This is the first Titan Private Wealth newsletter. We’re excited to share the latest news, updates, and insights with you in what will be a regular communication to keep you informed of all that is happening at Titan Private Wealth. The first issue contains some wide-ranging articles about the business and the wider markets:
- Welcome: Mark Puleikis, Joint CEO, talks about how 2023 impacted the business and the look ahead to 2024
- Industry Insights: Stay Informed – our expert Mark Holden has compiled the latest trends and insights in the world markets
- HR Update: Read about the changes within Titan Private Wealth
- Research Spotlight: Hear From Ian Wood, CIO, who writes about how 2023 impacted the markets
- 2023 Highlights: Isabelle Clough, Head of Business Development tells you about the 2023 highlights and a glimpse into what is to come in 2024
Thank you for being a valued part of the Titan Private Wealth community.
Mark Puleikis CEO
Welcome to 2024
2023 was an incredibly busy but also a rewarding year. Our portfolio performances, compared to our competitors and benchmarks, were the best we have achieved, and we were delighted that this was recognised by the industry awards that we won. We have seen significant investment in new colleagues and in technology and are excited to be moving to new premises on Cardale Park this spring which will more than double our current office space and give us room for significant growth in the years ahead. 2024 will no doubt be just as busy, but we are excited by the future prospects for the business, our employees and our clients.
Equity Developments
There have been many positives from the partnership with Titan, but from an investment perspective we were delighted to launch the Titan Equity Growth Fund in March. For the first time this gave us the ability to leverage our direct equity expertise for our collective clients. Over the long term, the difference in performance between direct equity and collectivised performance has been marginal, but year on year, the differences could be significant. Our direct equity track record is strong, and the launch of the fund enables us to bring collective and direct portfolios in line with each other.
Fixed Income
Titan have recently strengthened the investment team further with the significant hire of Peter Doherty who has over 30 years of experience in bond markets. His track record in fixed income is very strong and he has been consistently ranked in the top quartile of bond managers in the UK.
Updates
Mark Holden, Associate Director
Market What to watch… The 2024 โconsensusโ
China – Still awful, still an avoid.. & Trump is coming!
The UK & EU – Looks like rates have peaked, ECB joined the BoE & โpausedโ with inflation now surprising positively!
Japan – Yield Curve Control (YCC) has moved higher againโฆ but markets are now relaxed with the idea & the conditions for equity investing remains positive.
The US economy โ Is looking more & more โGoldilocksโ with each piece of data, which is supportive of equities, particularly given the new dovish FED!! Very equity positive.
US bonds – Huge relief with FED comments noting financial conditions had tightened because of yields rising & acknowledging markets had raised rates for them! Supportive at last.
The Israel/Hamas Oil price spike has fully subsided โ Iran staying on the sidelines, positive for bonds & equities.
MSCI Global Equities, The Dax & Gold โ Encouragingly hit newall time highs in December.
The VIX โ Loving all the above & close to post pandemic lows…Bullish!
HR Update
Promotions
We have seen several promotions across the business this year, as we develop our existing employees and prepare for the future.These include:
Elliot Read now Head of the Discretionary Desk
Nicola Pullan now Operations Manager
Mikey Randerson now Senior Transfers Administrator
Alex Flower now Head of Investment Management
Steve Moss-Blundell now Deputy Head of Financial Planning
Rachael Hornby now Compliance Manager
Amy Gibson now Joint Deputy Head of Investment Management
Lisa Sturges now Joint Deputy Head of Investment Managementโ
In addition:
Phil McHardy (Paraplanning Manager) and Natasha Mosshaf (Paraplanner) have started training to be Financial Planners alongside their current roles.โ
In the Investment Management team Graeme Dickson and Harry Henderson have been promoted to Associate Director level.
Qualificationsย
At Titan Private Wealth we are keen to encourage the development of our employees through gaining qualifications and, so far this year, we have supported several individuals with their studies and seen the following exam successes:
CISI Investment Advice Diploma
Jacob Kirby has passed 2 of the 3 modules required to gain his Diploma. Cameron Martin and Mark Hill have passed one module each. These 3 individuals are all trainees in our Investment Management/Research teams.
Ella Safri is working her way through the Diploma modules whilst she is training to be a Paraplanner and she has 2 more to go.
CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting
Alex Burrell, Finance and Operations Assistant, has passed his first module for this qualification and is now studying for the second of the four modules required to gain his Certificate.
New Startersย
Up to the end of September 2023, we have seen 14 new recruits join us, with more recruitment ongoing and to be completed before the end of the year. The recruitment has been across all areas of the business and several of these people have been recruited into brand new positions:
Matthew Beddall โ Joint CEO (subject to FCA approval)
Sarah Jackson โ Chief Operations Officer
Mark Holden โ Associate Director
Isabelle Clough โ Head of Business Development
Liza Swarbrick โ Compliance Officer
Ruth Warman โ Executive Assistant to the Directors and Senior Management Team
Plus: 3 new Trainee Investment Managers โ Kane Brown, Ryan Wright and Harry Kirk
Leavers
During 2023 we bid farewell to 4 employees who have been with Titan Private Wealth from the outset in 2003 โ
Sue Halliday, Michelle Pride, Becky Jaeger and Tony Pickering โ as they came to the end of their careers.
