Opinion

By Diana Chambers, the Family Wealth Mentor

We all have relationships with money, just as we have relationships with people. We express our desires, needs and beliefs within those relationships and they are charged with emotions.

Two decades ago, I started the Chambers Group to offer strategic philanthropic advice and to be a mentor for individuals and families, addressing the human dimensions of their wealth. My role as a Family Wealth Mentor™ is to help my clients relate to their wealth in emotionally intelligent ways, whether it involves inter-generational issues; inheritance; the sale of a family business; or an individual’s place in the family.

The primary function of money was originally as a medium of exchange, but our current global monetary system has evolved in ways that do not treat all people fairly. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wealth and many people who are wealthy are deploying their resources in generative ways. What matters is how you relate to your wealth, what you do with it, and how you relate to others because of, or, in spite of it. 

Learning from money is a lifelong journey into greater freedom and wellbeing. In 2016, I wrote True Wealth: Letters on Money, Life and Love, highlighting the common struggles I saw in my clients and proposing ways for the affluent to harmonize their relationships with wealth and those they love.

The problems come when we give money meaning that it cannot realize and create a delusional bubble around it, wanting it to achieve the impossible for us. We might hope that money will bring us freedom, love, and security; but then we may be uncertain if we are loved for ourselves or for our wealth. And invariably, we feel the need to protect ourselves and our wealth. Money – or having more money – alone will not give us what we are seeking.

Yet if we are discerning, we can use money to enhance our happiness. As Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton described in their book Happy Money, people who spend primarily on experiences that strengthen their social relationships and on investing in others feel more happiness. 

When you take the time to listen closely to yourself and act on what you truly know, wealth can find its natural balance in your life. You will discover thoughtful, creative ways for your wealth to flow and to do this you need to be connected not only with yourself but with what is unfolding in society. 

While the dangers of worshipping money and the importance of keeping it in its proper place are recognized in many of the ancient scriptures, as a global society we adulate money and the holders of it. The dominant capitalist message to keep accumulating can pull us out of alignment from our true nature, which would ordinarily signal to us how much is enough or not enough.

Money is a mirror. We can use it to identify what is motivating us, ranging from what we love to what we fear most deeply. Money can be our teacher if we study and appreciate the lessons offered. How you handle money in your relationships illustrates whether you are connected to or disconnected from yourself and from the people you are in a relationship with, so your money behavior can tell you a great deal about yourself.

As a wealth mentor, I have helped my clients to look in the ‘money mirror’ and to understand the money messages they have received and given throughout their lives, and the belief systems on which those messages were built. With such awareness we have the opportunity to choose.

Yet how we deploy money is often so unconscious that, without the help of skilled facilitators, we find it hard to understand the roots of our financial behavior. Our cultural milieu does not invite such close examination, emphasizing strength and confidence while encouraging us to believe that more is always better. Yet curiosity leading to self-awareness, combined with vulnerability is a pathway to health.

The first step to inner clarity is to recognize any fear, anxiety, or discomfort in your relationship with money and appreciate why you carry it – perhaps it is a fear of scarcity which stems from childhood experiences, or maybe it is a difficulty receiving gifts because you worry it will compromise your independence. 

I have addressed this subject in an article, available as a free download on my website, entitled Money Wisdom Unlocked: Understanding Trauma as a Key to Your Financial Behavior. In it, I argue that only by understanding the roots of your behavior and beginning the task of healing your underlying trauma – we all have some – can you sense what is right for you to do rather than attempting to pursue what you believe will give you security.

Wealth does not equal freedom. Our financial assets cannot replace an inner sense of wealth, knowing that we are enough, and we will always have enough. If material wealth is being used to replace inner wealth, the emptiness will remain. Our work is to build our inner wealth. 

If we allow money to flow through us and into society – rather than trying to build our perceived sense of security – we are on the right path.

ends

Money Wisdom Unlocked: Understanding Trauma as a Key to Your Financial Behavior is available from https://dianachambers.com/

New research has found that one in three (37%) employees consider their current job to be at risk from automation and digital transformation.

