Wealth management forum: North America - a stockpicker's universe?

Matthew Strachan, manager of the recently launched Alliance Trust North American Equity fund, which mirrors his portion of the Alliance Trust portfolio, spoke at our recent wealth management forum about tentative signs of recovery in the US housing market.

We asked Strachan what investors should look for in US equities, and what the rest of the world can learn from the American experience of the downturn.

But while wealth managers agreed that North America holds opportunities for the savvy investor, Charles MacKinnon of Thurleigh Investment Managers and Kevin Doran of Brown Shipley were less impressed with Strachan's policy of holding gold as an insurance policy.

Also in this series:

• Roger Bootle of Capital Economics warns investors not to expect any good news just yet
• Luke Hickmore of Swip think's it's the perfect time to buy bonds, but an anti-consensus view is gaining ground
• Adrian Bignell of Invesco Perpetual believes present valuations of European small caps offer bargains to the careful investor
• Wilfred Sit of Mirae Asset Global Investments argues the case for increasing exposure to Asia, but has the tiger lost its roar?
• Advisory or discretionary? Attendees at the Citywire Wealth Management forum discuss the future of the industry, and how clients are responding to unprecedented volatility.