Rathbone's Stick attacks industry short-termism

Rathbone Unit Trust Management Income fund manager Carl Stick has hit out at short-termism.

Stick says the average holding period for stocks in the UK and US has fallen from 10 years, back in the 1940s, to nine months recently. He says: "Now it is slowly approaching six months. In other words, much of my industry is only interested in taking a bet on the next two quarters of news reporting [from companies], which is absolutely crazy. "We are all turning to quarterly reporting, that is why the industry is so short term." He adds sell-side analysts pushing for business via increasingly short-term recommendations are also to blame. "The reality is, you buy a business for ...