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  • Hello, and welcome to the Morningstar series, "Ask the Expert." I'm Emma Wall and I'm joined

  • today by Tanguy De Lauzon from Morningstar Investment Management to talk about the FTSE

  • 100. Hello, Tanguy.

  • Good morning, Emma. So, this week marks the 10-year anniversary

  • of the previous FTSE high before the following year we had a significant crash. And I was

  • thinking about during that time and the difference between the sentiment then 10 years ago and

  • the sentiment now. And the sentiment now seems to be this rally is very under-loved. People

  • are waiting for the correction to come. But back then 10 years ago people were confident,

  • people were liking the stock market and they certainly didn't see the crash coming, did

  • they? Yeah, certainly. I think the situation was

  • a bit different. I think at that time the economy was doing very well. I think emerging

  • markets have had a brilliant period the previous years. Corporates were generally having very

  • high earnings. And actually, probably that was the trick. I think corporates were doing

  • so well, the earnings were so high at that time that when people looked at valuation

  • signals like price-to-earnings ratio, it looked okay actually.

  • But if you looked at other valuation signals, probably like the cyclically-adjusted price-to-earnings

  • ratio or price-to-sales or price-to-book, so looking atwhether looking at the recent

  • earnings, looking at average cycle earnings, you would have found that valuations were

  • quite higher at that time. But the situation was certainly a bit different.

  • And you spoke there about some warning signals. Were there ever other warning signals on the

  • horizon that could have perhaps predicted what was to come, the global financial crisis?

  • Yeah, I think, it's always difficult to predict a crisis. Almost by definition, if a crisis

  • occurs, it's because it's unexpected. But you'd have, yeah, early warning signals. So,

  • valuation is one typical signal that we would look at. I think market was also quite optimistic,

  • sort of believed in the Goldilocks scenarios where everything happens and everything is

  • going well. I think markets started to become a bit complacent as well about risk, about

  • some of the financial innovations and that should be things that one wants to consider

  • to assess the environment. And so, what happened next? We had this high

  • 10 years ago this week, but in the next couple of years were very difficult for investors,

  • weren't they? Yeah. So, obviously a big crash in the markets.

  • So, most equity markets down roughly by 50% over the next 18 months. Fortunately, for

  • U.K. investors the pound crashed as well. For those who had foreign exposure, that was

  • helpful. But basically, we had this big series of events culminating with the Lehman failure

  • obviously. And so, it was a very tough period for a lot of investors.

  • But actually, for investors that remained with a long-term focus, really thought about

  • their investment goals and that the investment goal should always be about the long-term,

  • it was actually an okay period. Because if you consider 3.5 years after the peak you

  • are back at the same level if you include dividends. And so, it's really a tough period

  • for a few years, but for long-term investors it was actually possible to navigate through

  • these difficult periods and to maintain investments. And 10 years after we're actually 60% above

  • that level. So, it's close to 5% per annum. So, not a fantastic return, but something

  • okay for someone who invested for his pension. It's always easier said than done with that

  • though because as we know through a lot of the behavioral science that we've studied

  • here at Morningstar, when a crash comes, people tend to take their money out. They do panic.

  • So, what can we learn from that experience, from the figures that you just told us, about

  • the fact that the market now is looking similarly overvalued by a number of metrics?

  • Yeah. So, I think that there's a few things to be prepared. You need to be prepared for

  • this and you can't really think about what you're going to do as it happens. So, I think

  • there are a few things, a few key investment principles that you need to have. And a few

  • of the ones I would highlight is keeping that long-term horizon in mind, remaining focused

  • on the long-term, that's very important. I think valuation is probably the most useful

  • tool in terms of assessing where we are. Looking at the fundamentals as well not only

  • to assess what's the most likely scenario is, but what the range scenario is and trying

  • to see whether there will be periods where the chances of positive scenarios are becoming

  • slimmer and when actually the chances of a negative scenario, of a negative shock, are

  • becoming larger. And then the last I would highlight is to

  • be independent-minded. In these periods all the press, all the media is very negative.

  • You talk to your friends and families. They are very negative. And it's very difficult

  • to keep calm, to control your emotions. But if you're able to do that, then you should

  • stick with your investments in those periods and maybe actually there are some opportunity

  • at offer to you to buy at very cheap prices stocks that are actually might be quite attractive.

  • Tanguy, thank you very much. You're welcome.

  • This is Emma Wall for Morningstar. Thank you for watching.

Hello, and welcome to the Morningstar series, "Ask the Expert." I'm Emma Wall and I'm joined

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