World Cup winners – what’s different this time?

As England’s inspiring run in the World Cup came to an end on Wednesday night, it became clear that it most certainly was ‘different this time’.

“At least it wasn’t penalties” was a more common printable sound bite from fans and pundits alike.

No recrimination, no blame – unusual…  So, what changed?

The simple answer is — expectations. Previous World Cups have seen teams arrive at the tournament with the trophy already in the bag.

Examples of this originate from South America to Europe and many places in between, where great teams (and some not so great) have been pumped up by the fans and generally turbocharged by the media. Complacency takes over and a sense of entitlement ensues with players believing the hype, becoming prima donnas in the process before crashing out.

The consequence is usually huge disappointment from the former faithful with the team returning home, vilified and shunned (and worse in some cases).

Contrast this with England’s recent experience and you can see the effect that low, but realistic, expectations can have on the mental attitude of the team and supporters alike.

They might not have won the tournament, but the team worked hard and made supporters proud – they should return home as heroes with their heads held high.

At The Scottish, we believe that there are certain parallels between the expectations of football team performance and stock market investment.

We prefer to invest in unfashionable, out of favour companies that, crucially, have very low expectation baked into their prices. We avoid ‘in vogue’ investments where the shares are already discounting unremitting success.

While we’re on the topic of fashion, who’d have thought that one of our ‘ugly duckling’ holdings, Marks and Spencer, would be the surprise winner in the World Cup fashion stakes?

You surely can’t have had high expectations for the sales of pure wool waistcoats during the hottest summer since 1976…

Please remember that past performance may not be repeated and is not a guide for future performance. The value of shares and the income from them can go down as well as up as a result of market and currency fluctuations. You may not get back the amount you invest.

Please note that SIT Savings Ltd is not authorised to provide advice to individual investors and nothing in this promotion should be considered to be or relied upon as constituting investment advice. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should contact your financial advisor.