Friday felt like the ultimate test as to whether the market really is "forward looking". The Office for National Statistics put out the GDP figure for the first quarter of the year, showing what has happened to the size of the UK economy over the last few months. The headline was that GDP in April, so fully during lockdown, was 20% lower than last year, a grim headline. However, this was clearly within the range of what the market was expecting, and the UK market actually rose that day.
I confess though that it does feel slightly odd - a well-diversified, medium risk portfolio, is now almost back to its January 2020 level, despite all the "new" news that has come along in that time…
I mentioned unrealistic investment scams in an earlier update, and it is sad to see that the scammers are now looking to exploit the "track and trace" system. By definition, this system will work by you receiving an unexpected message to say that you have been in close proximity to someone who was latterly diagnosed with the virus. Scammers are exploiting this by sending text messages that look like an official message but the enclosed link is fraudulent. Please take care if you receive such a message.
Oh, and our movie update: we're loving the Jumanji films!
