Flash crash, unicorns and the Gnomes of Zurich: Max King's A-Z of 2015

Max King, multi-asset portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management, explores the highs and lows of financial markets and business in 2015.

Apple A customer downloads an app from Apple every millisecond. The firm sells 1,000 iPhones, iPads or Macs every couple of minutes. It whips through its inventories in four days and launches a new product every four weeks. Manic trading by computers and speculators means the average Apple share changes hands every five months. Banks  In the late 1980s, there were over 20,000 bank branches in the UK. After 2,000 closures in the last five years, there are now fewer than 10,000. McKinsey forecast that another 2,400 will close in the next five years. With cheque payments declining by ov...