Finance

Remember day trading, the fad for retail investors trying to emulate the hotshots of Wall Street from their spare bedrooms, and losing much of their money in the process? It is back with a vengeance, this time driven by a range of ‘disruptor’ apps which seek to lure risk-hungry traders by eliminating the cost of buying and selling assets. This time, the bets are even bigger. Controversially, some apps offer traders the chance to ‘leverage’ their bets: that is to borrow money to increase their gains. Or losses. The story of canny investors looking to outsmart the system — and the charismatic ‘experts’ that lead them — is as old

With four cats and two children to feed, I’m not very Fire. But then I am not sure I want to be. ‘Fire’ is the ‘Financial independence, retire early’ movement that has proved popular among burnt-out millennials wanting to quit the corporate rat race.  It began in America with a 1992 book, Your Money or Your Life, which advised followers to live frugally and simply in order to achieve financial independence. One of its biggest proponents is a man dubbed Mr Money Moustache, who describes himself to his 112,000 Twitter followers as a ‘thirtysomething retiree who now writes about how we can all lead a frugal yet badass life of