2026 has been an interesting year thus far. A number of themes including AI, Geopolitics, Debt and Innovation have driven the flow of markets, which have very high upside expectations and few worries about downside risks. I would remind readers of Blain Mantra No 1: “The markets have but one objective: to inflict the maximum amount of pain on the maximum number of participants”. Hey-Ho, and on we go...

In times of financial stress, the market tends to take on a momentum all of its own. We may be in for further shocks, instabilities and dreadful No-See-Ums as investors try to discern what comes next following Trump’s tariffs. Interesting times to come…

Markets wobbled yesterday on the current litany of fear: interest rates, inflation and Ukraine. The bigger issues are just how unsustainable current equity valuations remain, and where to invest in range-bound markets.

Markets are great at reacting to a single stimulus but are like a frog in a pan of warming water when it comes to consequential events. Forget “Black Swans” or “no-see-ums”, but figure out how the increasingly complex picture of unfolding events and consequences are driving markets!

October is the cruellest month for markets. What to fear most? Markets? Energy? China? or America? Or will it be a “no-see-um” that sinks us?

Remember