Financial markets are driven long term by the path of global growth and global inflation so on a macro level, writes John Husselbee, the first step involves simply trying to work out if things are getting better or worse
Broadly speaking, 2018 was the opposite to 2017 - during which equity markets appeared to be in an ongoing race to post fresh highs month after month - and proved a challenging period for investors. Most asset classes posted negative returns over the last year, after a decade largely in the black, and we saw a rare case of fear and greed joining forces to drive markets. One or the other is typically in the ascendancy, creating a cycle as the mood shifts between them but, while the US saw plenty of greed in 2018 - at least until October - fear stalked the rest of the world. So given th...
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