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What should you do when pundits predict a crash?
By ROBIN POWELL I keep seeing warnings that stocks are about to crash. Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson recently likened investors buying into the Q1 rally to climbers scaling Mount Everest without considering the risks. Two people who famously called the sub-prime mortgage crisis — the Lehman Brothers trader-turned-author Larry McDonald and Michael...
Situation vacant : A Sir Humphrey for funds
This is a guest post by the True and Fair Campaign. SITUATION VACANT for Chief Executive of the Investment Association (IA) Sir Humphrey Now that Daniel Godfrey has been pushed out of the Investment Association for apparently having the nerve to...
Has your fund manager agreed to put your interests first?
It’s now six months since the Investment Association — the trade body for the UK fund industry — drew up a Statement of Principles for every fund manager. IA members, of which there are more than 200, were asked to make a...
Wanted: New head of UK fund industry, preferably without principles
It will doubtless barely register on the Richter scale for most investors, but this has been a seismic week for the UK fund industry. First, two of the country’s biggest asset managers, Schroders and M&G, announced they were leaving the Investment Association,...
Confessions of a jaded hedge fund manager
There can’t be many hedge fund managers who’d want me on their Christmas card list. I’ve said far too much about that ignoble profession to be on friendly terms with any of them. I can though see myself sitting down to a...
Dimensional Week: Small changes make a big difference
I heard an inspiring interview on the radio the other day with sports journalist Matthew Syed. He’s just written a book called Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success, about the theory of marginal gains. Briefly, the theory is that small...
Dimensional Week: Painstaking attention to detail
One of the most frustrating aspects of the active fund industry is its habit of making bold claims while offering no supporting evidence. Even more frustrating is the willingness of the financial media to keep publishing them. Attention to detail. Occasionally such...
