People “have had enough of experts”, said Michael Gove, now UK housing secretary, during the Brexit campaign in 2016. In 2023 the stock market agreed. Professional investors were wrongfooted by the unexpected strength of the US economy. Bets on consumer cyclical stocks such as Nestlé, which might have performed well in a recession, floundered. Any portfolio without at least some of the “magnificent seven” tech stocks, or some esoteric, crypto-related companies, was basically sunk.
This is, of course, the FT’s annual stock picking competition. Readers are invited to compete against and trounce FT journalists by making long or short bets on five individual companies (no funds, trackers or commodities). The competition is an exercise in humility. The brave triumph against the cautious; amateurs vanquish experts and, in 2023, those who rode high in 2022 were brought back down to eart