Invest like a pro

Share

For those investors who have been lucky enough to have survived one or more major market downturns, some lessons have been learned. For example, there always seem to be some firms that not only survive those downturns, but profit handsomely from them. So why do certain investment companies do better than others and survive market waves? They have a long term investment philosophy that they stick to; they have a strong investment strategy that they formalize within their products and understand that while taking some risk is part of the game; a steady disciplined approach ensures long-term success. Once the key tools of successful investment firms are understood, they can easily be adopted by individual investors to become successful. By adopting some of their strategies, you can invest like the pros. (You don't need a lot of money to start investing, check out Start Investing With Only $1000.)

Strength in Strategy A strong investment philosophy should be outlined before any investment strategies are considered. An investment philosophy is the basis for investment policies and procedures, and ultimately into long-term plans. In a nutshell, an investment philosophy is a set of core beliefs from which all investment strategies are developed. In order for an investment philosophy to be sound, it needs to be based on reasonable expectations, assumptions of how historical information can serve as a tool for proper investment guidance.

For example, the investment philosophy, "to beat the market every year," while a positive expectation, is too vague and does not incorporate sound principles. It's also important for a sound investment philosophy to define investment time horizons, asset classes in which to invest and guidance on how to respond to market volatility while adhering to your investment principles. A sound long-term investment philosophy also keeps successful firms on track with those guidelines, rather chasing trends and temptations. Since each investment philosophy is developed to suit the investment firm, or perhaps the individual investor, there are no standard plans to write one.

If you are developing an investment philosophy for the first time, and you want to invest like a pro, it's important that you consider covering the following topics to make sure the philosophy is robust:

* Define Your Core Beliefs The most basic and fundamental beliefs are outlined regarding the reason and purpose of investment decisions.

* Time Horizons While investors should always plan on long-term horizons, a good philosophy should outline your unique time frame to set expectations.

* Risk Clearly define how you accept and measure risk. Contrary to investing in a savings account, the fundamental rule of investing is the risk/reward concept by increasing your expected returns with increased risk.

* Asset Allocation and Diversification Clearly define your core beliefs on asset allocation and diversification, whether it is active or passive, tactical or strategic, tightly focused or broadly diversified. This portion of your philosophy will be the driving force in developing your investment strategies and build a foundation to which to return when your strategies need redefining or tweaking.

The Secret of Success Successful firms also implement product funds that reflect their investment philosophies and strategies. Since the philosophy drives the development of the strategies, core style investment strategies, for example, are usually the most common in most successful product lines and should also be part of an individual plan. Core holdings or strategies have multiple interpretations, but generally, core equity and bond strategies tend to be large cap, blue chip and investment grade types of funds that reflect the overall market.

Successful firms also limit their abilities to take large sector bets in their core products. While this can limit the potential upside when making the right sector bet, directional bets, practiced by hedge funds, add significant volatility to a fund that is judged by not only its performance but its relative and absolute volatility.

When defining an investment strategy, it is very important to follow a strict discipline. For example, when defining a core strategy, restricting the temptation to follow or chase trends keeps the strategy grounded. This is not to say that one can't have additional momentum strategies with different goals, as those can be incorporated into the overall investment plan.

Outlining a Strategy When outlining a sound investment strategy, the following issues, which are similar to those of creating a philosophy, should be considered:

* Time Horizon A common mistake for most individual investors is that their time horizon ends when they retire. In reality, it can go well beyond retirement, and even life, if you have been saving for the next generation. Investment strategies must focus on the long-term horizon of your investment career, as well as the time for specific investments.

* Asset Allocation This is when you clearly define what your target allocation will be. If this is a tactical strategy, ranges of allocations should be defined, if strategic in nature, hard lines need to be drawn with specific plans to rebalance when markets have moved in either direction. Successful investment firms follow strict guidelines when rebalancing, especially is strategic plans. Individuals, on the other hand, often make the mistake of straying from their strategies when markets move in sharp directions.

* Risk vs. Return At this point you should clearly define your risk tolerance. This is one of the most important aspects of an investment strategy, since risk and return have a close relationship over long periods of time. Whether you measure it in relative to a benchmark or absolute portfolio standard deviation, just remember to stick to your predetermined limits.

Putting the Pieces Together It's important to remember that investment strategies define specific pieces of an overall plan. Successful investors cannot beat the market 100% of the time, but can evaluate their investment decisions based on their fit to the original investment strategy.

After you have survived a few market cycles, you can potentially start to see patterns of hot or popular investment companies gathering unprecedented gains. This was a phenomenon during the internet technology investing boom. Shares of technology companies rose to rock star levels, and investors - institutional and personal - lined up at their gates to pile on funds. Unfortunately for some of those companies, success was short-lived, since these extraordinary gains were unjustified. Many investors deviated from their initial investment strategies in the hopes of chasing greater returns. Individuals can pattern themselves after successful investment companies by not trying to hit home runs and focusing on base hits, instead.

That means trying to beat the market by long shots is not only difficult to do consistently, it leads to a level of volatility that does not sit well with investors over the long term. Individual investors often make mistakes like shooting for the stars and using too much leverage when markets are moving up, and tend to shy away from markets as they are falling. Removing the human biases by sticking to a set approach and focusing on short term victories is a great way to fashion your investment strategy like the pros.

Conclusion Taking cues from successful professional investors is the easiest way to avoid common errors and keep on a focused track. Outlining a sound investment philosophy sets the stage for professional and individual investors, just like a strong foundation in a home. Building up from that foundation to form investment strategies creates strong directions, setting the paths to follow. Investing like the pros also means avoiding the temptation to drift from your investment philosophy and strategies, and trying to outperform by large margins. While this can be done occasionally, and some firms have done it in the past, it is nearly impossible to beat the markets by large margins consistently. If you can fashion your investment plans and goals like those successful investment companies, you to can invest like the pros. (Learn from the best, read Think Like Warren Buffett.)