In February of this year, I wrote to you to give my take on what was happening in the markets around the world. I am writing to you again today to tell you that I am still firmly standing by my statements I made at that time. I want to update you and hopefully promote calm and patience amongst all of my clients.

The problems that started a downturn last November still exist, the war in Ukraine that began at the beginning of the year still rages on, inflation and interest rates have increased and that new kid on the block the Mini Budget has caused enhanced volatility in the last week or so. Historically these issues have a relatively short-term effect on the markets. The short-term could be another 6 months or more but this is not a crash, it’s a slow downturn with a lot of volatility and uncertainty. During the Covid downturn in 2020 the FTSE Mid 250 fell to around 12,000 points, today it stands at over 17,0000 points. The world’s strongest market is the FTSE100, as lots of companies in the 100 trade in dollars so the low pound does have some benefits. Also, there are a number of Gas, Oil producers, Banking and Tobacco companies in the Index whose share prices are doing well and paying good dividends, these of course are not the type of companies that ethical clients would be interested in.

So why am I not at all worried? Markets will bounce back at some point I’m certain of that, I just do not know when. I, like all of my clients, am a long-term investor and we will all be holding monies in our investments until the day we die and then our beneficiaries will take charge of them. The longest Bull Run in the markets in my lifetime was between 1974 and 1987 when share prices went up and up like an express train. During that same period, we had interest rates as high as 17.5%, inflation hit a high of over 26%, we had at least 2 recessions, 3 million people were unemployed and we had a war that we were actively involved in, a much worse situation than we face today but markets shrugged them off and lived with the problems.

My advice is as always, continue investing regularly if you are in an investment that you pay into monthly, if you have more monies to invest do it, as in both these cases you will eventually see great value. Don’t even think about disinvesting, if you do you will suffer a real loss and then suffer regrets when the market turns around again.

I am always available to talk by phone, Video call or email and please, if you have any concerns or questions, do not hesitate to call me.