HR software provider CIPHR has compiled a list of the occupations that are the most and least likely to be replaced by technology or machines, based on the results of a survey of more than 1,000 UK workers: www.ciphr.com/jobs-at-risk-from-automation. Survey respondents were asked to rate the likelihood that their own occupation could become automated in the future, due to advances in smart technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and robotics.

Around a third of women (33%) and over two-fifths (43%) of men consider it likely or very likely that automation could replace their jobs. While over half (54%) of those aged 18-to-24-years-old, compared to around a quarter (27%) of over-45s, believe that their job might not exist one day.

Just because an occupation could become fully automated, however, doesn’t mean it necessarily will. A more widely accepted view is that many roles will adapt and evolve and that new roles will be created, as even more work tasks and business processes – particularly those that are more routine or repetitive – can be done efficiently by machines.

To find out how closely people’s perceptions of automation match the reality – or, rather, the likelihood – of what’s to come, CIPHR compared its survey results with a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the probability of automation in England. The findings show a distinct difference, for almost all occupations included in the study, between what workers think is likely to happen to their current jobs and what ONS researchers predict will happen to those jobs.

In many cases, people vastly underestimated or overestimated the likelihood of their occupation becoming automated. This disparity suggests a significant misconception about which jobs (and which tasks within them) are susceptible to automation, with many employees unaware and potentially unprepared for the changes that may lie ahead in their working lives.

Kitchen and catering assistants, cleaners, and sales and retail assistants – some of the occupations with the largest number of workers in the UK – are among the occupations to be given a ‘probability of automation’ score of over 60% in the ONS report (ie 60% or more of those jobs are at risk from automation). The people working in those roles, however, are more conservative in their estimations – rating the likelihood of their job being replaced by automation as 42%, 17% and 43% respectively.

On the opposite end of the scale, many of the jobs assessed as ‘low risk’ of automation (with a ‘probability of automation’ score of under 30%) in the ONS report, such as nurses (25%), IT directors (25%) and accountants (26%), aren’t necessarily considered so by the people doing those jobs (who rate the likelihood of automation as 32%, 55% and 64% respectively).

The perception gap (between the ONS’ probability of automation vs survey respondents’ opinions on whether their job is at risk from future automation) varies significantly by job type. On average, people working in non-desk-based, more labour-intensive roles are more likely than their desk-based counterparts to underestimate the impact of automation on their occupation in the future (69% compared to 49%). While half of workers in desk-based jobs overestimate the likelihood of their occupation becoming automated.

Similarly, a greater proportion of people working in jobs that pay over £40,000 a year are more likely to overestimate the likelihood of their occupation becoming automated than those earning under £31,285 – the UK’s average median annual salary for full-time employees (76% compared to 29%).

Yet, the majority of occupations with the highest probability of automation, according to ONS analysis, are among the lowest paid. Over 90% of the occupations in CIPHR’s study that have an ONS ‘probability of automation’ score of 50% or more pay under the UK average wage. Most (66%) also have a predominately female workforce.

Occupations most likely to underestimate their risk from automation include:

Occupations most likely to overestimate their risk from automation include:

Occupations with the smallest difference (1% or less) between the two sets of results (CIPHR’s survey and the ONS’ report) include human resource managers and directors (29% of this occupational group think their job is likely to be replaced by technology or machines), IT user support technicians (27%), programmers and software development professionals (27%), restaurant and catering establishment managers and proprietors (38%), and bookkeepers, payroll managers and wages clerks (55%).

Claire Williams, chief people officer at CIPHR, comments: “CIPHR’s job automation study reveals some surprising insights into how people perceive the role of technology and automation in the workplace, particularly when it comes to their own careers.

