I graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1984 with a degree in electronic engineering and from 1984 until 1998 worked in the commercial construction industry as an engineer, a project manager and an operations manager.
I began investing in the stock market 2 months prior to the 1987 stock market crash and thus quickly learned about the downside potential of stocks. Only slightly daunted by the rather inauspicious timing of my entry into the world of financial market investments, my interest in the stock market grew steadily over the years.
In 1993, after studying the history of money, the nature of our present-day fiat monetary system and the role of banks in the creation of money, I developed an interest in gold. Another very important lesson soon followed: gold may be the ideal form of money for those who believe in free markets and a wonderful hedge against the inherent instability of the government-imposed paper currencies, but it is not always a good investment.
By mid-1998 the time and money involved in my financial market research/investments had grown to the point where I was forced to make a decision: scale back on my involvement in the financial world or give up my day job. The decision was actually quite an easy one to make and so, at the beginning of 1999, I began investing/trading on a full-time basis.
My major concern in deciding to pursue a career in which I devoted all of my time to my own investments was that I would miss the personal interaction that had been part and parcel of my business management career. The Speculative Investor (TSI) web site was launched in August of 1999 as a means for me to interact with the world by making my analysis/ideas available on the Internet and inviting feedback from others with similar interests.
During its first 14 months of operation the TSI web site was free of charge, but due to the site’s growing popularity I changed it to a subscription-based service in October of 2000. Its popularity continued to grow, although I remained — and remain to this day — a professional speculator who happens to write a newsletter as opposed to someone whose overriding focus is selling newsletter subscriptions.
My approach is ‘top down’; specifically, I first ascertain overall market trends and then use a combination of fundamental and technical analysis to find individual stocks that stand to benefit from these broad trends. This approach is based on my experience that it’s an order of magnitude easier to pick a winning stock from within a market or market sector that’s immersed in a long-term bullish trend than to do so against the backdrop of a bearish overall market trend. Fortunately, there’s always a bull market somewhere.
I’ve lived in Asia (Hong Kong, China and Malaysia) since 1995 and currently reside in Malaysian Borneo.

Officials are warning customers about banking spoof calls that could trick them into emptying their accounts, with scammers posing as banking or law enforcement officials who claim they are trying to protect the customer’s money.

The FBI has described these calls as a growing problem in which customers are convinced to move their money, costing them thousands of dollars, according to ABC 7.

The agency has said spoofing and phishing schemes are designed to trick victims into providing sensitive information, such as passwords or bank PINs. Suspected cyber-enabled scams can be reported through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Chase customer Jennifer Lichthardt described how she lost $40,000 after receiving a spoof call.

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“The first call I got, it was the number on the back of my Chase debit card, and it said Chase fraud department,” Lichthardt told ABC 7.

The scammers who were pretending to call from her bank’s number said that Chase employees were accessing accounts. They claimed to be representing Chase and even the FBI.

“They read me my account number. They had my account balance down to the penny,” Lichthardt said. “They had fake FBI agents that gave me an agent number.”

Lichthardt was eventually convinced to move nearly $40,000 from her Chase account into a new so-called “secured” Chase account at her local branch and to transfer thousands more to another online bank. The money she sent later disappeared.

She reported what happened after she realized she had been scammed the following morning.

Lichthardt described feeling “financially violated” after the incident.

Chase said that “her funds were withdrawn from the scammer’s account the same day” the funds were deposited.

“We urge all consumers to ignore phone, text, or internet requests to move money or gain access to their computer or bank accounts. Banks and legitimate companies won’t make these requests, but scammers will,” Chase said in a statement to ABC 7.

The Federal Trade Commission also has a direct warning for consumers, saying it is a scam if someone tells consumers to move their money to “protect it.”

“Never transfer or send money, cryptocurrency, or gold to someone you don’t know in response to an unexpected call or message,” the FTC website reads.

Huntington Bank customer Susie Allgood also received a spoof call from someone claiming to be from Zelle.

“And in order to continue to receive, continue receiving money to and from Zelle, I had to upgrade my Zelle account to a business account,” Allgood told ABC 7. “Because he said he was from Zelle and working with Huntington Bank. So, why would I not believe him? He already had my routing number.”

Allgood said she was convinced to send $5,000 via Zelle to the scammer’s account to keep her money “safe.”

“I think that each case needs to be looked at individually because, did I send the money? Yes, I did. I will admit to that. But I was also instructed by somebody who had the last four of my bank account, had my phone number,” Allgood said.

Both women reported their experiences to local authorities and the FBI.

Responding to whether she believes she will get her money back, Lichthardt said, “I don’t know. I hope I do.”

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Neither victim had received a refund from her bank after being scammed and convinced to move money, according to ABC 7.

Banks generally cover certain types of unauthorized fraud, such as when someone steals your debit card information. A bank will never call a customer and ask that person to send money.

