Several economic indicators in South Africa are in the red, headlined by the record-high fuel price breaching R17 per litre. Many South Africans, particularly in the working class, are asking: “when will this end?

Every investor would have heard of equity and listed property referred to as ‘risk assets’. They would also have seen a graph which shows the relative risk of different asset classes, with cash at the bottom as the ‘lowest risk’ and equity at the top as ‘highest risk’. Intuitively, this also makes sense.

Most investors have been disappointed with returns over the past three years. For example, multi-asset portfolios have struggled, with the average SA Multi-Asset High Equity unit trust posting 3.4% per annum over the three years ended March 2018.