“Almost every industry has been transformed in some way by technology. And while digitalisation and automation have brought many positive benefits to organisations, such as improved efficiencies and productivity, streamlined processes, and reduced costs and timesaving, there is still much uncertainty about how it will impact people’s jobs in the long term.

“The challenge is to get the right balance of technology and people. Employees need to feel valued, that their roles have been enhanced by technology rather displaced by it. People often underestimate the human skills that they bring to their roles – the many parts of their jobs that can’t easily be replaced by algorithms and AI. The workplace and job roles will continue to evolve with technology, so employers need to consider the best ways to upskill and reskill their existing employees to keep up with these changes – making sure that they have the capacity, skills and capabilities to do their jobs and progress in their careers.”

CIPHR polled a representative sample of 1,031 employed British adults to find out whether they thought their job could become automated in the future (they were also asked to disclose their exact job titles). The results are available at www.ciphr.com/jobs-at-risk-from-automation.

Due to the survey’s sample size, some job titles were underrepresented and therefore too statistically unreliable to include.

More than 600 organisations use CIPHR’s people management platform globally across the public, private and non-profit sectors, with customers including Bunzl UK, Claire’s Accessories UK, Devon Doctors, Early Years Alliance, Fareham College, Haygrove, Met Office, Norton Way Motors, Safestyle UK, Sport England, Thorntons Law, The Royal Society of Medicine, Vision Direct, Volkswagen Group UK, and Willerby. 

For more information, please visit www.ciphr.com.

While there are a variety of strategies available, it’s important to select one that works best for you and your style of trading. Many traders choose to use the breakout and swing trading strategies. These strategies utilize high volume and news sources to determine the next best move for a stock. They usually hold a position until the price reaches a certain target point, then fade their position to a profit by fading the price. You should also keep a close eye on upcoming earnings announcements.

Speculative strategies are based on speculation. Individuals should not engage in these activities unless they are very experienced. Some traders also opt for automated trading systems. These can be programmed to make trades for them. A good plan for automatic trading will specify the entry and exit techniques, risk and reward parameters, and other details. It’s important to remember that the strategies can be difficult to execute without a plan and guidance, but it’s vital for successful trading.

The long call and put options strategies are both speculative. The first involves buying a call option and hoping that the price of the stock will be higher than the strike price. The upside of this strategy is a lot of money. In addition, if the stock price rises, the put option will increase in value. This strategy is a great way to increase profits on stocks.

Position trading is an effective trading strategy that involves holding a position for a long period of time. The goal is to capitalize on long-term trends and ignore price fluctuations. This strategy involves ignoring small changes and waiting for a trend to reverse. However, it does require a lot of experience and skill. Another popular and profitable strategy is scalping. Scalpers look for opportunities in small price movements. They typically use short-term charts, and require discipline.

There are many types of trading strategies, and the best strategy depends on your personal preferences, your risk tolerance, and your personality. For example, if you want to trade for the long-term, you should look into purchasing synthetic puts and selling a put option at the same time. By executing both of these strategies, you can maximize profits and minimize your losses. You can even try out new strategies on demo accounts before investing real money.

If you’re a newcomer to the stock market and are thinking of joining a Platform Broker program, this article will provide you with some basics on choosing the right one for your trading needs. There are a few things you should look for, but they will all benefit your trading experience in one way or another. Make sure to read through the following information carefully to find the right one for your needs. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

A platform that supports equities management provides a comprehensive set of features for managing options, stock options, and municipal securities. It can also support various trading models including RSU liquidity, continuous trading, and block trading. Additionally, it can facilitate end-to-end settlement process management. The benefits of using a platform broker go far beyond making trading decisions. The following are just a few of the many benefits of platform brokers:

The payout time of a platform broker will vary from one company to another. Some offer withdrawals within 24 hours, while others require several days to clear your funds. It is vital to note the withdrawal time for your broker before choosing the one. If it’s more than 24 hours, look for a platform that allows you to withdraw money instantly. Finally, check out whether the Platform Broker offers web browser platforms or apps. If you want to trade using a mobile device, be sure to look for a platform that allows you to withdraw profits via your smartphone.

