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Its Not Harry

Comment and opinion for retail investors in the UK

Monday mashup – result?

9th November 2020 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

My reading of on-line news media is that Joe Biden is now President of the USA. Except he isn’t. Not yet anyway.

Stock markets will certainly take the high probability that he will be inaugurated President in January by running a relief rally, probably everywhere in the world. If there are serious shenanigans from the Trump camp, that could reverse quickly.

Having had the very unpleasant experience of battling someone with a severe narcissistic personality disorder in my business life, I can only report that once defeated by an irrefutable act (not evidence, because such people can’t understand any truth apart from one that makes them look good), narcissists move on to something else and just blank the past like an Etch-a Sketch screen.

So I am happy to trust that the media and markets will not find their expectations crushed.

In any case, the Covid-19 pandemic is in my view a more serious threat to investment markets and for investments in the UK and Europe, the actual impact of Brexit on trade systems.

Tactical investors will continue to back investments that are more ‘Covid and Brexit proof’, even if they are already expensive. Global Growth funds with tech, pharma, financial services and on-line consumption biases will likely be the places to make money in the near term. Some over-valued shares will collapse because of changes in consumption patterns and maybe we will see inflation poke its nose out from the cellar where it has been hibernating.

The latter would be bad news for fixed income investments and good news for the gold price. As ever, whatever your view of the future, you can find something with promise and diversify your risk with something defensive or contrarian.

Filed Under: Monthly commentary, Uncategorised

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