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“We have low levels of arrears, strong credit risk management and a low risk balance sheet”- Adam Applegarth, Chairman of Northern Rock (2006). Since the Financial crisis of 2007-09, High Yield bonds (previously known as Junk, but that name reduces their sale ability), have become as popular as a foreign exchange client at Wells Fargo. Credit risk has become less “risky” as Investors have piled into some bonds of dubious quality allowing company’s, who would otherwise struggle to refinance to do so on extremely generous terms. Prices have duly responded, with returns over five times that of Investment Grade and Government equivalents (see below).

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me. ” –William Shakespeare. Suppose you knew of events in advance of their occurrence. You could make money on this knowledge. Seems obviously true, but it isn’t; even perfect foresight doesn’t necessarily ensure a profitable investment- in many cases one would have lost money.

Records galore in Equities as Bloomberg reports, prices melt up, whilst volatility collapses. We are now in the second longest period without a 3% peak-to-trough draw-down, as (some) investors continue to take positives from almost all news. As we spoke about last week however, not all are feeling the love, as Professionals continue to look to sell/short markets, warning investors of crisis to come. They will be right eventually of course (as is a broken clock), so it may be time to examine risk tolerances in preparation for a correction (that may not occur, if at all, for a while). After all, forewarned is forearmed…

“Dear Optimist, Pessimist, and Realist. While you guys were busy arguing over the glass of water, I drank it. Sincerely, the Opportunist.”- Unknown

The grotesque juxtaposition of the deadliest mass shooting in US history and another 150 point surge in the Dow, following on from the seeming indifference to the prospect of nuclear war in the Korean peninsula has prompted me to wonder if capitalism (or at least it’s current version) is in any way moral. It is often said that capital itself is amoral-it merely goes to where it is treated best, but participants can (or should) be. The excesses of executive pay of recent years and the Equifax stock sales by Executives prior to the disclosure of a major data leak, however, suggests otherwise. It is of course the case that without capitalism, we would all be living i…

It is becoming a bit of chore to keep up with the doom-laden predictions emanating from the twitter-sphere about the fate of markets, (though I am doing my best). The causes are variously, low volatility, passive investors, Central Bankers or market valuations or a combination thereof. The latest panic-du-jour concerns “market breadth”, which measures the number of shares advancing compared to those declining; the theory is that if too few shares are rising relative to those falling, the market is due for a tumble. On the face of it, it seems intuitive, but the problem with using market breadth to foretell market moves is that it is hugely unreliable; consider these two articles (from the same source), dated December 2015 and

Evolution consists of two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification- Ernst Mayr (Evolutionary Biologist).

‘Please, sir, I want some more.’- Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens) That we are living in a low return world is now so widely accepted as to be bordering on a cliche- but HOW low will long term returns likely be? With the caveat that no one really knows, it is possible to come up with a reasonable set of assumptions that can provide us with a range of potential outcomes. We looked at this issue around a year ago, so now might be a good idea to revisit the prospects from a slightly different angle, as there are many ways to arrive at a conclusion, some of which will be similar.