There are two kinds of trading strategies: swing trading and technical analysis. Depending on your preferences, you can use either one of them. The fundamental type focuses on analyzing the price movement over multiple days. Meanwhile, technical traders use macroeconomic and microeconomic indicators to make their decisions. Lastly, you should be aware of the risk management methods you choose. When you do, you should be able to choose which one works best for you.

There are many different types of trading strategies. If you’re looking for a more profitable strategy, you should learn about swing trading. This strategy involves buying put options and holding them until the price of the stock drops. You can then profit from the downside if the market trend does not match your expectations. You can use a combination of both strategies to make a winning choice. This strategy is not for beginners.

Among the different types of trading strategies, swing trading is the most common. Its focus is on the price movement of a stock. It looks for a breakout from a consolidation. Its key statistic is Relative Strength Rating, which tells you whether a stock has been in a trend for a long time. It also confirms whether institutional investors have bought shares.

A trader should understand that the end of the day profit is dependent on the strategies he or she uses. While some strategies are complex, simple strategies often work well. Developing a strategy is a skill that takes time to master. And remember, success doesn’t happen overnight. You must be disciplined and have a plan. You should develop a strategy for each type of trading you use.

Produced in Association with X Open Hub

Regulators have just as much of an impact on whether or not as firm is able to disrupt an industry, as the innovative products and services of the firm itself, according to new research from emlyon business school.

There are many firms that innovate and have the potential to become disruptive, however the actions of a regulator largely impact on the possibility of the firm disrupting an industry.

Regulators can utilise their powers to block such firms from entering an industry, or can incorporate these firms, by removing, adding or modifying regulation to suit their innovative needs.

These are the findings of research conducted by Nicholas Occhiuto, an Assistant Professor at emlyon business school’s Center for Work, Technology, and Organization.

Professor Occhiuto used the launch of Uber, the disruptive ride-hauling service as a case study into disruptive, innovative firms and the impact regulators have on their launches.

By utilising over 140 interviews and ethnographic observations, the researcher was able to analyse how regulators and lawmakers responded to Uber’s market and non-market strategies, in the highly regulated taxi markets of New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

Through the research, Professor Occhiuto identified the original method regulators and lawmakers utilised – enacting blocking strategies, whereby they took measures to stop Uber from entering and disrupting the industry.

However, following Uber’s entrepreneurial corporate political strategy of becoming ‘too big to ban,’ regulators and lawmakers shifted to an incorporating strategy, whereby they added or modified existing regulations to align with Uber’s practices.

The researchers identify three very specific strategies that regulators used in order to incorporate Uber; horizontal venue shifting – where regulation is shifted to a different regulator; vertical venue shifting – where regulation is shifter to a higher authority; and reinterpreting existing regulations – where existing regulations were altered for Uber.

Professor Occhiuto says,

“Many firms with innovative strategies or products and services look to enter a market incredibly bullishly, launching in a sector or region and loudly making themselves known to customers, competition and regulators too. Often this can ruffle many feathers, and regulators may see this as an opportunity to block said firms. However, my research shows that regulators can also work to enable disruptive firms and adapt regulation to their organizational goals, and make the market disruption a lot easier for the firm.”

The results of the research showcase the hugely important role that regulators and lawmakers have in the launch of innovative firms and whether or not they are able to actually impact and disrupt on an industry once they launch.

For innovative firms looking to launch in a new market, the researchers suggest it is wise for start-ups to pursue a non-market and corporate political strategy that engages with regulators and lawmakers, as opposed to simply focusing on ruffling feathers and disrupting the industry through innovation.

This research was published in the journal, Socio-Economic Review.

Technological overlap increases a firm’s invention performance, whilst product market overlap decreases it, finds new research from the University of Cologne.

