Complacency reigns after 40 years of falling interest rates and inflation, with soaring asset prices. The wounds of prior cycle-ending events have healed, their lessons forgotten. The post GFC period has seen a "collateral spiral", central bank bond buying forcing asset prices to ever higher levels – yes, quantitative easing matters. But retail investors and the emotion of a genuine bubble were missing. No longer. All the indicia of a colossal equities bubble are in place. If you are not thinking along the lines of 1929, the late 1960s, 1989 Japan, 1999 – you should be. A reckoning approaches. But genuine asset price bubbles draw energy from "anti-bubbles" and there is a lot to own for the next five years if you are prepared to go where the crowd is thinnest, allowing you to be on offense as you defend your clients' portfolios. - Julian McCormack, Platinum Asset Management. Earn 0.50 CE/CPD hrs on Portfolio Construction Forum