- With markets having a wobble, 3 of the 10 portfolios are slightly behind the MSCI World index.
- Vietnam, private equity and Asia trusts that have low exposure to China are all themes this month.
The new and concerning Sars-Cov-2 variant, Omicron, combined with hawkish comments from the United States Federal Reserve has rattled markets. Key trends, which had looked a bit shaky anyway, have reversed.
Sharp changes in market sentiment are always a challenge for strategies that pay heed to momentum, such as the Alpha screening strategy. That’s because the main danger with buying strongly performing shares is that they can suddenly be judged to have gone too far. Jubilation quickly turns to desperation as sellers rush for the doors. It feels like some of that may be happening in markets now. Many of the highest flying and most speculative lockdown favourites have seen savage falls from their peaks.