The research, conducted by Dr. Christian Schwens, Dr. Matthias Schulz, and Steffen Runge, aimed to find out how technological, geographical, and product market overlaps between a firm and its alliance partner influences the firm’s invention performance, by shaping the learning and competitive tension in a research and development alliance.

The study found that the firm’s invention performance is influenced positively by technological overlap and negatively by product market overlap.

Moreover, the researchers argue that product market overlap negatively moderates the positive relationships between technological and geographical overlaps and the firm’s invention performance.

They found that product market overlap is distinct from the other types of overlap: it changes the focus of the alliance from joint value creation towards private value appropriation.

This way, product market overlap not only decreases a firm’s invention performance, but also weakens the positive impacts of technological and geographical overlaps on a firm’s invention performance.

“Technological overlap tends to foster the firm’s ability to learn, as the firm and its partner increasingly share a common framework, which facilitates interfirm learning and knowledge transfer. Such common framework enables the firm to recognize, assimilate, and apply valuable knowledge from its partner, which increases its absorptive capacity,” says Dr Schwens.

The research was carried out through testing the hypotheses on a dataset of 215 R&D alliances formed by 94 U.S. pharmaceutical firms over 17 years.

It was published in the Wiley Strategic Management Journal.

Cultural differences in communication and dealing with conflict lead to significant challenges in international working environments, finds new research from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

This research conducted by Professors Nadine Thielemann, Regina Göke and Zlatoslava, investigated how complaints are communicated in the workplace.

The study was carried out using an online survey of academic staff at universities in Russia, Poland, Germany, Austria and France.

The research discovered that how criticism is communicated in the workplace is particularly influenced by the balance of power between the people involved. In addition, the gravity of the misconduct plays an important role in the complaint.

The way in which complaints were communicated to team members by supervisors were very solution-oriented. However, differences were observed in the way the proposed solution was presented.

In France, failures are addressed directly and blame is assigned before a solution, whereas in Germany and Austria, this wasn’t of great importance.

The Germans took a more analytical approach, offering support in working towards a solution. In Russia and Poland, the proposed solution was expressed as a call to action.

German test subjects were observed to be the most likely to complain, followed closely by the Austrian, Polish and Russian subjects. In the data on French speakers, just over half opted to avoid conflict.

Where there is no power imbalance, the risk of confrontation is avoided.

“Once employees understand that behavioural strategies that may be different from their own are culture- and language-specific conventions, these behaviours may be less of a source of irritation. These employees are then better prepared for working abroad or in a linguistically and culturally diverse workplace,” says Professor Thielemann.

Thielemann, Nadine; Göke, Regina; Savych, Zlatoslava. 2021. Motzen und Moral. Eine kontrastiv pragmatische Pilotstudie zur Unzufriedenheitskommunikation am universitären Arbeitsplatz (FR – DE – AT – PL – RU). Zeitschrift für Slawistik. 66 (1), 140-173.

By: Yusuf Ozdalga, London Partner, QED Investors

Real estate is one of those unique asset classes that has various forms of appeal to almost everybody. When you get right down to it, real estate appeals to our deepest rooted instincts of shelter, security and community. In an evolutionary sense, it even transcends our mammalian roots and gets deep down into our reptilian brain. 

It is no coincidence that Abraham Harold Maslow (20th century American psychologist famous for framing a hierarchy of needs for psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human desires) put shelter right at the bottom of his pyramid, right above fundamental physiological needs such as breathing, water, food and sex. 

While real estate has such fundamental appeal to humans, real estate investing takes this desire for safety and builds on it with complicated terms like gross yield, net yield, return on investment, and leverage to name just a bit of the jargon that usually goes along with real estate investing. So yes, as we start investing in real estate we transcend the reptilian brain, and start engaging our frontal lobe with cash flow projections and predictions around which country or which city will see rental incomes rise.  

