Slippery conditions will need steady formula to drive winning returns

It was not that long ago I found myself writing for this column and since then it feels like markets have been running on slick tyres in the wet; in other words, working quite hard without much progress, and conditions proving to be quite dangerous and volatile.

So is the track about to dry out or should we come in for a change to intermediates or full treads? To us, it feels like intermediates as damp conditions are likely to persist in markets for some time so being sensible is the only option right now. The recovery we saw in markets after the March lows were largely induced by a mild improvement in manufacturing conditions, as restocking took place following severe cuts in economic output at the end of 2008. As a result, some rebound was almost inevitable. While the global economy is no longer shrinking at quite the speed it was, it remains ...