October is a month that has a stock market reputation for volatility and in 2018 – at least in this sense – it did not disappoint. Hindsight watchers will point to the nervous tone of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook document concerning higher interest rates and global trade angst as the straw that broke the camel’s back, but in reality a slow rotation in favour of more defensive equity market names had already been quietly occurring over the summer.
