Demonstrating value in uncertain markets

Many clients would have got a nasty shock this week with markets experiencing the largest single day falls since 2008. With Coronavirus expected to dominate the news cycle for months to come, markets are likely to continue to be volatile and investors nervous.

Empty supermarket shelves are a visible sign of the publics worries and many of your clients will be questioning whether they need to sell their investments and move into cash. However, markets are notoriously difficult to time and selling investments after a fall can lead to locking in loses if the subsequent rise is missed. During the financial crisis between May 2008 and February 2009 the MSCI World index dropped by -30.4%. By the end of 2009 it had bounced back +40.8%.

Client communication is vital in times of uncertainty and it will have been a busy week reassuring those that have experienced substantial falls in their portfolios. As a one-stop tool for investment research, analysis, due diligence and monitoring, FE Analytics is the ideal tool to help you communicate effectively with your clients in times like these. The service allows you to analyse performance, ratios and risk using a huge range of sophisticated charting and analysis tools.

It’s natural that clients are concerned when markets fall, even if historically those falls have thus far proved to be temporary. FE Analytics can help you visualise a portfolios performance over time and show how investments have performed in previous periods of volatility.

You can also create fund and portfolio comparison reports to show the value of your investments compared to any other benchmark and for those clients with a more adventurous outlook, flag-up potential bargains.

FE Analytics allows you to visualise ‘what if’ scenarios to show how a client’s portfolio could look under different market conditions, factoring in both potential market gains as well as the maximum drawdown or loss they might suffer.

Our Investment Planner tool provides additional support in helping you understand and record your clients’ capacity for loss, ensuring that all investments are suitable for their risk tolerance, no matter what the markets are doing. You can also summarise every part of your recommendation, including possibility of loss reports that show potential changes over time and switch reports, that compare an existing portfolio to other investment options.

Using FE Analytics allows you to keep a fully compliant audit trail of your investment decisions, portfolio changes and rationale behind the advice you have given. All reports are customisable, and you can white label them with your own company branding.

If you’d like to learn more about all the research and reporting tools available with FE Analytics and how it can help you better communicate with your clients, speak to one of our experts.

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