As our world becomes more interconnected, financial fraud has become a means of exploiting our vulnerabilities. The statistics paint a stark picture: in 2022, £1.2 billion was stolen, with a further £1.2 billion stopped by the banks (source: UK Finance).

Over the longer term, investors expect a positive, after inflation return from investing in company shares and lending money to governments and companies by owning bonds. Unfortunately – and inescapably – in the shorter-term market returns are anything but predictable. They contain a lot of noise, as the market absorbs new information into prices. High inflation in 2022 led to a rapid rise in interest rates around the world, contributing, in part, to the fall in global bond and equity prices.