Billionaire investor Mark Mobius says it’s time to hold cash.
The emerging-markets veteran told Bloomberg he has 95 per cent of his fund in cash, citing Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs and the risk of a global slowdown.
“Right now, we’ve got to keep the cash and be ready to move when the time is right,” said Mobius, who doesn’t expect to commit serious capital for four to six months – by which time, he hopes, trade deals may be in place. “We have to wait until all of this evens out and we see a settling down of this uncertainty”, he added.
Many ordinary investors have asked similar questions during the recent upheaval, wondering if they should go to cash and wait things out.
For long-term investors, the answer is no.
It’s not that things won’t get worse – they might. After all, 2025’s declines have been relatively modest relative to past bear markets.
Then again, maybe they won’t. Maybe stocks have bottomed already. No one knows for sure.
Even if you got out at the top, when do you buy back in? Stocks usually bottom well before recessions end, and the strongest rallies often happen when the outlook appears bleak, so it’s impractical to wait until the coast is clear.
As the old market adage goes: by the time the smoke has lifted, the train has left the station.
There is no evidence that professional investors, not to mind ordinary investors, can reliably time markets – and plenty showing that trying often does more harm than good.
