No-one has a clue on the long term; not you, not me and especially not your friendly neighborhood investment bank flogging it's latest BRIC report. They are just recycling materials from five years ago and replacing each "B2B" with "BRIC". All you can do is manage risk and make some money from what is happening NOW. And always have some shorts and put options, just in case. There is no long haul; only a heteroskedastic series of short hauls and you have to invest accordingly. Every country offers tremendous opportunities for skilled investment strategies; buy and hold is not and NEVER has been one of them.

I told you not to take the brown acid. Now see what's happened?

Young and smart graduate, welcome to the world of business! You just started investing, your time and effort, the most precious things you have. Many people will tell you to structure your career like your grandfather did. Do the same as most of your peers, choose a standard path, work for a prestigious firm 12 hours a day, give them heart and soul, get standardised and listen to those who tell you “suffer now, you’ll have an amazing career tomorrow, stay with us for 3-4 years and the world will be your oyster” … tomorrow. Maybe they are right, maybe not, I don’t know. Heard of Hedge Funds? They are smart guys and they are creative and make lots of money and most importantly they know how to have fun and they’re cool. They have a very different approach to investing. Standard is boring. The world is changing, very quickly, and it’s exciting! You can follow the crowd and be another piece of the machine. Or you can be different and it might work out better, no-one knows. Can’t really get off the brown acid… too addictive!!!