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“Should you be over or underweight the US equity market?” is surely one of the most asked asset allocation questions of the past 5-10 years. Over the 10 years to June end in US dollar terms, the US equity market outperformed the UK, Europe and Japan markets by 255%, 202% and 194%, respectively. There are good reasons for this outperformance. Most recently of course, the technology giants that dominate the US equity index were the chief beneficiaries from lockdowns as we all became dependent on, and some maybe addicted to, their services. However, it really has been a trend since the financial crisis that US companies have delivered sustained stronger earnings growth and better profitability than their developed market peers.

Having been in consistent print since its first publication in 1949, Benjamin Graham’s ‘Intelligent Investor’ has, along with ‘Security Analysis’, provided the philosophical foundation to thousands of successful investment practitioners over the decades. However, as Mark Twain said, “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read, and nobody wants to read”.

As a casual football fan and long-suffering supporter of the English national team, there was only ever one topic I could write about today. No, not the merits of the latest ECB strategy review (perhaps one for another time) but instead last night’s dramatic European Championship Final between Italy and England. Given this was the first time the England men’s team has reached a final for 55 years, it’s been a pretty memorable tournament, despite them falling short at the final hurdle. Since their last footballing success, we’ve seen nine US bear markets, ten UK Prime Ministers and both multi-century highs and lows for US 10 year government bond yields. In that context, the prospect of victory at a major tournament looks like somewhat of a Black Swan event.

“Past performance is not indicative of future results” is a regulatory risk warning on most investment oriented material that everyone knows but not many people seem to actually implement into their decision making. A Fund Managers performance can dictate whether they become a hero or villain in the eyes of the public and the press. This then influences investment flows and ultimately determines whether the fund thrives or is liquidated.