Ten steps to a perfect portfolio

THE ALCHEMIST

After a disastrous result, everyone pitches in with their opinion on how each player could have done better, the shortcomings of the bunged-up selectors and, of course, the total incompetence of the referee. And so it is with the investment management industry.

It is not exactly Game Over for the markets quite yet, but after the recessionary onslaught, let’s call it half time. As the crisis recedes, everyone who has ever handled a coin suddenly becomes an economist, policy expert, asset allocation guru, and probably a corporate financier as well. The meltdown was clearly the fault of the banks, the consultants, the asset management companies, their fund managers, the regulators, the trade bodies or the speculators. Anyone who is not us. We are moving through the five stages of grief that characterise any loss – in this instance, of our hard-...