Knowledge and insight

They used to call David Coombs crazy. When he set up our multi-asset funds 10 years ago, many people didn’t get why we were setting targets for return and risk that investors could hold us to.

The old investment adage of buying gold to protect your wealth from money-printing central banks inflating it away doesn’t quite sit well with us. Our research shows gold tends to be a poor way of protecting your wealth from inflation. However, gold has historically attracted many investors when things get rocky, pushing its price higher. So, holding a small amount can be a good way to reduce the volatility of your portfolio.

When we set up our multi-asset funds 10 years ago, we thought people would appreciate accountability and value reliability. Turns out we were onto something. Rathbones head of multi-asset investments David Coombs looks forward to the next decade.

The death of the Chinese economic miracle has been greatly exaggerated many, many times. Rathbones head of multi-asset investments David Coombs thinks you need to think differently about the Eastern giant.

The week starts with a temporary reprieve in the Mexican stand-off, but will it last? Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth looks at the prevailing winds in US trade rhetoric, the hot air here at home and the anti-trust threat heating up for America’s tech giants.

All around the world, people are angry. And when voters vent, politicians tend to react. Rathbones head of multi-asset investments David Coombs looks at how that may change the landscape for investors.

The UK economy is small, which may sound a little strange if you know that we have the world’s fifth-largest economy by gross domestic product. But we only contributed about 2% to global economic output last year – not enough to influence global asset prices, interest rates or the pace of global growth in any meaningful way. So the good news is that Brexit is not a globally systemic event, like the financial crisis of 2007-08 or the European debt crisis of 2011-12.

Artificial intelligence is coming for your job. There are benefits and drawbacks to this, Rathbones head of multi-asset investments David Coombs notes, but he thinks society will end up taking it in its stride.

What happens when we hit peak passive? Rathbones head of multi-asset investments David Coombs wonders how markets will look when dumb money outnumbers the people looking at the accounts.