Justin Urquhart Stewart: Why cash is not king

clock • 3 min read

Far from being 'king', argues Justin Urquhart Stewart, cash is an expensive luxury for long-term investors - indeed, most would be better off holding as little as possible and buying equities instead

The Yahoo! Finance headline just after Christmas was unequivocal: "The sexiest investment for 2019: Cash." This far into the year, that article could hardly have been more incorrect. Year to date, global equities have gained more than 16%, while cash has made hardly anything. Not so sexy now, Yahoo! Nevertheless, the piece was expressing a widely held view. When times are tough and markets have been falling, as they were in the final quarter of 2018, many investors run to cash. Cash feels rational. Cash feels prudent. Cash is king, right? You can sit and wait out the storm in cash until ...

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