We must prepare for volatility, warns SFC

Hong Kong's financial system needs to be prepared for significant market volatility, said the Securities and Futures Commission chief executive Ashley Alder.

This includes unforeseen market shocks such as the outbreak of the Covid in 2020, which dragged down the global market, Alder said at an online forum yesterday.

The Hong Kong market must continue to ensure usual trading and provide pricing and other functions amid such volatility, Alder added.

This came as Billionaire investor Ray Dalio said cash is still trash, but equities are trashier in a CNBC exclusive interview.

The founder of the world's largest hedge Bridgewater said "real-return assets" are the best investments instead of stocks or cash.

Meanwhile, Dennis Gartman is telling prospective dip buyers to sell any rallies in US stocks during a bear market that he dates to the start of the year, and expects to last for many months.

"The bear market started January 5," the chairman of the University of Akron Endowment told Bloomberg Radio on Monday, referring to a day after the S&P 500 hit an intraday record. "People have to understand that fact, and adjust their trading perspectives and investment perspectives accordingly. Rally selling is the viable strategy."

Gartman said it's 'amusing' that a debate exists on whether stocks are in a bear market. The S&P 500 temporarily registered a 20 percent drop on Friday from its most-recent closing high, only to recover slightly from the level that traditionally defines a bear market.

Also, billionaire financier George Soros said on Tuesday that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may have been the beginning of World War Three so the best way to preserve free civilization was for the West to defeat President Vladimir Putin's forces.