After the flash crash

After the flash crash

In the past six weeks, most investors will rightly have been concerned by the savage falls in equity markets.

Some indices – including the FTSE 100 – dropped 10% or more between early September and mid-October as investors responded to the ongoing struggles in Europe, a falling oil price, and weaker global growth. Of course, many of these problems have been around for a while. Why investors chose this period as the point at which they no longer became bearable is a question to which few will have a good answer. The key to navigating these shock falls, as ever, is not to panic. Already, markets have bounced off the lows seen earlier this month, the FTSE 100 climbing 3% in the past week. So ...