Many of those Asset Allocator has spoken to recently have warned against too much optimism.

Better economic data, generally rising stock markets and the start of spring haven’t injected much optimism into the investment updates we have been hearing.

In fact such warnings have been such a regular occurrence that we have been wondering how many optimists are out there at all.

One exception to that is Ian Brady, with the chief investment officer at WH Ireland expecting equities, particularly in the UK and emerging markets, to continue to perform well.

Generally he expects rocky economic news to be a feature of the year, but sees these as opportunities to buy more.

He is particularly positive on UK large, mid and small cap, as he feels sentiment has started to change toward the asset class and that it will be one of the beneficiaries of improved economic growth.    

Brady is also keen on emerging markets, taking the view that as interest rate rises come to an end around the world, this will boost sentiment toward emerging market assets, while profit growth at the company level will boost returns.

The equity market on which he remains sceptical is the US, where he believes valuations are already too high in the context of company earnings likely to be downgraded this year, something he believes the market is not currently pricing in to its expectations for US market returns. 

In terms of his fixed income exposure, he expects further price gains for corporate bonds in the year ahead, but, in common with his view on equities, anticipates volatility will be higher than normal this year, as markets react to central  bank musings, and movements in interest rates.