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The midweek trading update:

The FTSE 100 reversed earlier losses to add 0.3% on Wednesday, led by miners as copper prices increased after China launched a series of new stimulus measures.?

Shares of Rio Tinto rose more than 2% and those of Glencore advanced over 1%. In addition, Lloyds Banking Group bounced back 2% after the lender reported slightly higher-than-expected Q3 profit and maintained its guidance for full-year performance.

On the other hand, consumer goods Reckitt lost over 3% after reporting worse-than-expected Q3 sales.

Contrary to the small rise in the UK’s main index, the FTSE 250 was down close to 1%, having lost more than 10% since the start of the year.

Lloyds once again proved that this is not a bad climate for banks. The UK’s biggest lender reported a big rise in profits with better than expected third-quarter profits.

The UK’s largest high-street lender said on Wednesday that statutory profit before tax was ￡1.9bn in the third quarter, slightly above analysts’ expectations of ￡1.8bn. Revenues rose to ￡4.5bn, just below market expectations of ￡4.6bn. Comparable quarterly profit for 2022 was restated lower after accounting regulation changes.

Another big story in the UK yesterday was that there was a sharp rally on the stock market debut of the latest AI company to list in London.

Cykel AI – a natural language processing specialist – raised gross proceeds of ￡1.75 million when it went public on the Aquis Exchange in the City this morning with a market value of ￡6.2 million.

Its shares were up 200% on day one, taking its market cap to around ￡20 million, in a sign of the demand from investors for firms that can help businesses use the latest tech, including machine learning,?to handle back-office tasks from filling in spreadsheets to booking meeting rooms.

The decision by Rishi Sunak to scrap the banker bonus cap is certainly a bold one, but it is also the right one. We’ve said it before, as many people misunderstand how smothering it is for London as a banking hub.

Capping bonuses leads to higher fixed pay. This doesn’t help anyone. In a business that is driven by rewarding success, higher pay and smaller bonuses will never bring in the talent needed for the city to thrive.

While this is a difficult sell to the general public, banking and finance is one of the country’s most important services industries. It creates and supports high-paid jobs, attracts investment into the country, and raises a significant amount of revenue for the Treasury to spend on essential public services.

Moreover, it provides the necessary capital and expertise to help both large and small businesses all over the country. As such, it is right that politicians support the City rather than penalise it in order to score political points.

Wall Street?grappling with a batch of corporate earnings sent?stocks?lower on Wednesday amid heightened?Treasury?volatility, with traders also keeping an eye on the latest geopolitical developments.

The?S&P 500?dropped 1%. The?Nasdaq 100?underperformed as Google’s parent?Alphabet’s disappointing cloud figures outweighed?Microsoft’s sales. A gauge of?chipmakers?slid 2% on?Texas Instruments’s bearish forecasts. Longer-dated US yields outpaced those in shorter-maturity bonds — a process known as?“bear steepening.”?

Traders are looking for evidence on how companies are coping with high interest rates and whether consumer spending is changing because of inflation. Facebook parent?Meta Platforms reported results, with?Amazons results due Thursday.

Earnings season always brings big moves. Wednesday we saw?a 4% move higher in Microsoft adding around $100 billion in market value, which equates to more than four Tescos or nearly 20 Marks & Spencers.

Alphabet, Google’s parent, is moving even more. Its drop of more than 9% is seeing more than $170 billion in market value wiped off -- that’s more than two Diageos, the world’s biggest spirits maker, or nearly seven Vodafones.

So, in total, that’s about $270 billion in market value, which would translate to more than 10% of the entire FTSE 100.

No matter how important the UK may feel it is in the financial world, it is the US who holds the cards (and the wallets). Where they go, we go.

Aside from equities, Treasury yields?retraced about half of their declines from multiyear highs reached earlier in the week amid expectations that auction size increases will be announced next week.

The selloff, reinforced by stronger-than-expected September?new home sales data, pushed the yield on $52 billion of five-year notes being sold in an auction at 1 p.m. New York time to about 4.87%, about 5 basis points higher on the day.

Oil?rose after a?news report?that Israel agreed to delay the ground invasion of Gaza to protect US troops, but is still a long way of it’s highs last week.

Leader Board - Top Trading Strategy?

Today will bring another salvo of earnings with the season now fully underway.

In London, we’ll have numbers from consumer goods giant Unilever, lender Standard Chartered, advertising group WPP and more.

For Europe, there will be oil major TotalEnergies for a first glimpse into that sector, meal-kit delivery firm HelloFresh, luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz and water and yoghurts group Danone.

Closing Comments:

An absolutely dismal week last week for global equities. One where wealth managers, asset managers and 95% of investors would have taken large losses. This week seems to have calmed a little, but it's still early.

We've witnessed an interesting evolution on the TPP portfolios over the few weeks. Recently?we have noticed numerous occasions of 'buying the dip'?but last week-?many of?these BUY trades were phased out.

Some short hedges were entered early last week, and many of our strategies profited handsomely.

Although we hope for peace in Israel and surrounding areas, it does seem that many of our strategies were?taking a position which reflects the uncertainty.

This week though has witnessed something a little different.?Many of the 'short sell' trades have been covered and profits taken. This volatility really is creating opportunities at the moment.

The current situation in this region is horrible to watch, but our traders are tasked with beating markets and managing risks, and if this bias assists with that- our clients will be happy.

We hope that by building products like TPP that investors will see there are investment solutions out there that can perform regardless of the investment climate.

Why merely track a market, when?opportunities can be taken advantage of in the short and mid term?

Adding small short SELL positions?as the markets fall?is one of many ways our strategies make modifications to?consistently beat the markets.

If you're frustrated with what many?believe is a stale and outdated wealth management model- then consider arranging a call with our team.

We are also of the opinion that the industry needs revamped, and that wealth and asset managers have no excuses for failing to beat their benchmarks most years.

Investors want more than 4, 5, or?6% per annum, without taking on excessive risk.

Investors are frustrated with the poor performance and excessive fees.

This is is the very reason why we built TPP.

TPP has been built for frustrated investors globally. It's time to empower yourself, and start to beat your benchmark. At TPP we offer a multitude of different strategies and trading techniques- they all have one thing in common.?They are all designed to beat their market benchmark.?Their track records suggest they will do exactly that.? It's time for change.?No more exposure to underperforming?funds, and their inflated fees.

TPP has been built to disrupt the market place and offer investors the solution they've been craving. Welcome to the future of investing.???