In Search of the Perfect Portfolio
Investors have searched for the perfect portfolio since the beginning of time (well, the markets).
The golden goose of low fees and high yields has been the dream for investors and advisers alike and a common way to try and achieve this has been to predict the markets. However, in reality, this is akin to trying to predict the lottery.
Predicting the markets…should be easy right?
Well humans are so clever that in 270 BC, a chap called Aristarchus worked out the distance from the earth to the moon, just by thinking about it. The Swiss have a supercomputer that does 7.8 quadrillions of mathematical operations per second, a capacity of 7.8 petaflops. Fast indeed, but then IBM’s Summit supercomputer has been clocked at 148.6 petaflops, which suggests a comparison to circa 148 quadrillion mathematical operations. Per second.
Even with our brain power and our computing power markets cannot be predicted, so investors are unwise to confuse luck with skill.
Lastly, if markets could be predicted, they would simply stop: investments with known future values are called cash – if there’s no risk to the capital, why should there be any gain?
Although there is no such thing as a perfect portfolio, there is such a thing as a unique portfolio to suit your needs and no one else's.
And although it’s impossible to predict the markets, there are people who know it just about as well as anyone...and that’s us. You wouldn’t change the plumbing or the electrics in your house on a whim, you’d get a specialist to do it, as it's their job and they are trained to be competent. So why wouldn’t you treat your money in the same way?
Reading newspaper advertorials is not study or research, it’s consuming the output of someone’s marketing department.
Watching all Chelsea’s games won’t qualify you to join the team, yet DIY investors often assume financial competence. This ignores the fact that 24 hours per day, including weekends, the combined brainpower of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citibank, HSBC, Barclays, Credit Suisse, UBS, SocGen etc etc are trying their very best to corner the market. Some people still think they can do better by reading Investors Chronicle and the Saturday Telegraph.
That’s where we come in.
With over 30 years of experience across the financial services industry, we are very experienced and knowledgable. We can’t help you win the lottery, but we can help you plan and invest for a safer and more prosperous future. We don’t believe in the perfect portfolio, but we can produce one that’s perfect for you.