In this context, it is no surprise that real estate is the single biggest asset class in the world. Just to take the UK as an example (otherwise the numbers simply get too big!) UK residential real estate is an asset class of GBP 7.4 trillion. Buy to let investing (where landlords buy property for renting, also knows as BTL) equates to a “small” subset of GBP 1.4 trillion. Just to put this in context, the FTSE all-share index (in effect the value of all publicly traded companies in UK, many of which are international and operate globally) is GBP 2.4 trillion and the value of all loans outstanding to UK SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) is about GBP 0.18 trillion, or 180 billion.

But while real estate is big, and appeals to both our analytic and primal instincts, it is one of the least liquid asset classes out there. One can trade shares on the FTSE in a a matter of milliseconds, exchanging ownership in AstraZeneca with ownership in Unilever in an instant. Business loans can be traded in a matter of hours. However, trading real estate can take months in the UK. So ironically, the biggest asset class is also the one that is least liquid.

This is exactly where GetGround and companies like them operating at the intersection of Fintech and Proptech come into the picture. There is no intrinsic reason why trading real estate should take months – in fact, many of the constraints that slow down this process, which at times can be outright frustrating, can be solved with technology. And this is exactly what GetGround does: Turning the currently slow and arduous process of owning and investing in real estate into one that is smooth, simple, and secure.

At its core, GetGround enables its customers to buy, incorporate, bank, fund, and manage their property with just a few clicks of their mouse. Let’s now examine each of these five steps in more detail, and why each one is so important.

First and foremost, the process of buying property involves tons of documents, legal agreements, searches, negotiations, etc. We will examine what GetGround does in more detail on the buying side in a future blog, but suffice it to say that the process just asks for standardization, and with its technology driven approach GetGround can standardize all these documents giving confidence to all parties that are involved in the transaction. More importantly, as GetGround is positioned in the centre of the ecosystem, there are tons of so called network effects where GetGround can leverage its central position to help its customers buy the right property.

Secondly, and this is one of the platform’s core features, GetGround helps landlords incorporate their property. Many of us take companies for granted as something that has always been part of human life, but as Yuval Noah Harari states so elegantly in his book Sapiens, companies are nothing more than a shared fiction that humans all subscribe to. But while companies may be nothing more than a creation of our collective imagination, they have very real financial benefits in real life. When applied to properties, these benefits include more efficient tax structures, better inheritance planning, more standardized and easily exchangeable ownership structures to name just a few. Hence, GetGround has built a product (including direct API connections to the UK Companies House) that enables their customers to incorporate a company with a few clicks, and put their property into this company, all with automatically generated, customized, and standardized legal documents. 

The third benefit follows logically from the first two: Once a landlord has bought a property and put it inside their newly incorporated company, it only makes sense to open a bank or e-money account dedicated to that company and property for collecting all the rental income into one dedicated place. This makes it very easy for the landlord to track all their rental payments affiliated with one company in one place, which in turn makes things like tax filing and expense tracking much easier.  

Funding the property is then the fourth area where GetGround helps, and it does so by connecting its landlords to all the various banks and lenders that are looking to deploy their balance sheets to fund these properties with specialized BTL mortgages. BTL mortgages are one of the fastest growing segments in the UK mortgage market, and GetGround creates the ideal platform where lenders and landlords can meet. From the landlord’s perspective, they have just acquired a property and they appreciate the introduction to lenders, whereas from the bank’s perspective, the standardized documents and e-money account GetGround provides makes everything more standardized and secure, all accessible in one centralized platform. 

Finally, in terms of managing the property, there are tons of needs ranging from furniture removal to renovation that need to take place, along with financial management needs such as tax filing. GetGround is in an ideal position to either provide these services in an automated manner, or connect its customers to the experts that are needed in each different situation. 

When all is said and done, step by step and click by click, GetGround is digitizing and simplifying the process of owning property, taking us all closer to that utopia where we can buy and sell property in a matter of minutes and hours instead of weeks and months. This is the power of technology and data connectivity applied to one of the oldest and most primal industries known to humans, and it is a real privilege to be part of this epic transformation. 

