September is the start of the final 3-month rush to complete deals this year – it’s the busiest, most frenetic period of the financial year, and often the most dangerous for markets. What potential shockers lie around the corner?

The markets have been casting a wary eye on rising CRE losses – figuring these may trigger a renewed bout of banking weakness, but the reality is the market has to cope with normalised interest rates and changed demand patterns. Its pain but also opportunity.

The figures dominating the news and market flow are Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and Roaring Kitty? Where did it all go wrong? These “players” are overturning all the rules. Can markets survive when the fundamentals around them are undermined to such a dramatic extent?

It’s been an interesting week – book-ended by Israel-Iran conflict. But we’ve seen yet more let-downs in politics, bonds, interest-rates and markets, and perhaps more nails driven into the myth that is Tesla. Sometimes it just takes one waverer to trigger a rout. In the vacuum of markets, no one can hear you scream.

Markets will breathe easy if Israel forgoes retaliation for Iran’s apparently failed drone strike, but Iran remains the fundamental crisis at the heart of the Middle East. Peace and prosperity will remain elusive while Iran plots regional instability.

Markets feel buoyant and happy, and that makes me nervous. What are we missing? How will spot the inevitable shift in sentiment coming? It’s a traders market. Meanwhile, long-term investors are changing the very structure of the market.

Markets thrive on competing perspectives, but trends after the strongest narrative. Rather than pray for early rate cuts to boost prices, maybe we should figure out what would be best for the economy?

Markets have not sold off on renewed Middle East conflict, but the geopolitical faultlines are being reinforced as it become clear this is war the US and Israel are fated never to win.

Don’t underestimate the effects of the natural cycle of the year on markets – the pressure to perform in the face of increasingly uncertain news flow is driven by a sense of opportunities and an awareness of time – which for 2023 are running short.

The City of London’s crown as the centre of global finance sits uneasy. Multiple issues face the City, but perhaps the biggest is mindset and bureaucracy. How can London regain the flair and excitement that once made the City the beating heart of the global economy.