Market Insight 2010

We assess the contrarian view against a background of unremitting gloom. Europe's initial rescue plan for Ireland gave rise to a brief relief rally for stocks and the Euro but was short lived as the familiar fears of contagion to the other beleaguered Euro zone countries of Portugal, Spain and Italy were stoked by continued negative sentiment in the media and conflicting messages from European politicians and policymakers

Could the Greek crisis threaten the euro zone? A wave of risk aversion is, in the short term, sweeping the global financial markets, sparked by further concerns over the viability of a European aid package to the Greek Government. Fears that the issues in Greece may spill over to the rest of Europe's debt-ridden countries, has weakened the Euro and threatens to derail a still fragile global economic recovery.

Consistency and Transparency. Over the recent months, TAM International has been striving to refresh its portfolio offering to increase the transparency of our products and enhance information delivery, in line with the regulatory principles related to Treating Customers Fairly. This has resulted in a review of our existing portfolio type names, benchmarks and quarterly fact sheets which, we believe, enhances information delivery to ensure that product and portfolio offerings are clear, concise and more readily understandable. These changes are set out in detail below.

One year of feast and seven of famine? Throughout 2008, we held overweight positions in UK Government Debt (or Gilts) for our sterling based clients it was the only safe haven in a ferociously volatile market. However, our June 2009 Investment Note, Gilts Face Mounting Headwinds , highlighted some of the issues which we thought would create obstacles for Gilts during the remainder of the year and into 2010. Record low interest rates and substantial quantitative easing efforts (which could not last forever) led us to conclude that Gilts, at that point even, were showing signs that they had run...

A year of Specific Opportunities. "Bull Markets climb walls of worry but we must not ignore the obstacles still ahead"-Phillip Hadley, TAM International Managing Director. We believe that 2010 will offer strong opportunities for those able to navigate the obstacles ahead and has the potential to be another rewarding year for investors.