Keynes had three main rules in running his equity portfolio: 1. Stay invested and don’t try to time the market He adopted this approach after failing to trade well in the wake of the 1929 crash. The crucial lesson here is to make sure you stay committed to equities during a downturn. If you try and time the market, you risk missing out on the early stages of a recovery when big gains tend to be made. An endowment (or a private investor) has the long-term view necessary to do this. 2. Focus on ‘value’ stocks, particularly big dividend payers Again, he was exploiting a long-term approach. Keynes’ fund was able to take a contrary view, buy out-of-favour stocks which were cheap, and patiently wait for them to return to favour. Again, this is an advantage private investors can exploit. In contrast, professional fund managers often try to chase short-term trends and market fashion. 3. Keep your portfolio very different from the broader stock market Of course, the concept...