INSIGHTS FROM CFA SOCIETY SINGAPOREWe are moving away from free trade and towards a global order of might and bilateral tiesThe lesson is not that history repeats itself perfectly, but instead that it provides a “yardstick” to measure the trends of today. IMAGE: PIXABAY[SINGAPORE] We often navigate our portfolios by looking through the rear-view mirror of the last five or 10 years, assuming the future will be reasonably similar to the recent past. However, a report from the CFA Institute Research Foundation, Five Financial Eras, suggests we gaze at too small a slice of time. By analysing nearly a millennium of data, the report’s author, economist Bryan Taylor, argues that while the markets are not a repeating loop, they do follow predictable “zeitgeists” that define entire generations.