In Israel, we feel the mix of fear of growing virus numbers as well as the optimism from the roll out of the vaccine. We hope the vaccine will reach each of you as soon as possible and hope that in time those skeptical towards the side effects will be proved wrong. It's seems that most of our webinar attendees believe COVID will still be with us in 2021 and that most of them will get vaccinated. Let's get Corona behind us!

Throughout Corona period, we have hosted numerous webinars via Zoom and have found this to be a major positive consequence of the virus. We recently held a webinar focused on 2021 key investment themes and you may follow the link to view it. For those who prefer to read, we will summarize the main points of that webinar here for you. During our webinar we asked the attendees to predict what will happen in the main issues discussed. Below you will find some more of the results.

It has been surreal for all of us to experience this year’s holidays with limited family gatherings and shul services. We hope that you managed to make the most of the challenging situation. Israel's virus position is indeed precarious and it is clear this is not a short-term problem as we initially hoped. We remain vigilant in terms of our portfolio positioning and risk management. We do believe that there are tough economic times ahead; however, we do not believe we will see another market panic scenario as we saw in March 2020. In the following commentary we will address the global market YTD and outlook, upcoming elections, ESG investment and other interesting updates and developments.

To merely say "these are challenging and complex times" seems an excessively simple comment for the size and multifaceted nature of the challenges ahead of us all. In this half-year review, I will try to summarize our views to help you navigate the way forward. As I write to you, the Corona virus has directly affected too many friends. Once you know someone who testifies how powerful and aggressive this virus can be, it makes you stop and reflect regardless of how many times you have read about it or heard of asymptomatic cases. One close family member or friend in hospital is infinitely more powerful than millions of nameless statistics from around the world. So, to all the readers who have had that direct impact, we share your anxiety and fear and send you all the strength we can.

We hope this finds you safe and healthy and would like to wish you and your loved ones Happy Passover!

If you also speak Hebrew, we invite you to watch the recroding of the latest webinar we held, exactly about the topics in this review. The webinar included a review of the Israeli market in Hebrew and a review of the global markets in English.

2019 was a vindication year for the traditional asset management industry and asset allocators like us. Many skeptics sat on the sidelines in cash and missed the best year for returns we have had in a very long time. Our clients enjoyed excellent returns in both absolute and relative basis.

While 2017 was low positive and 2018 was negative, 2019 was very positive and brought the three-year returns comfortably into the annual targeted return range. This is the nature of the beast - market returns simply do not go in straight lines.

Our eyes now turn to 2020. As always, the crystal ball has its limitations and across our team we have slightly differing views for 2020. However, the consensus view is to remain faithful to our asset allocation principles.