Thanks for visiting Market Predict.  We provide Market Sentiment Monitors and unbiased, well researched content on the security, commodity, currency and derivatives markets. Hedge fund and pension fund views and asset allocation strategies are essential components of the publication.

Editor and Publisher

Neil Behrmann has written numerous articles about currencies, bonds, stocks, commodities and hedge funds during the past three decades.  He was the first southern African correspondent of the Wall Street Journal and deputy business editor of the Johannesburg Star. He was then posted to London as European Financial Editor of the Rand Daily Mail, an international award winning anti apartheid publication. In the late seventies, Neil was a London correspondent of Barrons, specialising in commodities and the Eurobond market.

In 1980, Neil became a prolific London-based special correspondent of the Wall Street Journal for more than two decades, concentrating on commodities, futures markets and mining. He also wrote WSJ features on hedge funds, personal finance, property, sports business and travel. Neil is London correspondent of Singapore Business Times, a leading Asian business publication and Infovest21, a respected, independent New York based hedge fund newsletter and information service. He is Editor of Exchange Traded Gold.

Major scoops include the $3 billion Sumitomo copper fraud in 1996; the $900 million collapse of the International Tin Council, the $24 billion South African debt default in the mid eighties and investigation into the lost millions of former Philippines dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, in the early nineties. News breaking features include Barings' Nick Leeson fraud, Kerviel of Societe Generale, who lost around $8 billion, scandals in the diamond market and several major hedge fund frauds.

Neil has been regularly interviewed on BBC television and radio and other stations.

He has also written special articles and syndicated pieces to: Asian Finance, Business Day (SA), Business Report (SA), Daily Telegraph, Financial World, Financial Weekly, Financial Post (now National Post in Canada), Independent, Institutional Investor, Investors Daily, Melbourne Age, Mineweb.com, Neue Zurcher Zeitung,  South China Morning Post, Sydney Morning Herald and The Times. Other publications include Business (UK), Strategy, Sunday Times (SA), Commodities-Now, New Zealand Herald, Paydirt, Ambassador (the UK MBA magazine) and Gold Mining Journal.

Neil was educated in South Africa at Witwatersrand University and the University of South Africa, an open academic institution.  As a journalist he studied part-time receiving Bcom (Hons) First Class, majoring in economics, applied economics, money and banking and investment. That was followed by a Masters degree with a thesis on corporate fixed income securities.

Reviews of Butterfly Battle, Neil's first children's novel, can be seen on www.readmore-books.com.

How Marketpredict.com can help you:

1) Lateral Market Thinker

It combines vertical and lateral market thinking to determine potential future scenarios.  Please click on Lateral Scenarios for latest stories.

2) Strategies

Economic and market views are eclectic. Content is gleaned from knowledgeable participants, including hedge fund managers, who are aware of the flow of funds that determine the demand and supply of securities, currencies and commodities. Market Predict monitors what's really happening in the marketplace and what traders and fund managers are doing and thinking.  We assess the psychological condition of the market by monitoring the mood of traders- whether they are bullish, bearish or neutral. (See Strategies).

3) Content, Speed, Content

The vast majority of web sites are painfully slow. This publication values readers' time and won't be cluttered with advertising banners. Our motto is Content, Speed, Content and editorial policy, freedom of information and markets.  We believe that free markets should be transparent and clean. For a full review of Market Predict's sponsorship policy, see (7) Sponsors below. The rights, privacy and confidentiality of subscribers and information sources are respected. (See Code of conduct. )

4) Copyright & Contributors

Please respect copyright and intellectual property of this publication and contributors.  They include analysts, economists, traders, psychiatrists, journalists and academics. For those who are unsure about the international convention, it is vital that you read (10) Dangers of Flouting International Copyright Law. The article spells out the basics of international copyright law.

The editor is a member of the Association of Lending Rights. The organisation is committed to protect the copyright of its members.

We are happy to negotiate syndication arrangements and sponsorships and you can contact us via joy@marketpredict.com

5) Freedom of Information and Free Clean Transparent Markets

Our editorial policy is freedom of information and markets. We also believe that free markets should be transparent and clean. If we detect alleged manipulation, fraud and corruption, we'll contact the regulators and ask them to comment. We want the markets to expand and for participants to prosper. For this to happen, markets must be transparent and untainted.

Candid, provocative, articles and investigative reporting should be fair, so we endeavour to report both sides of the story and give companies and individuals the right of reply. We aren't preachers and we certainly aren't infallible. The aim is to be impartial and to convey the story accurately and fairly. If we're wrong, if you think we're writing garbage, please let us know. There'll be a correction or amplification, provided your argument is reasonable.

6) Sponsors

Sponsors or advertisers are welcome to post their logos and links to this Site. "Sponsortorials" aim at being informative and newsworthy.  Deals for our fast growing target audience are competitive. Views expressed in "sponsortorials" do not have any influence on the rest of Market Predict. The editorial of Marketpredict is completely independent from any sponsor and advertiser. (see Code of conduct.).  

