Julian Howard: The rise of the 'megatrend'

Outperforming any index over a sustained period of time is notoriously hard - particularly when it involves equities, where the number of market participants is high and volumes are enormous. The New York Stock Exchange alone sees an average daily trading value of around $169bn (£135bn). This level of market participation and liquidity has made the US - and therefore, to an extent, global - equities notoriously tough for active managers to beat. The numbers bear this out: the MSCI AC World index in US dollars has returned 38.5% over the five years to the end of June 2019, while the Lippe...