Mark Dampier, head of investment research at Hargreaves Landsdown, gives his take on the world of investments with a key global event – the US Presidential Election – in the final throes.

My bet is for a Clinton victory but then I thought we would vote remain on June 23rd, writes Mark Dampier.

Much was spoken about repositioning portfolios before Brexit but there remain two problems with this.

First the event does not go according to your forecast in which case you were likely to have lost money. Even those who might have got Brexit right stayed largely in cash and probably did not invest afterwards. Secondly even if the outcome is as you expected it doesn’t always follow that the effect on your chosen assets turns out the way you think.

The reality of political elections is they seldom have a great effect on the markets, so delaying or making trading moves before the event is usually a loser. Ironically after the event equities usually rise anyway!

I have no great insight into this election. Both candidates want to spend huge amounts of money, rarely a good sign as governments are very poor at spending other people’s money. However both are hemmed in to some extent by a really large amount of public debt. In addition demographics are playing a big factor.

The US suffers like many other countries from an ageing population who want less consumer goods and more in the way of social and healthcare and are therefore takers from the government rather than givers. In the US more homeowners are dying than buying! This has also coincided with the dramatic changes in technology.

A new industrial revolution is hollowing out many more of the lower and middle paid jobs. Even McDonald’s now have opened up a fully automated outlet. Surely a sign of the times.

So in my view financial planners and investors should spend less time worrying about the results of the US election but rather focus on the big changes in demographics and technology which are reshaping society today.

The US election is not nearly as important to your investments as you might think.