Every Monday morning, myself and one of the other traders on my desk pick a stock we feel is going to be a stand out performer over the week ahead. Come Friday lunch time, whoever’s stock is the worst performer for the week buys lunch.

This week my colleague went with Randgold Resources – what seemed like a smart choice at the time. Investors will jump into safe havens at times of uncertainty, which seems to be prevalent at the moment. I went with a riskier choice, Anglo American (best performer on the UK 100 since). I’ll tell my clients and colleagues that it was down to judgement and my amazing market knowledge, but luck probably played a part. Regardless, I’m eating a free pizza today.

Which brings me nicely on to my next subject.

As concerns seem to have dispelled and the dust settles on a historic US presidential election, the next major political hurdle the markets will look ahead to is the Italian referendum. On the December 4 the Italians will vote on constitutional changes that will give the Italian Prime minister Matteo Renzi the power to pass reforms he claims Italy desperately needs.

It has been said that the Italians could pose the biggest threat yet to the survival of the Euro, as well as the European Union. The country has the second highest debt of all Eurozone constituents, which begs the question – if they default, are they too big to rescue?  Investors should keep the Greek crisis in the back of their minds and the market volatility it created as we draw closer to yet another historic vote that could be a deciding factor for the fate of the EU. As the US election drew closer it felt eerily similar to the Brexit vote. Might the Italian referendum be the third such surprise this year?

That’s probably enough about uncertainty and the collapse of the Europe for now. It’s nearly Christmas after all.

We have recently published a report looking at the Santa Rally period. The last month and a half of the year is notoriously very good for equity markets.

With investors constantly looking for a sure thing, is this the closest to one that we can get?

As the holiday season comes families will find themselves at home in front of the TV, watching the John Lewis Christmas advert on repeat and binge watching episodes of Celebrity-love-factor-island. Therefore it comes as no surprise that over the last 22 years Sky Plc has an average Santa-rally performance of +4.8%.

As Christmas approaches and shoppers flood the supermarkets to buy stocking their fillers, it should also be noted that Unilever has rallied in 20 of the last 22 years with an average performance of +4.4% over the same period.

These stocks have historically been two of the best UK 100 performers during the Santa Rally, however, with the year of surprises we have had so far, it may be that this year could be one of those rare exception. In order for you to stay up to date with the latest share price developments of these two in the run up to Christmas, seeing if they once again repeat their formidable year-end performance, take a trial of our research by signing up here.

We’re here to make sure you are informed in-time and on-time, not some time, so you can make the best possible trades.

Enjoy your weekend.

Pearse Carson, Trader, 25 November