Moving down the risk curve

of 5.5 per cent and a target total return of 7.5 per cent a year.

The management team will be based in Amsterdam. And it is decidedly “on trend” with targeted investments in European logistic properties such as large ultra-modern warehouses and local “last mile” distribution centres. There are caveats: this field may already be crowded – existing real estate investment trusts to the fore; many of these centres may be developed by retail trade conglomerates; there may be currency risk should sterling snap back against the euro. That said, it’s hard to think of a business sector that matches this hot growth potential: e-commerce accounts for 15 per cent of retail sales in Britain but only 8 per cent in continental Europe. Last week I wrote of how I submitted myself to an online risk assessment from wealth management firm Investec. There were more than 17 searching questions. By the end I was in an existential fog. Who was I? Did I know myself? The result was a score that still showed me at the amber-warning end of the risk spectrum. I have set in motion a reduction in equity exposure and a shift within the equity class towards more diversified funds and trusts, with a modest move towards overseas markets.

Too little, too late? Too much, too soon? If only anybody knew – I would then be filing next week from my villa on Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman, watching the luxury yacht shimmering in the heat and bobbing gently at anchor. Dream on.