Overview

Nigeria is not only the largest economy in Africa but one of two large emerging markets where foreign exchange trading is concerned. Nigerian traders who want to trade a wide variety of financial markets while using reputable brokers need not look further than the list given below. 

Tickmill

Features

Tickmill has been operating for more than 6 years and it has built a good reputation for itself as a regulated broker that accepts Nigerian Traders.

Tickmill offers a choice in trusted trading platforms, the lowest spreads, competitive initial deposit, and comprehensive educational materials geared towards beginner traders. 

Pros and Cons

HotForex

Features

HotForex is one of the most popular online brokers in the industry that accepts Nigerian Traders. HotForex offers comprehensive online trading solutions to a range of forex market participants from retail forex traders to institutional traders, account managers, and several others. Hotforex is a CBN related broker in Nigeria. 

HotForex has a proven trading volume because of its dependable services. Traders can expect transparent pricing where exchange rates, spreads, fees, and commissions are concerned. There is also superior customer service offered in several different languages. 

Pros and Cons

AvaTrade

Features

AvaTrade is a popular name in the industry that caters for beginner, advanced, and experienced traders alike. AvaTrade allows Nigerian traders access to retail trading accounts with a low, industry average minimum deposit. 

Pros and Cons

XTB

Features

XTB was established in 2004 and it is one of the largest online brokers that is also listed on a stock exchange. XTB offers Nigeran traders customised trading solutions and a life-long partnership.

XTB offers the trade in several asset classes over a range of financial markets. Each trader has custom solutions despite their trading experience, level of trading, or trading style. 

Pros and Cons

 InstaForex

Features

InstaForex is a regulated broker that has won several industry awards. It is also one of the largest, most prominent, and reputable brokers in the forex industry. Nigerian traders are given access to more than 300 tradable instruments, access to free VPS, a range of trading tools, and educational materials.

InstaForex offers advanced solutions to professional traders while offering beginner traders the tools and resources necessary to succeed in trading. 

Pros and Cons

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Pepperstone

Features

Pepperstone is a large and prominent online broker on the African continent, especially in Nigeria. Despite the market conditions, exchange rates, and other factors, Nigerian traders can expect a plethora of trading opportunities with Pepperstone.

Pepperstone offers access to a range of trading instruments that are spread across asset classes, a choice in retail investor accounts, and optimized solutions for both retail traders as well as professionals. 

Pros and Cons

eToro

Features

eToro is one of the best online brokers in the industry as well as the leading social trading platform. eToro is regulated by multiple entities in offering retail traders a range of tradable financial instruments, powerful trading technology, and a range of ways to invest in financial markets.

Pros and Cons

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Cyrus Gilbert-Rolfe, Managing Director, EMEA & Oceania, EVRYTHNG

According to the CBI Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Europe’s apparel import market was valued at €177.3 billion in 2019 and is growing at an average rate of 5% a year. The market is vibrant, and the region is already home to many of  the world’s biggest and most renowned fashion brands.  The largest markets: Germany, France, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy, comprised nearly 72% of all EU apparel imports in 2019. Imports from developing countries are growing faster than the EU’s overall import rate.

Despite this growth the industry faces significant challenges as consumers demand more transparency from their favourite brands, while those businesses in turn battle IP infringement and counterfeiters eating into their hard-earned brand integrity and income, damaging the brand. Regulatory and consumer demands for sustainability are accelerating the push towards more circularity in the supply chain and huge growth in the secondary market. In response, global apparel brands are recognising the need to adopt innovative strategies to address these demands and recognise one significant way to do this is by bridging the gap between physical and digital channels in a mobile-first world.

The tide is turning

The apparel industry has reached a tipping point where the developments in technology now enable an affordable solution to the challenges of brand protection, traceability, and consumer experience. Leading brands such as Ralph Lauren and Puma have made ground-breaking strides in adopting a Born Digital strategy. Born Digital is based on the ability to give every single item in their range a unique digital identity. This identity, or ‘digital twin’, is activated at the point of manufacture, enabling each product to be tracked, authenticated and interacted with throughout its life.

