European Stocks Suffer Their Worst Run in 10 Years. Do We Panic? No. We Buy.

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Seven days.

That’s how long European stocks have been falling.

Seven consecutive losing sessions, the longest losing streak in around a decade.

For the traditional investor, headlines like that can be uncomfortable.

For us?

This is exactly what we’ve been waiting for.

Because while others have spent the last few weeks wondering why we weren’t doing more…

Why weren’t we buying?

Why weren’t we chasing markets?

Why were some of our strategies sitting flat?

The answer was simple.

Because we didn’t like the odds.

Markets had been trading around record highs. Valuations looked stretched. Geopolitical uncertainty remained. Bond yields were climbing.

We felt the potential upside was becoming smaller than the potential downside.

So we did something the traditional investment industry seems to find incredibly difficult…

Nothing.

We sat on our hands.

We watched.

We waited.

We remained patient.

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You don’t have to be invested every second of every day.

This is one of the biggest differences between TPP and the old-school investment model.

The traditional approach is generally pretty simple:

Buy. Hold. Hope.

Markets high? Stay invested.

Markets expensive? Stay invested.

Risk increasing? Stay invested.

Markets falling? Stay invested.

And eventually, hopefully, markets recover.

That isn't how we operate.

At TPP, we have four different approaches to markets.

Only one is predominantly reliant on markets continuing to rise.

Our Long or Flat strategies can step aside when probabilities deteriorate and re-enter when opportunities improve.

Our Hybrids maintain partial exposure while dynamically adjusting the rest.

And our Active strategies have a much wider remit to seek opportunities in different market conditions.

That flexibility matters.

Especially during weeks like this one.

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And now we're starting to deploy the ammunition.

After weeks of patience, markets have finally started giving something back.

Across Europe, we've seen declines.

Not enormous ones.

Not a crash.

Not Armageddon.

But enough to get our attention.

We're talking roughly 3%, 4%, 5% moves from recent levels in parts of the market.

And over the last couple of days, we've started seeing potential entry points.

🇪🇺 Euro Stoxx.

🇬🇧 FTSE.

🇫🇷 France.

Across a number of our strategies, we've started buying.

We've deployed some of the ammunition we've deliberately kept on the sidelines.

And now?

We're looking for the bounce.

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Does that mean we've caught the bottom?

Absolutely not.

Markets could fall further.

This could become a 7% correction.

A 10% correction.

Something bigger.

Nobody knows.

And anyone telling you they can consistently pick the exact top and exact bottom is kidding themselves.

We don't need to.

That's the important bit.

If markets fall 5% and we manage to avoid a meaningful chunk of that decline…

Then re-enter several percent below where we stepped aside…

We've potentially improved our position without needing to predict the precise bottom.

Do that once and it matters.

Do it repeatedly over an investment lifetime?

That's where the difference can become enormous.

It is why we don't obsess about being right every single day.

We obsess about probabilities.

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Patience isn't inactivity. It's part of the strategy.

This is perhaps the most important message from the last few weeks.

Doing nothing doesn't mean nothing is happening.

Sometimes the best investment decision available is not to make one.

We've spent the last two or three weeks largely observing.

Waiting for markets to give us better odds.

And now they've started doing exactly that.

Could we have bought at the highs?

Of course.

Could markets have kept rising and made us look overly cautious?

Absolutely.

But that's not the game we're playing.

We're managing client capital, not chasing headlines.

We don't get paid to trade for the sake of trading.

We don't get paid to blindly follow markets higher.

We get paid to manage risk and look for opportunities.

And after seven consecutive losing sessions in Europe, we believe we're beginning to see some.

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So… what happens next?

Today is the final trading day of the week.

We've started entering.

We've started deploying.

And now we find out whether the patience pays off.

Will markets bounce immediately?

Maybe.

Could they fall further first?

Absolutely.

Either way, our job remains exactly the same:

Wait when the probabilities aren't attractive.

Act when they improve.

Manage risk throughout.

That's the TPP difference.

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If you're already a TPP client…

Thank you for your patience over the last few weeks.

You've seen exactly what active portfolio management sometimes looks like.

You don't pay us to blindly follow markets.

You pay us to manage risk, remain patient and deploy capital when we believe the opportunity is there.

We've waited.

Now we've started moving.

Let's see what Friday brings — and hopefully what next week has in store.

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If you're not a TPP client…

Ask yourself a simple question:

What has your investment manager been doing while markets have been falling?

If the answer is simply "remaining invested and waiting for them to recover"…

Perhaps it's time to discover something different.

If you're frustrated with the stale, outdated buy, hold and hope model and want to understand how TPP approaches markets differently, schedule an absolutely free portfolio consultation with us.

No pressure. No obligation.

Just a conversation about your existing portfolio, how it's being managed and whether there might be another way.

Have a brilliant Friday.

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SCHEDULE A CALL WITH TPP: CLICK HERE.

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TPP's year-to-date average return across participating client accounts is 24.11%*.
Interested in learning more? CONTACT OUR TEAM...

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There is a substantial risk of loss in trading financial markets. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The examples in this article are illustrative and do not guarantee that any strategy will outperform a benchmark or avoid losses.

*Results as of 14th August 2026 and refer to the combined average of all client discretionary portfolio accounts (across all strategies), after fees, calculated on a Time Weighted Return basis.

Disclaimer: This document is issued by TPP, being provided for information purposes only. This document does not constitute legal, tax, accounting or investment advice, nor should it be relied upon when making investment decisions. This is not a personal recommendation or an offer or invitation to buy or sell any financial instrument. The market conditions and views expressed are as at the date of publication, which may change without notice. Unless otherwise stated, market data has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. While believed to be accurate, no representation or warranty is given as to its completeness or accuracy.

TPP strategies invest in leveraged financial instruments, including equity index futures. Leverage can magnify both gains and losses, meaning losses may occur more quickly than in unleveraged investments. Investments involve risk and investors may lose some or all of their invested capital. Your capital is at risk.

Past performance is not necessarily a reliable indicator of future performance. The value of investments, and any income from them, can fall as well as rise, and investors may not recover the amount originally invested. Future returns are not guaranteed. Therefore, you should not assume that the future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy will be profitable or equal to the corresponding past performance.

TPP is a trading name of UCapital Asset Management LLP. UCapital Asset Management LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA No. 477155). 80 Coleman Street, London EC2R 5BJ.

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