David Coombs: Don't let 10% letters blow you off course

‘In the know’

clock • 3 min read

2018 was a brutal year filled with some ups and a whole lot of downs, writes David Coombs, but as he looks to the year ahead he can still find some reasons to be hopeful

Many of us will feel a bit fatigued after 2018. Most asset classes fell to varying degrees and we saw the painful return of volatility. Sterling investors also had the added uncertainty of a currency buffeted by world opinion on the likely outcome of Brexit. Discussing this in the office recently, I made the point that actually 2018 was pretty unremarkable compared with the period from March 2000 until the end of 2002. Those three years were the most difficult of my career. Equity markets ground lower day after day, week after week and month after month. Towards the end I was seriously w...

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