News

December 30, 2008

Leaders And Laggards Table Enables Investors To Monitor The Actions of Fund Managers

Charles Wyatt

It is very difficult to get in at the bottom of any market. The reasons are largely psychological as the wounds are still fresh from money lost in other investments and the old adage, “don’t throw good money after bad” comes to mind. In fact it is wholly inapplicable in this case as it is meant to apply to the investor who pours more money into a share while it is in free fall. Actions taken in the previous bull market have to be erased from the memory and it is no help at all to plan to reinvest once previous investments have reached their original purchase price. Wait that long - and it may happen - but when it does the next bull market will already be well established.

What has to be done is decide on a trigger point that is accepted as signalling beyond all doubt that the bear market is at an end and the fund managers are buying once again. Funnily enough it is to be found in the Financial Times which showed itself  singularly inept last year at detecting the mighty fall –out. Maybe that is because  so few of its journos know their way to the Leaders and Laggards table which is hidden away at the bottom of the Market Data page towards the back of...