By Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director Money Morning/The Money Map Report
As you might imagine, I have been inundated with telephone calls and e-mail messages from investors who are trying to understand exactly what's happening in the world's financial markets right now.
Needless to say, little of this has been a surprise to us here at Money Morning. We've warned that the subprime-mortgage fallout would have real staying power, that the dollar would continue to sink and oil prices to rise, that inflationary pressures would take hold, and even that some of China's hotter stocks would correct. Several of these are issues I've been warning investors about for years.
In my columns and during presentations I've made across the country, one of the key points that I reiterate time and again is the importance of diversification. By diversification, I'm referring to the importance of keeping your money in front of factors that matter, while avoiding those that don't. And my idea of diversification is worlds away from the shtick that Wall Street's Armani Army trumpets over and over again.
Let me explain ...
In the late 1990s, for instance, many investors "diversified" into tech - which sent them off the cliff like the lemmings they were when the dot-com bubble imploded in 2000. Many of those folks still aren't back to even. And some were burned again this summer when an over-reliance on "safe" tech stocks caught up with them: Techs stumbled and gave their portfolios a nice haircut.
And while it looks as if the U.S. Federal Reserve may try to bail them out - you can't be certain that a rate-cut-fueled rebound will get you back to even.
Besides, why struggle to recoup your losses when it's so much easier just to stay ahead of such nasty reversals in the first place. Not only do you keep your risks at a minimum and avoid losses, you also position your investments to generate massive profits when the powerful global forces that we key on send your stocks higher.
To diminish your risk exposure while positioning yourself for the inevitable rebound, here are some moves investors should make right now:
Far too many investors stick with the money-losing strategies pushed by Wall Street simply because that's how "everybody does it." Those investors fear that any change will get them into areas that are too sophisticated to understand and manage.
But that's just flat out wrong.
The strategies we advocate are actually elegant in their simplicity. And, as my experience has demonstrated over and over, the simplest strategies are often the best and can produce head-spinning profits no matter what kind of market we face.
How can you argue with that?
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