THE BLOG

Missing the best days in the market

Timing markets is hard work. The temptation to avoid falls is strong when we look at the relatively recent examples of the COVID crash (March 2020), the global financial crisis (2007-08) and the dot com boom (2000-02). On the flipside, in this blog we look at the huge impact of missing the best investing days on longer term outcomes.

The error of reacting to market falls

This blog shows that in any year both equity and bond markets fall from their intra-year highs, sometimes materially. But to react to this information, either by trying to time movements or simply reacting to these falls, risks missing out on the returns that markets deliver.

Got ‘Enough’ to Retire?

In this short film we explain 5 key steps to take to prepare for retirement & achieve Retirement rule No 1, which is: ‘Don’t run out of money!’

Value – worth waiting for

We explain how the tilt to value stocks, as found in our portfolios, has performed relatively strongly over the past two years, rewarding the patience and discipline of investors for holding this risk factor.

Expected outcomes

This short blog focuses on the topic of expected returns, the due care that should come with interpreting them, and help with understanding their role in the financial planning process

In defence of democracies, markets and the media

It is sometimes easy to miss the positive aspects of the society we live in due to the noise of day-to-day events.

Our latest blog is a reminder that at least we live in a society where we are free to express our views, where markets work and the media – however annoying it can sometimes be – helps to hold our politicians’ feet to the fire.

Thinking sensibly about bonds

This blog takes a quick look at some of the sensible reasons for owning bonds and thinking about this year’s rise in yields in the context of liability matching.

Absolute return funds? Absolutely not!

This blog takes a quick look at how these funds consistently fail to live up to their marketing promises of delivering positive returns over a specific investment horizon.

Nothing to see here: Survivorship bias

In this blog we demonstrate that around 40% of multi-asset funds available to UK investors didn’t survive the past decade. Surviving an investment horizon – whilst delivering strong results – is no mean feat, and our successful fund selection reflects the robust ongoing governance process our Investment Committee adopts.