The impact of the Coronavirus together with the sudden sharp fall in the oil price has raised serious concerns in financial markets that a significant economic downturn has now started. For markets, the critical question will be at what stage investors feel the situation is being brought under control. In the case of the Coronavirus, this will be primarily from a medical perspective, but from an economic perspective it will be when the consequences of both the virus and fall in the price of oil can be clarified. We will address these issues in this note.

Whilst the headline news on markets is clearly negative, for longer-term investors looking for a potential entry point, the key to markets may be less pessimistic news, as the delta of change typically drives market direction. This won’t be related to deaths, which are a lagging indicator, but to when new cases peak. The best estimate is that the spike is still at least a couple of weeks away. However, both in China and Hong Kong, there is reasonable evidence to suggest that containment measures are working and that the situation has an element of control. 

There's no shortage of knowledge at RSMR! Each week we get our heads together and talk about events in the world and how investments are affected by them. Our broadcast tackles a wide range of topical issues facing investors from liquidity to the future of alternatives to politics and the pound. We like to think of it as cracking content for the financial adviser. Have a read & get clued up...

RSMR was founded in 2004 by Ken Rayner, Caroline Spencer and Geoff Mills. With backgrounds in investment, operations and marketing, the goal was to combine their knowledge and expertise to provide outstanding investment research and analysis to the UK advisory community. 

In 2004, then UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, wrote to the CEO’s of significant financial institutions and a group of the world’s largest institutional investors to ask them to take part in an initiative to integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices into capital markets. 

Growing our presence by welcoming new users to the Hub is a crucial area of focus for us. We gained over 500 new users in 2018 and we’ve attracted just short of 600 advisers in 2019.

Derek Stewart is a survivor, an extraordinarily driven individual and a very lovely man. I met Derek at our recent conference, he had no idea we were going to ask him to talk to the room about his 200-mile Tahoe endurance run and his remarkable commitment to Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres, but he stepped up to the challenge and delivered a fascinating and inspirational talk about his incredible achievement and his determination to raise as much money as possible for Maggie’s.

We’ve been hosting conferences since 2014 and take great pride in creating the most remarkable and informative day possible for all our attendees.

Every month we study the universe of funds in the investment marketplace to assess whether they meet our exacting standards and should be given the RSMR seal of approval. 

As part of the RSMR conference evening event, Ed Balls gave us his take on monetary policy, Eurozone issues and the future of Britain. 

Andrew Stobart has far reaching knowledge of global investments with significant expertise in Asia and Emerging Markets. He is also an investment manager for an ex-US International Equity product. Andrew is a key member of the firm’s Mental Health Group and an active advocate of mental wellbeing in the workplace.

Simon Edelsten is passionate about growing real wealth by investing in high quality stocks worldwide and we welcomed his insightful tour of global equities to the RSMR podium.