Investors need steel nerves or brass necks

Compare and contrast. American market commentator Jim Cramer screaming Armageddon in a YouTube hissy fit that did the rounds of trading floors across the City of London and Wall Street.

Or fund manager Edward Bonham Carter, whose sang-froid in the face of the market meltdown was such that he saw no reason to cancel his plans to go to Glyndebourne to hear Wagner's Tristan und Isolde on Friday afternoon.

Which of the two is right? It is always possible that Bonham Carter was merely putting on a show of calm - though in that case he is even better at acting than his sister Helena - and he does have a vested interest in talking down the panic. Even so, my bet is that his steely-nerved response will turn out to be the correct one.