Whether it’s cryptocurrencies or investment trusts, make sure you know what you’re investing in

Many people scoff at cryptocurrency speculators pouring money into an asset they may barely understand. But the same could be said of investors in many other more mainstream assets too, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

Dogecoin token
More than half of people trading high-risk products get their advice from friends and social media
(Image credit: © Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Cryptocurrencies are popular – if you aren’t a curmudgeonly old fuddy duddy you probably own a lot by now. Even I, as curmudgeonly as anyone, own a few.

Last year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put the number of people in the UK owning cryptocurrencies at around 2.3 million; given the publicity around the various currencies, it makes sense to think that number is already rather higher.

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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.