposit is not necessarily good. Compare it with what you could have bought instead at the same risk.Strategies52 views
- A strategy without exit rules is not a strategyEveryone makes the decision to buy. Almost nobody makes the decision to sell — and that is what decides the result.Strategies46 views
- A dividend strategy: income instead of growthA portfolio built around regular payouts. The logic is clear and the traps are predictable.Strategies46 views
- Asset allocation: the decision that shapes everything elseThe proportions between asset classes affect the result more than the choice of individual securities within them.Strategies48 views
- Rebalancing: returning to the target weightsA mechanical rule forcing you to sell what rose and buy what fell. It works because it contradicts intuition.Strategies50 views
- How to change the currency mix of a portfolioFour instruments with different properties and one principle that determines the right position size.Currencies, gold and commodities47 views
- Commodity markets: why access is harder than it looksA private investor cannot buy oil. What is available is derivatives and producers' shares, and they behave differently.Currencies, gold and commodities44 views
- Gold: an asset with no income and a particular roleGold has no coupon, no dividend and no profit. It is held not for its return but for its behaviour.Currencies, gold and commodities46 views
- Currency exposure: you have it even if you never opened itA portfolio of Russian equities already contains a bet on the exchange rate. The only question is whether it is deliberate.Currencies, gold and commodities46 views
- Why leverage ruins the result even when the forecast is rightBorrowed money amplifies the return and, along with it, the chance of losing the position before being right pays off.Derivatives53 views
- Initial margin: why a position can be closed without youCollateral against an obligation whose size moves with volatility. It is what decides when you get closed out.Derivatives59 views
- Futures: an obligation, not an optionAn agreement to transact in the future at a price fixed today. Binding on both sides — and that changes everything.Derivatives48 views
- Gold funds: how they differ from the metalAn exchange-traded fund, an unallocated metal account and a bar carry different risks and different taxes.Funds: ETFs and Russian BPIFs49 views
- Active and passive management: what the fee buysOne approach tries to beat the index, the other to replicate it more cheaply. The difference in fees is known in advance; the difference in results is not.Funds: ETFs and Russian BPIFs47 views
- What is actually inside a fundA fund's name describes the intention; its holdings describe reality. They do not always agree.Funds: ETFs and Russian BPIFs56 views
- Tracking error: how far a fund trails its indexA fund is not obliged to replicate an index exactly, and the gap accumulates. Where it comes from.Funds: ETFs and Russian BPIFs54 views
- A bond ladder: a way of not guessing ratesA portfolio of issues with staggered maturities removes the need to predict where rates are heading.Bonds51 views
- Credit ratings: what they assess and why they are not a guaranteeAn agency's opinion on an issuer's ability to pay its debts. A useful reference and a poor excuse for not thinking.Bonds58 views
- Bond amortisation: when principal comes back in instalmentsThe issuer repays the debt gradually. That lowers the risk and shortens the effective term of the investment at the same time.Bonds58 views
- The put date: miss it and you are left holding a different bondThe right to present a bond for redemption runs in a narrow window. After it the issuer may reset the coupon.Bonds · 2 min48 views
- Yield to maturity: the only honest number a bond hasThe coupon rate describes the payments, the price describes the cost of entry. Yield to maturity joins them and is therefore comparable across issues.Bonds51 views
- The trading day: sessions, auctions and why timing mattersPrices at different moments of the day are formed under different rules, and the first minutes behave unlike the rest.Market infrastructure46 views
- Corporate events: what a holder has to trackDividends, meetings, splits, share issues, put dates and buybacks. Events that happen to a security independently of the market.Market infrastructure47 views
- Delisting: what happens when a security is removed from tradingThe end of exchange trading does not cancel ownership, but it removes the main thing — the ability to sell at a market price.Market infrastructure · 2 min43 views
- The market maker: who holds the book when nobody is tradingA participant committed to quoting both sides. Without one, some instruments would have no price at all.Market infrastructure47 views
- Listing levels: what admission to trading meansFormal requirements for an issuer, split into three tiers. Not a quality rating, but not an empty formality either.Market infrastructure45 views
- Trading modes: why one security has several pricesA single instrument trades in several modes with different settlement rules, and their prices need not agree.Market infrastructure50 views
- The depository: where your securities actually sitThe entry at the depository is your ownership. Understanding that changes how you assess broker risk.Market infrastructure49 views
