“If you look back, there is really nothing new under the sun,” he says, noting that the ups and downs of each cycle are basically driven by two factors. “Markets can be excessively bullish on greed or excessively bearish on fear. So, time in the market is better than timing the market, because it is very difficult to call the inflection points.

“It has proven an almost impossible task to really create wealth on a sustainable basis by actively trading in and out. Over time, resilience will be the way to go forward, in terms of preserving and growing your wealth, because you can weather the downturns and emerge stronger.”

When aiming to build a resilient portfolio, three key principles come into play, Hou says. The first is to establish a time horizon for your investments, one distant enough to skirt the short-term “irrationality of markets”.

The next is to make good use of multiple asset classes, recognising that each adds something in the construction of a well-balanced portfolio. For example, bonds generate cash flow and bring stability, while equities are selected for their ability to produce capital gains, and having both creates what the experts term “resilience”.

Depending on individual goals and preferences, the available choices can include anything from high-yield bonds to mutual funds focused on growth industries such as healthcare and technology, which stand to benefit from demographic shifts and trends in society at large.

The third principle is to remember that “the world is your oyster”. In essence, it is important nowadays to look out for global investment opportunities and not have a too narrow bias towards domestic or regional markets.

Hou says many Asia-based investors still exhibit this kind of “home bias”. But, looking ahead, it also makes sense to track, or anticipate, era-defining developments taking place in the Chinese economy and in fast-evolving enterprises further afield.

“We try to educate and guide clients to really look at investments beyond Asia,” he says. “That’s when you get the best-in-class companies across the best growth sectors.”

To assist in this respect, DBS has a number of strategies which give plenty of scope to create variations on the basic resilience theme. This allows investors – some who will naturally be more aggressive or conservative than others – to choose asset types and weightings that best suit their personal risk profile and overall objectives.

One example is the Barbell strategy. It is designed for “challenging times” and aims to capture superior returns from long-term irreversible growth trends, while also generating stable income to mitigate any short-term market volatility.

This is done by taking an outsized position in two areas of focus. One would be income-generating investment-grade bonds yielding in excess of 5 per cent. The other would be “growth boosters”, such as specific plays identified as pillars of the new digital economy.

“I think the Barbell approach makes a lot of sense because if you look at the world today, clearly a number of big sectors – the likes of retail and telecommunications – are really facing structural headwinds,” Hou says. “So, what you want on the growth side is to buy into ‘champions’ of the coming digital economy.”

Another viable strategy with undoubted appeal goes by the acronym I.D.E.A., which stands for innovators, disruptors, enablers and adapters. Its purpose is to identify companies that challenge the status quo and, by embracing change, are able to transform and thrive. But backing such companies will also require faith in the old saying that fortune favours the brave.

Alongside that, though, DBS’ Liquid+ Strategy allows for fixed-income investing in a diversified portfolio of high-grade bonds which keep pace with inflation. This offers the benefit of steady yields, while limiting risk exposure and offering investors the flexibility to make redemptions quickly.

“The best way to navigate markets that can be ‘noisy’ at times, is to follow a very disciplined approach,” Hou says. “It is important to think long-term, multi-asset and global, and buy into best-in-class companies.”

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