Cheap bets for the next decade

We can’t be sure what the future holds, but low valuations suggest these assets may do better than most

South Korean Imperial guards
Asian markets such as Korea look cheap © Getty
(Image credit: South Korean Imperial guards)

Picking the star investment of the next ten years can’t be done without getting some tricky calls right. If we have runaway inflation, gold may do very well. If not, it probably won’t be spectacular. Which industries boom will depend on how the economy evolves, but also on political decisions (eg, big tech firms may run foul of regulators). As for individual stocks – the biggest winners may well be companies that change the world in a way most of us can’t yet foresee (perhaps in healthcare or green energy).

In this week's magazine, we’ve got some of your suggestions about what looks most exciting. But more prosaically, we can also consider which asset classes simply look cheap given what we’ve learned in MoneyWeek’s first 20 years and before. If the future is vaguely like the past and present, they should stand a good chance of doing well. The one caveat, of course, is that we are not heading into a decade of complete despair. If we are, cash, gold and perhaps long-term US Treasury bonds (I’d assume yields would go deeply negative, at least initially), would probably be all that you’ll want to hold.

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Cris Sholto Heaton

Cris Sholto Heaton is an investment analyst and writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2006 and was managing editor of the magazine between 2016 and 2018. He is especially interested in international investing, believing many investors still focus too much on their home markets and that it pays to take advantage of all the opportunities the world offers. He often writes about Asian equities, international income and global asset allocation.

Cris began his career in financial services consultancy at PwC and Lane Clark & Peacock, before an abrupt change of direction into oil, gas and energy at Petroleum Economist and Platts and subsequently into investment research and writing. In addition to his articles for MoneyWeek, he also works with a number of asset managers, consultancies and financial information providers.

He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and the Investment Management Certificate, as well as degrees in finance and mathematics. He has also studied acting, film-making and photography, and strongly suspects that an awareness of what makes a compelling story is just as important for understanding markets as any amount of qualifications.