Synopsis
The Guide to Investment Strategy is in two parts with twelve chapters and has four appendices:
The big picture
Setting the scene, including might I have been suckered by Madoff?
Understanding your behaviour, including, why do we rely on lazy shortcuts, often buy generous amounts of both insurance and lottery tickets and at other times play double-or-quits to try to get out of investment trouble?
Market investment returns, including, who can investors trust to provide safe investments and who is sovereign in the Eurozone?
How should and how do investor strategies evolve? Including, how have investors changed strategy since the financial crisis?
The time horizon and the shape of strategy: keep-it-simple, including, are government bonds and some equities all that investors need?
Implementing more complicated strategies
Setting the scene, including, should I expect a premium return just because my investment is illiquid?
Equities, including, are high returning equity strategies just a reward for taking more risk and who should hedge currency risk in international equities?
Credit, including do changes in credit spreads echo stock market volatility rather than bankruptcy risk and why don’t investors earn the yields promised when they buy corporate bonds?
Hedge funds, including when will investors routinely get decent hedge fund risk statistics?
Private equity, including are excessive fees strangling the goose that laid the golden eggs?
Real estate, including should I buy REITs on Wall Street or bricks and mortar on Main Street?
Art and investments of passion, including how the Federal Reserve and the internet have boosted prices of fine art and classic cars; the dividend or “psychic” return from enjoying investments of passion, and the emergence of China as the world’s biggest art market.
Appendices
Glossary
Essential management information for investors – make sure you can see at a glance what you have
Trusting your adviser – your most important investment decision
Sources and Recommended reading.