Winston Churchill once said of the British that they are a unique nation as “they are the only people who like to be told how bad things are.” The view of many experts these days is that it is difficult to accurately convey how much worse the financial situation could get for the UK in the coming years.

Our first thoughts after seeing Germany’s early exit from the FIFA world cup was that we place too much reliance on Germany for the strength of the Eurozone and maybe we should exercise more caution when allocating money to Europe. The FIFA World Cup has many positive messages for the global economy and we must not be too quick to focus only on the negatives.

2018 so far has been a difficult year for asset allocators, like Pioneer. Across the industry, returns have been difficult and disappointing in absolute terms. In this review, we will try to explain what is happening.

March 2018 has almost ended and it looks like it will be another red month. Client portfolios will be affected. The title of this article is dedicated to one particular client who frustratingly refers to the way his portfolio drifts up and down as “seaweed”. His frustration is real and his concern valid. You are right I say. The term we professionally use for seaweed movement is volatility. Sometimes the tide is strong and the moves are high and sometimes the tide is low and the moves are shallow. My agreement with the client does not help his concern. However, "there is no such thing as absolute positive returns" I say, so let's evaluate our alternatives. Straight line, low risk or risk free, absolute returns for investments are a myth, a marketing term used to lead investors into believing that they should invest in whatever the salesman is offering. "Ok", says the investor. "If returns over time are low and potential for losses seems so high, why should we bother", he asks? "Let me just put my money in cash and forget about it". Then conversation goes back to financial planning basics.

2017 was a good year for risk assets. Risky asset returns surpassed expectations and our clients enjoyed excellent risk-adjusted returns. Now our sights are on 2018. We hope you find our comments on Bitcoin, USA Tax Reform and research on expecting a crisis informative and relevant.

It has been a year since the Brexit vote. It is counter-intuitive that with the seemingly ever-increasing political uncertainty we have such strong positive market tailwinds. I remember very clearly taking phone calls from nervous investors who feared a repeat of 2008 due to the surprise vote. We recommended staying invested and undeniably, that was the right thing to do. If there is one thing I have learnt over my 17 years in the wealth management industry, it is that when the market is the scariest and the newspapers are using the most sensationalist fearful headlines - it is the time to buy, not sell.