Investing in funds: Find the ladders and avoid the snakes

Hand control of your money to an adviser and you’ll just ride the ups and downs of the market. You can do better than that with a momentum investment strategy, says Douglas Chadwick. Here's how.

In 1985, I was lucky enough to sell my flat-pack furniture manufacturing business, the Furniture Factory. I invested some of the proceeds in two investment bonds. For many years, I was blissfully unaware of the non-performance of these bonds, having assumed that my financial adviser had everything under control.

When the light finally dawned, I was astounded to learn that my money had been sitting in the same two funds for the whole period, regardless of market conditions and sector performance. I decided that from then on I would make my own call on which funds to hold. After all, who better to look after your own money than yourself?

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