The FBI and other experts said criminals can find some banking information from the dark web or through dumpster diving. When they obtain that data, they may also be able to call the person’s bank’s automated system to review the customer’s account balance or transactions.

“When somebody is calling pretending to be the FBI, the victim then thinks they are in trouble. They are already frazzled, and when they are making these decisions, the criminal then starts to rush them more. The more they are rushed, the more decision-making they make last-minute,” Robert Richardson, a special agent with the FBI Chicago Field Office, told ABC 7.

The recent electoral outcomes across three key states have failed to materially shift the outlook for Indian equity markets, according to market expert Sandip Sabharwal. Speaking to ET Now, he said the results, while politically significant, do not alter the broader market thesis unless they materially impact governance or policy continuity.

“Not really. I think what would have happened is that if BJP had actually ended up losing West Bengal, then it could have had a negative sentiment. But whatever results have come out, I do not think they impact the markets by any significant impact. Obviously, if development activities pick up further in West Bengal, which is a large state, then it is positive for the overall economy. But in the near term I do not think it has much impact,” Sabharwal said.

Banking Sector in Consolidation Phase; Asset Quality Remains Strong
After a sharp run-up earlier in the year, banking stocks have come under pressure over the last two weeks, with both PSU and private lenders witnessing correction.Sabharwal believes the sector may currently be in a consolidation phase, especially as investors digest evolving regulatory and earnings signals.

“Yes, we could say that because from the PSU banking’s perspective, the new ECL norms, etc, something people are concerned about and the recent results which have also come out they have also shown some sort of pressure in terms of their NIM growth, etc,” he noted.
He added that while growth has moderated, the underlying fundamentals remain intact.
“Most of the private sector names reported pretty decent numbers although growth has been somewhat lesser but it is expected to be better this year as inflation also picks up and nominal growth will be much greater and asset quality continues to be well under control,” he said.
He further highlighted that the strong asset quality across banks and encouraging NBFC results continue to support the sector’s medium-term outlook.

Earnings Season: Select Winners Emerging Across Sectors
The ongoing earnings season is revealing strong divergence across sectors, with select companies delivering robust guidance and execution.

Referring to Tata Technologies’ strong commentary, Sabharwal noted improving demand visibility in engineering and R&D-linked segments.

“There are pockets of the economy which are doing well. There are pockets of the export economy which still continue to do well despite all external headwinds. So, this result season is not a negative one per se,” he said.

Auto remains a key bright spot, with strong April sales across OEMs and low inventory levels in the system.

“All the auto companies like April sales data was very-very strong across the board despite all the concerns about geopolitics, etc, and the inventory levels in the system also low, so that creates opportunities,” he added.

He also pointed to BHEL’s strong order inflows and performance revival as a case of a beaten-down stock finding renewed momentum.

Power Sector Strength vs IT Weakness
Sectoral divergence has become more pronounced, with energy stocks outperforming IT in recent weeks.

Sabharwal attributed strength in the energy space to demand conditions and renewable energy momentum, though he remains cautious on utilities as long-term investments.

“I typically do not buy the utilities because they tend to have very low ROEs over the long term… but in the near term because of whatever has been happening on the demand side, we could still see some of these stocks do well,” he said.

While the Nifty Energy index has gained, IT stocks have lagged amid global demand concerns.

Cables & Wires: Strong Growth Meets Valuation Concerns
The wires and cables segment continues to report strong growth, with companies like KEI delivering robust earnings and guidance. However, valuations have become a concern.

Sabharwal noted that while demand strength has been surprising, the structural nature of the business limits long-term multiples.

“These are commodity companies in the guise of sort of branded durable companies. To that extent there is only X amount of valuation they can have,” he said.

He also flagged potential competition risks as large players look to enter the segment, which could gradually reshape industry dynamics.

Dr Lal Move Seen as Liquidity-Driven Overshoot
The sharp 15% rally in Dr Lal PathLabs was also discussed, with Sabharwal suggesting that such moves are often driven by limited liquidity rather than fundamentals alone.

“There are a lot of these companies where strong results tend to create disproportionate movement because the sellers are very less… I would think that it is a good company… but finally people need to realise these are companies which will grow at 10-15%,” he said.

He added that valuation expansion may have already played out in the immediate reaction.

Smallcaps Continue to Outperform on Domestic Flows
Despite volatility, smallcap and midcap indices continue to outperform broader markets, supported by strong domestic participation.

Sabharwal observed that this trend has persisted across cycles, even during downturns.

“So, yes, opportunities continue to remain… midcaps and smallcaps will continue to have opportunities,” he said.

However, he cautioned that stock selection remains critical, with performance likely to remain highly differentiated.

Where Opportunities Are Emerging
Sabharwal highlighted several pockets of opportunity across the market, including:

• Power equipment manufacturers
• Construction and infrastructure-linked companies
• Auto ancillaries
• Select NBFCs with strong asset quality and growth visibility

He also noted that export-oriented auto companies could benefit from currency tailwinds and strong global demand trends.

