We live in amazing financial times. This is the latest research I want to share with you:
UK’s largest 100 public companies as measured by the FTSE 100 are worth the same now as they were in 1997. My advice: your pension stuck in the last millennium? Probably. Tell your fund manager "you're fired" and learn to take responsibility for your own investing. You do it. No one cares about your money as much as you.
Football teams don't pick players born in the town, so in picking your winning portfolio squad of stocks, make sure they are the best from around the world. Make your hiring process as if your financial life depended on it.
According to Janus, UK savers are losing £38 billion in lost income. Because £1.5 trillion is stored now in cash ISAs and savings and current accounts, equal to the total value of UK residential mortgages, those people are missing out on dividend and investment income and gains potentially.
Bank of America reported these astounding facts:
· S1.4bn : central bank asset purchases every hour since Covid-19 March lockdowns
· S1.6bn: Nasdaq 100 market cap gain every hour since Covid-19 March lockdowns
· 34 days: equity bear market in 2020 shortest ever
· S2000: gold best performing asset class in 2020, first year since 2010
· 39%: annualized return from 30-years US Treasury this year
· 100 years: corporate bonds hit 100-years highs versus commodities Apr’ 20
· 100 years: US stocks almost at 100-year highs versus US government bonds
· 59% US equities as share of MSCI global equity index (ASWI) at all-time high
· 42% Chinese equities as share of Emerging Markets at all-time high
· 21% gain in global stocks (ACWI ex. US) required to match 2007 high
· 25% market cap of FAAMG as % US stocks of US stocks, of US stocks, record concentration
· S9.3tn: market cap of US tech sector > entire market cap of Europe’s stock market
· 24x: trailing PE ratio of S&P500, surpassed only Dec’21 (25x) & Jan’99 (30x)
· 1.7%: dividend yield on S&P500 now same as 5-years break even inflation rate
· 2021: global consensus forecasts for 2021…GDP 5.1% EPS 29.0%...up big
· 2021: global consensus forecasts for 2021…CPI 1.3% bond yield 0.5%...unchanged
· S258tn: size of global debt at record high. 280% of global GDP
· S212tn: value of global bonds & equities, an all-time high 2.3x global GDP
· S14tn: value of global negatively yielding bonds
· 40% Bank of Japan owns 40% of JGB market: Fed owns 14% of Treasury market
I love finance and investing – no two days are the same and the unexpected is always to be expected.
Alpesh Patel
