First they said it couldn’t possibly happen, then that it probably wouldn’t happen, then that it might happen and until finally today it did happen. Yesterday Britain voted to leave the European Union and although the vote is not binding it seems inconceivable that it won’t be followed through.
David Cameron’s gamble has spectacularly backfired, leaving not only considerable uncertainty for him but also for the UK and the wider EU. Those of us who have investments in pensions, ISAs or other savings accounts will on paper inevitably be poorer at the end of today than we were at the start of the day. However, we should do well to remember that a loss is not a loss until it is crystalised. The next few days, weeks and months are likely to see significant volatility causing values to fluctuate yet further. The question is therefore what should investors do?
We said in our note last week that whether the vote was for Remain or Leave we were comfortable with our portfolio positioning, nothing that has happened in the past twenty-four hours has led us to change that view. Although markets will fall, they will recover eventually, every financial crisis backs that up, from the Wall Street Crash of 1929, to the bursting of the Dot-Com bubble at the turn of the millennium through to the financial crisis of less than a decade ago.
Here at FE we are a big believer in that timing markets over the short term is impossible and the important thing is time in the market.
We wish to reassure investors however that just because we are confident with our portfolio positioning does not mean that we will not continue to work hard ensuring the portfolios remain appropriate. We monitor the risk levels of each portfolio on a weekly basis to check that it still remains appropriate and should that change we will communicate our recommendations. Our analysts will be paying special attention to the effects of Brexit on the long term prospects of the funds we recommend.
So for now we will continue to monitor our portfolios during the inevitable volatility whilst we wait for the dust to settle.