Fulfilment and reward from a change of course

IT’S BEEN a time for comebacks — at least in my world. I have a made a return to playing (semi) serious tennis after a break of more than 30 years, and have finally made some money on resource shares (more on this later), where I usually wage a losing battle.

I also find myself back, rather unexpectedly, in an editor’s chair.

There is a saying: “Be careful for what you ask for (it might just happen)”.

About six years ago, frustrated by editorial changes initiated at my former place of employment, I debated, with a number of my colleagues, the possibility of putting together a financial magazine focused solely on investments. Taking over editing duties at Investors

Monthly fulfils those ambitions, without, of course, the enormous financial risks and arduous administrative burden I would have incurred. I can also say that a good number of the contributors in this month’s issue, some of whom I have worked with for many years, would have been on my A-team list.

What I would really like to initiate at the magazine is an open dialogue with readers. We need to know what you want us to cover — whether it’s divining the long-term potential of an obscure small cap share, unpacking the attributes of exchange traded funds, interrogating fund managers or kicking the tyres of investment schemes. I would welcome any investment-related correspondence at the e-mail address on this page.

In this edition I’m sure readers will find plenty of value in property sector expert Joan Muller’s insightful assessment of why growth-hungry local real estate counters are advancing on Eastern Europe from various fronts. Personally I have taken solace in finally scoring some decent upside on the mini-rally in the resource sector in recent weeks. Financial Mail readers will know I have stuck, in the past few years, mostly to an ultraconservative combination of Reinet Investments mixed with offshore property positions (Stenprop, Atlantic Leaf and Redefine International). So it’s been heartening that a more adventurous dalliance has paid off — doubly so because I seem to have overcome my well-known reverse Midas touch (aka the Hasenfuss Reverse Indicator, or HRI) that applied to commodity investing.

What I might have done right this time was to resist the temptation to buy resource shares directly. Instead, I went the more staid unit trust route, choosing the two biggest laggard funds, and then dribbling-in disciplined monthly debit orders. My premise was that I could hedge my bet by exiting one of the funds once an acceptable return had been achieved. At this point, however, I feel less inclined to exit either fund — mainly because I sense some intriguing corporate action could be on the cards. Other investors might be facing a similar quandary, and perhaps Investors Monthly can look at possible hustle and bustle among commodity players soon.