Category: IC Insights
Quarter 4 2021 Investment Review…
Market Review We entered the last quarter of 2021 with significant ongoing COVID uncertainty, rising inflation and with policymakers considering their hand, on interest rates. We finished it with slightly less COVID uncertainty, still high inflation levels and more restrictive policy with a tick up in interest rates. Importantly, markets…
DB Wood Team
7th January, 2022
November Performance Review & Omicron Update…
November was progressing very nicely until Omicron turned up the heat in the last week of the month. The deluge of media coverage that has followed has concerned investors, and there has been some market volatility as a result. Our portfolio’s hit all-time highs in mid-November, though they have since…
DB Wood Team
3rd December, 2021
As famous investor Chuck Prince once said “as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance”. For the last decade and a bit, the music has been the sound of money coming into the system to support economies in one form or another. The tune…
Alex Chappell
12th November, 2021
Could the UK fall back into recession next year?…
Rising prices, record job vacancies (apparent full employment) and upcoming tax rises… not really an ideal set of economic circumstances heading into 2022! Consequently, many commentators are suggesting we may not be far away from a second recession in three years. Yet the Bank of England continue to talk up…
Alex Chappell
15th October, 2021
Quarter 3 2021 Investment Review
2021 bucked the usual trend of a quieter summer period for investors. Coming into July the market narrative was centred on a strong economic recovery potentially leading to inflationary pressure. Whilst it seems ironic especially given this week’s supply and demand issues around petrol and household energy prices, the risk…
DB Wood Team
1st October, 2021
This is turning into a positive quarter for most investment markets. In honesty, whilst there are several variables at play that could change the dynamics (and our returns), the economic fundamentals that we set out as our central case at the start of the year remain very much intact, and…
Alex Chappell
2nd September, 2021
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen” – that was Vladimir Lenin, referring to society staying stable for long periods of time, before shifting quickly and meaningfully, towards a new normal. It’s interesting to think that although last year was…
Alex Chappell
6th August, 2021
Presenting the inflation tug of war, sponsored by COVID…
Markets have been described as a weighing mechanism for future outcomes. They generally reflect the consensus of what people expect to happen, though in reality there are many differentiators on a micro level, so it is necessary to drill down country by country and sector by sector. In…
DB Wood Team
23rd July, 2021
As individuals within the investment team, we are conscious not to believe our own propaganda, ensuring our views are as balanced and logical as they can be. Placing too much emphasis on our own opinion can be dangerous, and after all, none of us have a crystal ball.
Alex Chappell
8th July, 2021
One of my fondest childhood memories was playing chess with my Grandad. I say ‘playing’… it felt like intense mental competition as an energetic 9-year-old, but hindsight would suggest ‘learning’, or being ‘taught a lesson’, are better ways to describe it. Now I’m certainly not talking as a…
Alex Chappell
4th June, 2021