
Why nobody likes diversification
I work as an investment manager, and a few years ago I had a boss called James (not his real name). His job was mainly

The market is crashing, what should I do?
So this is it. It’s times like these which separate the successful investors from the mediocre. The decisions you make now will be some of

International diversification: The evidence – Part 3
If you cast your mind back to this post (Against International Diversification), we saw some legitimate, evidence-based reasons which might support not diversifying internationally. Specifically,

Return expectations – 2020 edition
How much can a UK-based investor expect to make on their investments over the next 10 years? To help answer the question, I’ve collated 10-year

International diversification: The evidence – Part 2
In the previous post we saw that international diversification: Helps ensure one country’s drawdowns don’t affect your overall portfolio’s returns too much, Reduces risk through

International diversification: The evidence – Part 1
We owe a lot to the ancient Greeks. They laid the groundwork for a huge swathe of today’s society, including democratic government, philosophy, theatre, architecture,

Against international diversification
Given that I’m writing this the day after the UK left the European Union, a post on the perils of investing overseas seems appropriate. What

How diversified is the FTSE 100?
I recently attended a small presentation given by the CIO of one of Oxbridge’s college endowments. He was a typical economist – articulate and confident

Why is diversification so important?
GT Advanced Technologies was a sure thing. It was supposed to be the primary supplier of sapphire glass to Apple, which was going to be

What is diversification and why do I need it?
Reasons for why we need to diversify can be found in the most unlikely of places. The Battle of Stalingrad, with an anecdote courtesy of

Should I invest all at once, or drip feed?
Most of us at some point during our lives are faced with the decision of how to invest a cash lump sum. We can end

Problems with the “X best days” argument
If you’ve ever asked your investment manager about whether you should stay in cash or get invested, you’ll likely have been presented with some variation

Cash cocaine
Holding cash can be incredibly addictive. It’s safe and understandable, whereas the markets are volatile and unknown. On paper we know that markets rise on

What if I invest right before a market crash?
It’s one of the most worrying things that goes through your head before investing. As you start to think about putting your cash in the

The market looks expensive. Should I wait for a selloff before investing?
“The market looks too expensive at the moment. I think it’s due a correction, so I’m just going to wait for a bit of a