Falling Market Strategies

pioneer

Yant1 wrote: »

IMO we are already in a bank/property bear market, just look at teh huge short sales on a lot of these stocks.

Yant1 do you have a link to look at individual stock short volumes, Thanks

[Deleted User]

Not that you can see without subscription im afraid.

meinnit

This Is Money shows this info without a subscription

purch

the ability to go short in a falling market, so should weather any volatility

....the ability to 'short' is not necessarily the answer. Ultimately it will be the Fund Managers and the decisions they make or do not make that will determine the result.

Shorting the wrong stock at the wrong time, or using any other hedge technique or derivative isn't automatically a good thing.

I think there are too many Funds being sold now that try to highlight their ability to use other instruments as some kind of implicit guarantee of making a profit for you.

[Deleted User]

meinnit wrote: »

This Is Money shows this info without a subscription

Where?

zzzLazyDaisy

purch wrote: »

....the ability to 'short' is not necessarily the answer. Ultimately it will be the Fund Managers and the decisions they make or do not make that will determine the result.

Yes, that is true with any actively managed investment. All I am saying is that in a volatile market, a fund that has the ability to short the market might be a useful fund to hold as a small percentage of an over-all holding. After all, trackers are often recommended as part of a wider portfolio.... and they inevitably head south in a falling market.

If I wanted to reduce all risk, I'd take the money out and hold it in cash until things settle down - which is what OP is proposing to do. This is simply an alternative view, and may well not suit everyone.

munk

The BlackRock Absolute Alpha fund though has a manager who does have previous experience of shorting - so hopefully he should be able to make good use of the option.

Of course I'm just paraphrasing what I read in some bumpfh on HL's site (or in the investment monthly mag they send out maybe?). Lyttleton (the alpha manager) is also part of the skandia uk strategic best ideas MoM fund which incorporates shorting in it's strategy.

[Deleted User]

Dont forget shorting can be used over the short term to protect a large holding when theres uncertainty.

I dont know how a fund manager might do it.

But over a short term I have taken out CFD short positions on stock that I own just because I believe it will drop in value, eg when the divis are excised or when a dark clouds been hanging over. A short term hedge.

Its great that their are more funds with this ability open to plebs like us that dont have a billion squid. If all goes well there should be less in the way of -20% shocks over the short term.

Stompa

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

I have recently switched some of my gains into Blackrock uk absolute alpha fund and the similar Skandia fund.

Which Skandia fund is that please?

Thanks

zzzLazyDaisy

Stompa wrote: »

Which Skandia fund is that please?

Thanks

The Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas Fund

http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/public/showPage.html?page=ifa2006_articleimport&tempPageName=478358

(please note, I am not an IFA, just an interested personal investor)