7) Market Predict provides information and forecasts only.

Market Predict isn't an advisory service and provides information and predictions only. The content is for producers and purchasers of raw materials, merchants, professional financial and commodity dealers, hedge fund managers, Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA's), fund managers, commercial and central bankers, exporters and importers,  shipping companies and brokers, sophisticated traders, economists, analysts, regulators and academics. (See full disclaimer and explanatory notice in "Code of conduct").

Trading in the risky, volatile, commodity, currency and financial futures and options can damage financial health. Derivatives markets are leveraged, requiring a margin, or deposit, that is only a small percentage of the worth of the contract. A small move in volatile markets can thus wipe out the margin. Over the long term only professionals with strict trading disciplines survive and even they incur considerable losses from time to time.

"The past is no guarantee for the future" and "prices can go down as well as up" are clichés for good reason.

Investors with limited capital should thus steer clear of futures and options and other derivatives markets. They should be wary of hedge and managed futures funds, especially if they are untransparent.  Betting shops that offer individuals the opportunity to speculate in the market via "spread bets" can be fun, but they can also diminish wealth.

Investors who wish to enter these markets and risk their capital, won't find sufficient information here. They should seek independent advice from a registered, authorised market member, Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) or other qualified regulated expert. Regulated exchanges and global regulators e.g. UK Financial Services Authority and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, can supply information about firms and individuals.

8) Code of Conduct and Ethics

Market Predict vigorously adheres to the Code of Conduct and ethics of the UK National Union of Journalists  (See NUJ Code of Conduct ) 

The editorial view is unbiased and objective. If there is any hint of a conflict of interest related to individual bonds, stocks or funds, that interest will be disclosed.  Editorial will be completely independent from any sponsor and advertiser.

Outside contributors and columnists may well be market participants.  If so, a disclosure statement will caution that they may or may not have an interest in the market that they are discussing. Their articles will be scrupulously edited to ensure balance. If there is a strong view there may be an independent editorial comment, expressing an alternative opinion.

(See Code of Conduct for further details

9) Dangers of Flouting International Copyright Law

US, Canadian and UK writers' unions and associations are using class actions to protect the copyright of members in print media and on the web.

In a US lawsuit, writers successfully received a class action settlement from Uncover, a US company that sold published articles from publications to corporations and other customers and other corporations. These articles were sold without the prior permission of authors who owned the copyright of their material. Uncover did not pay the authors any fees.

"We applaud the writers who have taken action against Northern Light, Bell & Howell Information & Learning Co and Thompson and are building on the victory won for all writers last fall in the U.S. Appeals Court," said the US National Writers Union, commentating on another action recently.

Meanwhile the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK and the Canadian journalist union have informed their freelance members that they are keen to pursue class actions on their behalf.

Freelance members of the NUJ received a letter informing them of "a new wave of copyright grabs" and are being advised to resist contracts that request that they cede their copyright. The UK Authors Society is issuing similar warnings.

Copyright owned by independent writers, photographers, illustrators, designers and others, is becoming a crucial issue on the web where growing numbers of new publications, businesses and individuals are placing content on their sites without permission. The law covers the intellectual property of the author or other artist, notably any article, book, fiction and non fiction, art, music, plans, procedures, software, or other form of knowledge or entertainment in a fixed form that has, or might have, commercial value.

The basis of international copyright law is that ownership of the article or other intellectual property vests in the author. Some publications claim that there was prior agreement and that copyright belongs to them as soon as articles are published. Such claims are without any foundation if the author is a freelancer and not a full time employee of the publication. Without any written agreement to license the article to the publication, the author owns the material. Anyone, who wants to use it, must request permission from the author.

Authors also retain the moral rights to protect the integrity of a work. In this way they protect their work from changes or uses that distort their original intent.

For those who wish to understand details of the law, visit the US Library of Congress' web site at www.loc.gov and click the Copyright Office icon.

According to the Library of Congress, "copyright is a form of protection given to authors of 'original works of authorship' which include literary works such as books and articles. The owner of the copyright... has the exclusive rights to the reproduction and distribution of the protected work, and can assign or transfer the entire copyright, or subdivide the exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution in the literary work."

"Only the original author of the literary work or those deriving their rights through the author can claim copyright to the work and authorise the reproduction and distribution of the work.

An exception to this rule is the "Works Made For Hire" doctrine, which occurs when a work is created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or when a work is specially ordered or commissioned under an express written Works Made For Hire contract. In such cases, the employer or commissioning party is owner of the Copyright and the exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution contained therein."

"The author can assign or transfer the entire Copyright or the exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution in the literary work to any third party (the "Assignee")", but authors are strongly advised by writers unions and associations from doing this. "An Assignment of Copyright is a full and complete transfer of exclusive rights in the literary work. A Copyright assignment must be in writing. Only then can an Assignee of a Copyright become the copyright holder in the literary work and assume the exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution in the work," states the Library of Congress.

Copyright © Neil Behrmann