An investor blessed with Nostradamus-like predictive powers who put money to work with Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B:NYSE) in 1964 and held the shares until 2022 would have enjoyed a gargantuan overall gain of 3,787,464% in terms of per share market value, leaving the stellar 24,708% return from the S&P 500 index with dividends included for dust.Under the direction of legendary investor Warren Buffett

For all the hoopla over the first quarter's US tech sector results, markets don't seem to be making much progress which suggests there is something else worrying investors.The number one suspect must be the banks, which in the space of a couple of months have been transformed from heroes into villains, none more so than US regional institutions.Shares spoke with George Barrow, co-manager of the Po

With banks still very much the focus of the market's attention, should investors rethink not just their direct exposure to the sector through individual stocks but also their indirect exposure through funds and investment trusts with large weightings in the sector?Shares has examined some of the funds and trusts with the largest reported exposure to financial firms as a proportion of total assets

Having underperformed the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 350 for the best part of 10 years, September 2020 saw the FTSE 350 banks index stop making decade lows and start to make short-term highs, much to the excitement of analysts and investors.As the market rotation towards value stocks took hold, the UK's unloved banks jumped sharply in the final quarter of last year.At the start of this year, the narrat

There is a growing consensus that as the global economy recovers from the pandemic and long-term interest rates - such as the US 10-year Treasury yield and the UK 10-year gilt yield - start to move upward, investors need to increase their exposure to banking stocks.The thinking goes that as banks are large, geared, cyclical plays they should benefit as the economy improves. They can lend more mone

The quest for income is a challenging one in an environment of low interest rates but there are still plenty of assets which offer an attractive and reliable yield.In this article we take a look at where some of the experts are finding income opportunities.A DIVERSIFIED APPROACH TO FIXED INCOMEThe £170m Henderson Diversified Income (HDIV) has a flexible mandate to generate a high level of income

It's been 10 years since shares started to recover from the global financial crisis-induced market collapse. However, there are pockets of the market still trying to play catch-up including financial stocks like banks which remain 'unloved, under-owned and misunderstood', say John Yakas and Nick Brind, managers of investment trust Polar Capital Global Financials (PCFT).They believe the financial s

After months of speculation, the Bank of England finally raised interest rates on 2 August. With rates so low for so long, banks have seen their margins squeezed but, with interest rates now rising, will profitability improve and if so, could specialist financials funds be worth considering?UK banks are still paying off the excesses of the years preceding the financial crisis, with vast sums set a

The UK base rate has been at an all-time historic low of 0.5% since March 2009, but recent comments from the Bank of England suggest that the first increase is getting closer. Despite the current turmoil it is almost certain that interest rates will go up either this year or next and when they do it could have a profound effect on the financial markets.Higher interest rates are normally bad for bo

Investor ire towards professional money managers with short-term focus and poor performance track records continues to grow, while the need for individuals to plan for a secure retirement means more and more people are cottoning on to the lumpy fees levied on savings products. At the same time, income-generating investments are thin on the ground given yield compression in bonds and negligible ret

Battered from pillar to post by the credit crunch, the financial sector is still reviled by a big chunk of the public and shunned by retail and professional investors alike as simply too complex and opaque. Yet risk-tolerant portfolio builders who believe the financial sector is oversold and thus good value might consider putting money to work with the Polar Capital Global Financials Trust (PCFT),