For brands this results in an unparalleled real-time visibility into operations, better  control of supply chain integrity and the data intelligence needed to operate with more efficiency and agility.  

Opening the door to a new, direct engagement channel

Just as important, these Born Digital products enable brands to reach their consumers in a new and powerful way – creating a direct engagement channel with end customers. By scanning or tapping interactive labels on garments with their smartphones, consumers can access contextualised experiences as well as sustainability and product information. The opportunities to turbocharge revenue growth and cost efficiencies while deepening the connection between consumer and brand are highlighted here:

• Data intelligence at scale

• • • Turning millions of garments into smart, data-generating assets brings  unprecedented visibility and measurability while enabling brands to easily see how the supply chain is performing. Consumers can be better understood by collecting crowdsourced usage and behavioural data which provides unique insights  to inform future product development, on-demand manufacturing and  precision marketing.

• Consumer convenience and information 

• • • Consumers want new and authentic brand experiences while demanding transparency and sustainability. Where did an item come from? What is it made of? How was it made? With Born Digital™ products, brands can deepen consumer engagement by transforming each item into an owned-media channel for 1-to-1 engagement that can deliver brand stories and sustainability information directly to consumers. They can also offer personalised content like styling tips or recommendations, and drive traffic to their ecommerce platform to further boost direct revenues.

• Brand protection

• • • Thanks to these advances in data science brands can protect their brand integrity, reduce illegal production and recapture lost sales. Machine learning and crowdsourced information from end customers is gathered as they  authenticate products themselves using their smartphone. The result is unprecedented data capture across all geographies and products, giving more cost-efficient and wide-ranging detection than any legacy brand protection tools can offer.

• Traceability, transparency and circularity 

• • • Because a Born Digital product’s journey can be tracked across the entire product lifecycle, brands can deliver provenance and product sourcing information directly to consumers and simultaneously comply with industry regulations, such as country of origin laws. Not only that, but the item’s digital identity can carry information about its  composition and fabrics to inform recyclers about what materials went  into making the item. Essential if brands are to deliver true circularity. 

• Increase in operational efficiency and agility 

• • Efficiency and agility in the supply chain depend on having visibility  of what is being produced, where and when. Apparel brands have to contend with fragmented supply chains, often relying on networks of production partners to produce their products. Thanks to the ability to capture data from the point of manufacture onwards, data silos are eradicated by aggregating data from different systems and locations. The resulting visibility of production, supply and quality, can help reduce losses, increase shipping efficiency and preempt issues before they arise. 
• Secondary market opportunities 
  • The resale or rental of preloved products is growing  massively, as demonstrated by Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s new wife, and with this new sustainable behaviour comes a new set of challenges. Perhaps most painfully illustrated by  The RealReal’s recent problems with counterfeit products. It is tough  to manage brand integrity later in the product life cycle and until now,  almost impossible for brands to play a key role after the point of initial  purchase. As Born Digital™products can be tracked and authenticated at any point in their lifecycle, the secondary market becomes better equipped to track products between multiple owners or users. 

It is estimated that the market for counterfeit clothing, textiles, footwear, handbags and watches amounts to a staggering $450 billion. That cost alone highlights to brands that measures need to be taken to address the impact on their IP and bottom line. With 66% of consumers willing to pay for more sustainable goods and the estimation that the Circular Economy will create in excess of €1 trillion in value in Europe by 2025 means that the opportunity for brands to evolve and adopt a Born Digital strategy is a reality. 

As the last 18 months have shown, time does not stand still. Consumers are demanding more and more. Those organisations that hesitate to address their customers’ growing needs and that ignore addressing the complicated demands of their supply chains will be the losers in the great race to a more transparent, traceable, sustainable and engaging future.