The dust hangs thick in the air at Sharp Group’s recycling facility in Rainham, east London, where the relentless rumble of hoppers and conveyor belts sets a punishing tempo. It is, by any measure, an unforgiving place to earn a living, and increasingly, that is the problem.

The family-run skip and waste management business, which processes up to 280,000 tonnes of mixed recycling a year, depends on 24 agency workers stationed along its rapid conveyor belts. They sift, in real time, through a procession of debris that ranges from old trainers and VHS cassettes to slabs of concrete. It is the sort of work that few are queueing up to do, and the figures bear that out. Annual staff turnover at the plant runs at 40%, mirroring an industry-wide retention crisis that is now forcing British SMEs to confront a question once reserved for car factories and Amazon warehouses: can robots do this instead?

For Sharp Group, the answer may be taking shape on the line itself. A humanoid robot known as Alpha, the Automated Litter Processing Humanoid Assistant, is being trained to pick through the waste stream alongside the human pickers it may one day replace. Built by China’s RealMan Robotics and adapted for British recycling conditions by London-based TeknTrash Robotics, Alpha represents an unusual bet on humanoid form factors in an industry that has, until now, leant towards bespoke automated kit.

“The attraction of a humanoid is that you can put it here and it stays here,” says Chelsea Sharp, the plant’s finance director and granddaughter of founder Tom Sharp. “It will pick all day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s not going to apply for a holiday, it’s not going to have a sick day.”

That blunt commercial logic sits against an equally blunt safety case. Work-related injury and ill-health in the waste sector run 45% higher than the national average across other industries, and the fatality rate is a sizeable multiple of the broader workforce. Sharp Group is proud of its own safety record, but the maths of recruitment in such an environment is becoming increasingly difficult to defend.

“The belt is moving all the time, you’re constantly picking. I go through a lot of pickers because they just aren’t up to the job,” says line supervisor Ken Dordoy. The firm rotates staff through different waste streams every 20 minutes, with periodic stoppages built in for respite, a regime that speaks volumes about the strain involved.

Alpha, for now, is no quick fix. It is in the early stages of an exhaustive training programme, with a plant worker wearing a VR headset alongside the robot to demonstrate what good picking looks like. The dual challenge, TeknTrash founder and chief executive Al Costa explains, is teaching the machine first to identify objects on a moving belt, and then to lift them reliably. His firm’s HoloLab system feeds Alpha a torrent of data from multiple cameras, generating millions of training data points a day.

Costa is candid about the gap between marketing hype and operational reality. “The market thinks these robots are prêt‑à‑porter, that all you need to do is plug them into the mains and they will work flawlessly. But they need extensive data in order to be effectively useful.”

The humanoid approach has the advantage of slotting into existing infrastructure without expensive plant redesign, no small consideration for SMEs operating on the thin margins typical of the recycling sector. The alternative, increasingly favoured by larger operators, is wholesale retrofitting with bespoke automated kit.

Colorado-based AMP, which runs three of its own plants and supplies equipment to dozens of facilities across Europe and the UK, takes that route. Its systems use air jets to fire items into chutes, with AI continuously sharpening the machine’s ability to identify and sort materials. “Our robots are much more efficient than humans, probably eight or 10 times the pace,” chief executive Tim Stuart says. “The AI technology and jets have really increased the capacity and efficiency and accuracy of what we can do.”

California’s Glacier, co-founded by Rebecca Hu‑Thrams, deploys mounted robotic arms paired with AI vision. She is quick to note the sheer unpredictability of the material her machines must contend with. A leaking beer can may threaten sensitive equipment; her customers, she adds, have seen “unbelievable things like hand grenades and firearms coming through their facility”. The proposition, she says, is improvement at scale: “As our models learn from more than a billion items, the AI gets better and better. And we’ve always designed our technology so it works not just for big urban plants, but for the semi‑rural facilities running on much tighter budgets.”

For all the differences in approach, the conclusion across the industry is converging. The labour-intensive model that has propped up British waste processing for decades is reaching the end of its useful life. Academics studying the sector see the same trajectory. Professor Marian Chertow of Yale University argues that “robotics coupled with AI-driven vision systems offers the greatest potential for improving material recovery, worker experience, and economic competitiveness in the recycling sector”.

That leaves the awkward question of what happens to the people currently doing the picking. Chelsea Sharp does not pretend the work is anything other than gruelling. “This is a really dirty place to work. You can see the dust, you can hear the noise. It’s not that nice.” Her stated plan, however, is reskilling rather than replacement. “The plan is to upskill those staff. They’ll be maintaining and overseeing the robots. And it brings those same people away from any dangers, including the unpleasant environment, heavy lifting and noise.”

Whether the rest of the sector follows Sharp’s lead, or whether automation ushers in a quieter, leaner workforce by default, will become clear over the next few years. What is no longer in dispute is that the British recycling line of 2030 will look nothing like the one running in Rainham today.

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