Perspectives
Man with a Hammer Syndrome
February, 2018
To the man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. This essentially means that people are biased to use the tools they possess to solve problems, regardless of whether such tools are appropriate for the problem at hand. For most analysts working in finance, the “hammer” is forecasting and the “nail” is uncertainty. […]
The Risks of Overpaying
January, 2018
We have written many times about the ‘comfort blanket’ that diversification provides investors by lulling them into a sense of false security. Holding more assets in itself does not necessarily reduce risk. The plethora of asset classes that can be used to diversify an investor’s portfolio range from government bonds, corporate debt and commodities to […]
Growth Spurts
January, 2018
The respected British economist Gavyn Davies has recently been noting that global growth may be significantly stronger than thought. Economic “nowcasts” attempting to take the real-time “temperature” of the economy point to global growth edging 5%. Moreover, this resurgence is broad-based and synchronous with all four corners of the globe contributing to growth. In another […]
What’s all the fuss about?
January, 2018
I have received numerous questions over the past few weeks and months regarding Bitcoin: a cryptocurrency that rose in value almost exponentially during 2017. These questions have generally been from friends and clients that do not have an in-depth knowledge of investment markets and have become curious about an investment that has become a household […]
Why we do not forecast
January, 2018
Happy New Year! Last year was another good year for UK investors, with most growth assets rising in value again in 2017. In this environment, we are pleased that all Tacit strategies provided positive absolute and ‘real’ returns in 2017 driven by our focus on long term valuations. At Tacit, we do not construct our […]
Still Expanding
December, 2017
We hold our regular quarterly investment conference next week and in preparation we have been reviewing the data coming out of the key world economic sources. It is very striking that the world economy is still very much in expansion mode with global growth set to accelerate into 2018. The aggregate global PMI, the economy […]
Do not chase the market
December, 2017
With equity markets near all-time highs we find it fascinating that everybody wants to embrace risk. This is primarily due to the concern of missing out on returns as investors worry that they will not meet their objective if they are not benefitting from good times in equity markets. This is true: it is […]
Facing Facts about Britain’s Budget
November, 2017
George Orwell once wrote that the best way to tackle a problem was to get up in the morning and simply “Face it.” Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, clearly took a page out of Orwell’s playbook this week delivering a budget that looked squarely at the facts of Britain’s diminished economic standing; presenting […]
Rational exuberance?
November, 2017
Warren Buffett has become famous for his long term views on investment and focus on a few key investment principles. Some of his quotes are very pertinent in the current environment as investors are beginning to show signs of acting irrationally: “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy […]
End of an Era
November, 2017
Last week Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, brought the curtain down on the decade long policy of ultra-easy interest rate policy. The 0.25% increase in UK base rate was the first increase since the Global Financial crisis sent interest rates to historic lows across the developed world and introduced the public to […]