Hindsight key to assessing market opportunities, dangers

London

OCTOBER will mark the 30th anniversary of the 1987 financial crash. It is already nine years after the slump of 2008 and this July marks the 20th anniversary of the Asian financial crisis.

In memory of those bleak times, expect many blogs and acres of newsprint predicting that the end of the bull market is nigh. The current buzzwords are "monetary normalisation", ie, fears that central banks will raise interest rates and spoil the proverbial party.

Since the crash of 2008 and early 2009, when equities were either dumped or…