You can’t tell the future, but you can practise your timing

Another truism is that during the past two decades, central banks, when faced with falling asset prices, will do whatever it takes to arrest such declines.

Today, the major central banks around the world continue to corroborate this message. Therefore, one should not withdraw from the field altogether and, indeed, should look to start adding to risk positions when it is clear that central banks will have to step in.

This happened recently, when the Fed unambiguously announced a weak US dollar policy and the Chinese authorities massively increased debt issuance to help support financial asset prices and emerging market economic growth.

Hector Kilpatrick is chief investment officer at Cornelian Asset Managers