This year will see over 2 Billion people worldwide heading to the polling stations with many of the biggest countries in the world having a general election. The key to this from an investors point of view is where does each result leave you?

Markets do not like uncertainty and so in that regard an election can be a troubling time. However with modern polling it is often clear who is most likely to get into power and the markets can factor that in. For example, Labour have won the recent UK election and that was priced into the market well in advance of the results. It was more of a case of when rather than if they would get in. As you would have seen there was stability in the stock market both leading up to, and following the election results.

Whilst changes in policy will make an impact (either for the better or worse) these are again given before the votes are cast and so can be priced into the market in advance, it is just a case of now waiting for the exact details of differing policies to be released now the election is concluded.

There are still other big players in the game who have elections this year too. Russia has their general election in September, though it could be safe to assume the result of that one!

The other campaign grabbing most headlines currently is the US election which is due in November. Current polls have Trump edging the result and the markets at least have some data on him from his previous term so it may be more stable than you would imagine.

As with all investments we recommend that you look at your investments over periods longer than 5 years, that means that you would be in the market for longer than an election cycle and therefore be able ride out any potentially short term dips within the market.

If you are not willing to risk the possible volatility we have a range of other investment opportunities that factor in a variety of risk profiles and exposure levels to suit all.