Contrarian Investor: What is the next nightmare for investors?

With the bears on a rampage, it is increasingly incumbent on those of us who regard ourselves as cautious optimists to get real about what could go wrong, writes David Stevenson.

I do not think we are perched on the edge of another 2008-style economic abyss, but I also have to concede the standing of certain asset classes looks very wobbly indeed. Top of that list has to be emerging market bonds. Société Générale's Russell Napier spoke convincingly about this nightmare scenario at the annual bears' Woodstock/SG strategy gathering last week. What worried Napier is that over the last decade, we have seen a big push into EM bond funds and ETFs, led by naïve private investors chasing juicy yields. But this trade is now unwinding at a fair rate of knots, with poten...