Opinion

My seven-year-old son got up in class recently and declared there is no Father Christmas.

Last week's news that the Chinese economy continued to power through the global economic crisis, with growth of 10.7%, adds weight to those who argue for a greater weighting to the country and emerging markets in general.

Over the last few months I have been spending a fair bit of time talking absolute returns with some of the best fund managers in the business.

I have got to say I could not give a flake who owns Cadbury.

So if Wayne Rooney is worth more than the boss of Goldman Sachs, and don't forget he reckoned Goldman's are doing God's work, then how much is Neil Woodford worth?

Investment Week Conjecture

Ethical investing, socially responsible investing, climate change technology call it what you will, the marketing momentum behind this growing sector is growing.

Over the past few months I have constantly banged the drum for a brave new world in which asset managers finally bite the bullet and launch cost effective multi-asset portfolios, comprised largely if not exclusively of ETFs.

It is that time of year when we all seemed to spend a lot of time predicting - or more likely - guessing what are going to be the top-performing asset classes during the year next 10 years.

It would be great to think because we have started not only a new year, but a new decade, that life would be rosy. It is not.