Which investments are safer, and which are more risky?

John Stepek gives a brief rundown of the risks involved in the main investment asset classes, and how to avoid losing all your money.

Last time round we looked at the two main things you can do with your money as an investor. You can lend your money out: known as buying debt', or you can own an asset, technically known as owning equity. With these in mind, now let's look at risk.

Of course there are many different risks in the world which could affect your investments. A company whose shares you own could start to see falling profits. A regulator may impose limits on what a particular business sector can do. The economy may go into a slump, with a knock-on effect on shares and property, for example. And in a mass panic in the markets, even very solid companies can see their share prices walloped.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.