Gregg Carlstrom

● As ever, the biggest question for investors to ponder over the coming year is an impossible one: are share prices set to soar or plunge? The answer will determine not only whether shareholders have a brilliant or dreadful time, but whether stockpickers have made winning choices and asset allocators have chosen wise portfolio weights. Individual investors have the luxury of ignoring the question and remembering, from previous booms and busts, that buy-and-hold is a difficult strategy to beat. Professionals, though, are paid to do just that, and so must attempt to guess the future. What, then, do they make of the prospects for 2026?