Even the ‘soundest’ investments carry high risk

For those with money to invest, and there are still many of those out there in the Irish economy, these are interesting, uncertain times.

Over the past five years there has been a constant stream of negative economic news, both at home and abroad. For those investors who got caught up in and blinded by that negativity and adopted a totally risk-averse strategy, significant investment opportunities have been missed.

The biggest opportunity has clearly been missed on global equity markets. Most equity markets bottomed out in Mar 2009 and since then have made stellar gains. The US Dow Jones has climbed almost 143%; the UK FTSE 100 has gained almost 98%; the German Dax is up almost 319%; the Japanese Nikkei is up 123%; and even the Irish market, as depleted as it is, has gained almost 130%.