Ian Wood, Chief Investment Officer
March saw panic in financial markets as four banks collapsed in the space of a couple of weeks. Silicon Valley Bank, Signature, Silvergate and Credit Suisse failures led to central bank action which seemed to draw a line under the mini crisis. This bad news was viewed as good news for markets as it put a lid on rate hike expectations and equity markets ended the month higher. April was relatively quiet; we had a strong first quarter earnings season which saw almost three quarters of companies beating market expectations. We began to see the rise of the โMagnificent 7โ (Tesla, Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon) and by the end of April, the five largest companies in the S&P 500 had accounted for 60% of year-to-date returns.ย
May was the month of Nvidia after it updated the market on the opportunities in AI which saw it become a $1 trillion market capitalisation company. First Republic failed and was absorbed by JP Morgan and the US unemployment rate continued to fall.
Apple and Microsoft combined represented almost 15% of the S&P 500 in June. Tech had an incredible first half of 2023 with Nasdaq +32%. UK government debt rose above GDP for the first time since the 1960s.
July saw weaker than expected employment data and lower headline inflation in the US which led the market to believe that the interest rate had peaked. China growth expectations continued to fall which increased the potential for significant economic stimulus.
2023 was all about rate/yield expectations and August was the month that the narrative seemed to change dramatically. The market had been battling against โhigher for longerโ rates but Powellโs Jackson Hole comments and weaker US jobs data seemed to draw a line over the top of US interest rates, driving markets higher in the second half of the month.
Just when we thought it was all looking rosy, September saw hawkish Fed comments drive yields higher and equities and bonds lower. US 10-year yields reached their highest since 2007 and US national debt hit $33 trillion. In the UK, average weekly earnings grew at their fastest rate ever, 8.5%.
In October, the Hamas attack on Israel saw a dramatic increase in geopolitical risk. By the middle of the month, the โhigher for longer yieldsโ pessimism was in full swing and it took dovish comments from Fed Chair Powell to calm markets.
November was a massive month and witnessed the best cross-asset rally since the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008. Global equities had their best month in three years driven by weak US manufacturing data (bad news is good news) and resilient consumer spending.
December inflation data was broadly as expected which was taken as good news by the market and global indices grinded higher during the month on relatively low volume.
Research Update
Another quiet year!
After an unexpected January rally, driven by a warm European winter and hope of a China reopening (seems like a lifetime ago!), February saw higher than anticipated inflation around the world which drove bond yields higher. US job creation was at the highest level since the 1940s which led to the lowest unemployment rate since the 1960s. This good news was viewed as bad news for markets, and this was the narrative for the year as investors worried about higher for longer interest rates. An inverted US yield curve pointed to recession, but economic data remained stubbornly strong.
2023 Highlights
2023 was a busy year with numerous highlights โ winning Citi Wire awards, golf competitions, staff football teams, sponsoring awards, working with a boxing club in Hullโฆ..to mention a few!
Isabelle Clough, Head of Business Development
We have sponsored a boxing club in Hull, the Vulcan Centre, who work with disadvantaged children in the Fishgate area in Hull. We sponsored a new boxing ring, enabling more children to access the centre. Watch this space for the relaunch event which will be happening in March 2024.
We also sponsored the Wholesalers Category in the Family Business awards โ and we were delighted when W.E. Jameson & Sons, from Masham, won the award, and even more when the Judges Award went to Cromwell Polythene Ltd. It was a fantastic night meeting lots of family businesses in North an East Yorkshire.
We became part of the Harrogate Chamber of Commerce and have met other local businesses in the Harrogate District area. At the last meeting of the year there was a request for a donation of chocolate for local families facing hardship.
As many of you are aware, instead of sending Christmas cards we donated ยฃ1,000 to the Harrogate Foodbank โ something we would like to continue as it is so important to be an integral part of the community in which we work and live.
There are a lot of plans for 2024 โ we will be sponsoring part of the infamous Aldborough festival in June, so please do let me know if you would like to join us there.
We will also be continuing with our support of the local communities and working with Two Ridings Community Foundation and their Women in Business philanthropic networking group. I will have more details about this venture in the next newsletter.
In December we sponsored a reception for the Yorkshire Young Achievers awards, which was a very humbling evening โ seeing the young people in Yorkshire who had won their awards was incredibly touching and made us realise that we live in a very special place.
I will inform you of any events we will be holding โ but please do also get in touch if you would like to be involved in anything.
CityWire awards
The CityWire awards were held in London in October โ we were nominated and won both the Best Medium Firm in the country, as well as the Performance Investment award for our all equity model.
Huge congratulations to Woody and his team for the performance โ and also it reflects on the entire firm and their ethics to be awarded the Best Medium Firm.
Our 2023 events in pictures
