A lot has been written on the subject matter over recent times and my own view, although this should never be taken as direct personal investment advice, is that small cap and value cap equity will continue to do as well as they have in the last seven decades, in the next seven. The sheer pace of technology around us and other things linked to our relatively new digital revolution is frightening – with artificial intelligence becoming more visible in our daily lives. We all use Siri, dont we? I have added in my back catalogue of matrix books that I receive each year from DFA and within them the data is clear. The problem of course is that we dont invest in our future … by looking in a rearview mirror. But for me, this is one example of where it’s highly likely the mirror will do… what mirrors do… the lessons are apparently very clear. Small-cap is where everything new happens. For sure not all new shiny small-cap companies will work. But when the ones that do and the Apples, Amazons and Teslas kick into gear they more than make up for the few that dont. And then with value-cap equity its the same story again and a case of waiting for share prices to do justice to the companies assets, or the price to earnings to rocket in the case of companies that provide services as opposed to those that have physical property and other assets on their books. Value-cap stocks can often just need to get through ‘whatever’ it is they are going through, or in the ‘middle of’, and pick things up. And again when that happens the evidence is strikingly clear. Developed world equity markets have delivered around 10% annualised dating back to the 1950’s through some of the most awful market crashes and cycles. And then small and value have done around 15% over teh same period. And if you just buy the whole small cap and value cap market indexes, throughout the developed world, and the emerging world, as opposed to trying to guess what individual stocks and bonds will work, and what wont, you won’t be faffing around, nor will you be worrying about which fund manager you’ve picked. Just sit back and let the passive approach do all the heavy lifting. Its been proven to work for decades. I offer further insights into all of this in my new book Bulletproof Retirement available on all good book stores and through my publisher rethink press. Along with other things that I talk about, small-cap and value-cap equity stock, purchased via a mutual investment fund, and held in a low cost passive style, is going to be just as pivotal as it always has been previously and highly important for our future retirement, and indeed our children’s futures too.
Best wishes,
Martin
