At the end of the year, economists, investment strategists and asset managers look ahead. These days they publish their forecasts and strategies for the new year. Private wealth takes part in the most interesting conferences and publishes the most exciting thoughts of the professionals. We can already say that the overwhelming majority of the events are about change, transformation or turning points. Let's remember - the investment year 2022 was dominated by the surprisingly strong rise in interest rates. Higher interest rates caused the biggest losses in bond markets in more than 50 years. At the same time, equity market valuations came under pressure. There was (hardly) any place for investors to hide. In the coming year - so the...

In November, companies in industry as a whole became somewhat more optimistic again. Although the current business situation has deteriorated, this was to be expected in view of the negative business expectations for the next six months in the past ifo surveys. On the positive side, business expectations for the next six months in November are now less pessimistic. In this part of the survey, respondents have to indicate whether they expect the business situation to become more favourable, remain the same or become less favourable over the next six months. The balance value is the difference in percentages between the more favourable and less favourable answers. It improved from minus 40.0 to minus 31.1, which is still a very poor value...

Sustainability has become a decisive competitive advantage. Family businesses can play a pioneering role in this area. Professor Marcel Hülsbeck from the Witten Institute for Family Enterprises WIFU shows how the transformation to sustainability champion succeeds. Based on current research findings, WIFU has developed a model that enables family businesses to develop a holistic sustainability strategy based on 10 steps. // 01. raise awareness of values in the entrepreneurial family and among the shareholders. Entrepreneurial families act across generations anyway. This already lays the foundation for a sustainability strategy. Starting points can be found in the family's lived values and mindset. The first step should therefore be a...

After the positive price development of the last few weeks, many investors hope that this might already have marked the end of the price downturn on the stock markets. But the capital market seismograph dampens this optimism. "The probability of negative turbulence remains absolutely dominant. This is not an environment in which major risks should be taken," informs Oliver Schlick, Managing Director of Secaro Gmbh, who translates the results of the capital market seismograph into an allocation proposal. As you know, the seismograph combines various economic variables - early economic indicators, interest rate developments or even price fluctuations on the stock markets. From these, the probabilities for three market states in the next...

In August and early September, after a long period of maximum defensiveness, slight easing signals for equity investors came from the capital market seismograph. The probability of negative turbulence had fallen somewhat in favour of the probability of positive turbulence. "In the meantime, however, the probability landscape has shifted significantly towards negative turbulence again," informs Oliver Schlick, Managing Director of Secaro GmbH: "It is therefore advisable to reinforce the underweighting that still exists anyway." As you know, the seismograph combines various economic variables - early economic indicators, interest rate developments or even price fluctuations on the stock markets. From these, the probabilities for three...