With markets like this, what's an investment adviser to do?

Investing in financial markets is not for the faint hearted (though the proliferation of ‘volatility targeted' funds represents an effort to change that). The halving of the oil price, for example, welcomed as a ‘tax cut for consumers' by the government, is less positive for the energy sector, to which the FTSE 100 is 15% exposed, and the US high yield market 18% exposed. Buying cheap on bad news is an option, but is not without risk. Yields on ‘risk-free' government bonds, however, are so low one fund manager said of investing in the German Bund "you'd be better off if you locked you...