Are stocks really a better bet than bonds?

The conventional market wisdom is that stocks always outperform other investments. But with today's increased risk, that may no longer be true. So are stocks now only for mugs? Tim Bennett investigates.

"Do stocks always outperform in the long run?" asks the Psy-Fi blog. "No, they don't." Indeed, the idea that stocks always outperform other investments may be "just another market myth used to cajole unwary investors into parting with their hard-earned cash". So are stocks really only for mugs?

The shares sales pitch

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.