IN LATE July, we started pointing to the risk of a period of consolidation or pullback in global equities. As if by clockwork, global equities started declining, falling almost 3 per cent over the next week. However, since then, they have gone on to hit new highs.
This begs the question: Was that it? What should investors do about it? The answer is clear for those still in retirement-preparation mode: Stick to the plan rather than getting knocked off track by short-term views.
There were three main reasons for our cautious short-term outlook in late July. First, our proprietary indicators were suggesting that aggregate investor positioning was quite crowded.