What’s the world’s most hated market? I hate to say it, but you probably live there

UK stocks are among the most hated in the world – almost nobody is buying. John Stepek explains why, and wonders if that presents an opportunity for contrarian investors.

London Stock Exchange
UK stocks: universally reviled
(Image credit: © Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

I don’t think anyone would argue that the global news environment has been a calm one over the past few years.

This year has been the mere cherry atop the icing of a cake that was mixed during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, whacked in the oven amid the 2010 eurozone sovereign debt crisis, and emerged doughy in the middle and burnt on the top around 2016’s crisis of the governing classes.

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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.