A year ago, I argued in the Financial Times that we were "exiting a world in which the difference among individual investors' performance was essentially a function of the degree of their exposure to the most illiquid and leveraged asset classes, and entering a world where more sophisticated risk management capabilities will increasingly be the main differentiator".

In a subsequent column, written in the middle of the sharp recovery from the mid-March market lows, I suggested "it is still too early for investors and policymakers to unfasten their seatbelts. Instead, they should prepare for renewed volatility".