I have been offered, just this morning, very limited access to the latest tranche of an Autocallable Bond investment from Global Reach (www.globalreach.ie). I have a lot of confidence in this particular bond, and previous clients experience with this provider and product has been extremely positive. This is the second tranche as the firsts one sold within four days of opening. This tranche is for €1million, launched last Friday to catch the over spill from the previous tranche and it is 80% filled straight away. It is closing next Monday but likely to be full well before that date. Autocallables have been very popular with our clients and work as follows.

1) Coupon:  14% annual coupon. This will be paid if all 3 indices are equal or greater than strike price (next Monday) at any annual anniversary date.

2) Invests 33% in each of the following Indices:  DJ EuroStoxx 50, DJUBS Commodity Index, Heng Seng China Enterprise Index.

3) Capital Protection: 100% Guarantee once the indices don’t fall below 50% soft protection barrier. (ie unless any index breaches 50% of the purchase price clients funds are 100% secured by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch – Last time it was Citi Bank).

4) If it doesn’t call in year one, it rolls on to year two and the coupon is cumulative, ie 28% in year 2, and so on for 5 years.

The history so far on Autocallables with Global Reach is:

1) Issued Nov  2008 (25% Coupon)  - Paid out First year

2) Issued  April 2009 (20% Coupon) – Currently bid 118cent on secondary market, Likely to pay out next month

3) Issued May 2009  (18% Coupon)  - Currently bid 110 cent ( 100cent = par). Looks likely to pay in May.

4) 2 Autocallables issued since Sept 2009 – to early to tell – but heading the right direction.

If you are interested in finding out more can you let me know today or tomorrow so I can reserve a slot before it sells out.

• Warnings: The underlying structure means that if you wish to encash your investment before the anniversary or Maturity Date, you may lose some or all of the money you invested.
• Warning: The value of your investment may go down as well as up. If you invest in this product you may lose some or all of the money invested.
• Warning: Past performance of these indices is not a reliable guide to future performance.
• Warning: This document is based on our understanding of current revenue law and practice which is subject for change without notice.
• Warning: The value of investments may fall as well as rise and your attention is specifically drawn to the section ‘Risk Factors’ in this document and in the Base Prospectus. Prospective investors should be able to bear the economic risk of an equity investment and be able to withstand a total loss of some or all of their equity. This product is not guaranteed in certain circumstances and some or all of your capital may be lost.

I am constantly reading business and investment books, I can't get enough of them. At the moment I'm reading Peter Lynch's 'Beating the Street' for the second time. I would highly recomend it for anyone interested in investing. He managed the Fidelity Magellan Fund in the 90's and was considered the worlds number 1 fund manager at the time.

In the book he passes on some of his ideas and principles, what he calls 'Peters Principles', which although they seem very simple, are actually very insightful. They seem even more relevent today than back in 1994, when the book was written. There are 21 in total but here are some examples,

Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a Crayon. What he is getting at here is that you should understand the company or fund you are investing in fully, and it should make basic business sense

You can't see the future through a rearview mirror. This one is simple, past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. What did well last year, may not do well this year.

Everyone has the brainpower to many money in equities, not everyone has the stomach. This has been proven over the past 2 years, with massive panic selling in 2008, and a massive rebound in the markets in 2009, which only those who stayed in benefited from.

After years of research, lobbying and discussion, the National Pensions Framework was announced this afternoon. This is a long term plan to address the concern about our ageing population and the lack of adequate pension provision, particularly among private sector workers.

The main points of the framework document are as follows,

Government goal is for all retired individuals to have a retirement income of 50% of final salary

State Pension Age to increase to 66 in 2014, 67 in 2021 and 68 in 2028

Government to maintain the State Pension at 35% of average weekly wage

Current pension contributions will receive an SSIA style government contribution equivalent to 33% Tax Relief, rather than the existing standard and marginal tax reliefs

Public Service - A single new pension scheme will be introduced for all new entrants from 2010

Auto-Enrolment - All employees will be automatically enrolled in a new scheme with employer and governemtn contributing equally and employee also obliged to contribute. EG for every 4 euro an employee contributes, the government will contribute 1 euro and the employer will contribute at least 1 euro. Any employees below a certain income threshold, or already in a scheme are excluded Read More On The *NEW* Pension Framework

As part of my continuing updates on fund performance in Ireland, here are the latest figures as at the end of February. In January it was property funds which led the way. The top fund again in February is the Insight Property Fund, promoted by Friends First but run by UK independent fund managers Insight Asset Management. This is European focused property fund, and any property funds with Irish holdings are still performing very poorly. There is a very different look to the rest of the top ten this month.

Most of the international stock markets fell in February as investors became more nervous about strength of the economic recovery. However, the Japanese stock market performed better than expected and hence the number of Japanese equity funds in the list. Quinn Life appear on this blog for the first time with their Biotech and Japanesse funds. The list is closed out by the Fidelity EMEA (Emerging Markets, Eastern Europe and Africa) fund which continues to perform very well so far this year.

Fund Name                                                           YTD
Friends First Insight Property                                 20.42%
Stan Life Prosperity Japanese Equity                      20.12%
Stan Life Prosperity North American Equity           14.50%
BOI / New Ireland Smart UK Geared Property     12.58%
Quinn Life Biotech Freeway                                   10.61%
Canada Life SEI Japanese Equity Pn Ind                10.43%
Quinn Life Japan Freeway Investments                    8.15%
BIAM Indexed Japan Equity                                   7.54%
Stan Life Inv Japanese Equity Multi-Manager           7.26%
Irish Life Fidelity EMEA                                          7.14%

For more information on funds available in the Irish Market and assistance with your investments give us a call.

 Warning - Past Performance is not a reliable guide to future performance.

Warning - The value of your investment may go down as well as up. You risk losing some or all of your initial investment.