We believe that deciding whether to be invested in shares or bonds or property is what mainly decides if you make a good return on your money. Big Picture investing is what matters. Once you have decided where to put your money, then keep it simple and buy indexed funds to cut your costs and your risks.
We think you need to consider the asset allocation continuously. We do not recommend too many changes and do not trade. We do, however, recognise that crises can blow up quickly and opportunities come along equally speedily. We watch market conditions carefully, and evaluate the values of different assets regularly. For discretionary clients we make the necessary changes as conditions and values alter.
We favour a cautious, straightforward approach. We are not running a hedge fund with gearing, high fees and big positions. We are not simply placing a big bet on Asia or some other preferred asset class. We are in the business of managing your risks and seeking to get you a sensible return with the least possible risk. Our largest holdings are currently in corporate bonds. In 2008 they were in cash.
That’s why we watch the news from around the world and try to make investment sense of it. In the pages that follow you can see how our thinking has developed across the Credit Crunch and the Sovereign debt crisis. There are twice weekly commentaries, reactions to events, and forecasts. We leave them up as we wrote them so you can see for yourself how we have got on, and what we think might happen next.
