As we approach mid-year it’s worth reviewing the outlook for shares particularly with numerous warnings of corrections and crashes. Our view for this year has been that share market gains would be positive, but more constrained than seen in the last two years, and that volatility would increase – including the likelihood of a 10-15% correction along the way. In the event gains in shares have been more constrained, with global shares (in local currency terms) up 4.5% year to date and Australian shares up 1.5%. However, volatility has been relatively low.