Stocks pass the test of time

Unlike other asset classes, well-run equities have what it takes to survive in the long run, says Merryn Somerset Webb. So where should we all be buying?

In our interview this week, Russell Napier notes that for the first time in his career he is finding that fund managers are "flummoxed". They have no idea what is going on, or what to do about it. The point is nicely proven by Alex Hammond-Chambers in the annual report of the Hansa Trust (a niche special situations trust heavily invested in a marine services company operating in Brazil).

Alex has been knocking around the City for 40-plus years and never has "the outlook been more uncertain, the tea leaves more difficult to read". The fundamentals of markets are constantly being trumped by politicians and central bankers, making it all but impossible to know how to invest.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.