The immediate aftermath of a drastic fall in stock prices is a good time to talk to investors about absolute returns. Even those whose fund managers shielded them from the worst of the losses are likely to be stinging from having to pay hefty fees for losing money, so the idea of a product promising to target a positive return regardless of market direction is very enticing.

“You can eat absolute return; you can’t eat relative return,” is the saying quoted by Bob Reynolds, chief executive of Putnam Investments, which has recently moved into the absolute return space.