"I was reading with empathy the email posted yesterday who felt he had missed opportunities in the recent rise in stock markets. I have found that there is a way of having one's cake and eating it in rising markets.. One can wait for confirmed breakouts and then buy the subscription shares of investment trusts. Since they are geared they can give you the potential to "catch up". It goes without saying that if the breakout does not follow through, the gearing will increase losses. But it is a strategy which has worked quite well for me in the past year. However regrets are still possible.........I wish I had had the guts to buy the subscription shares of Geiger Counter rather than the ordinaries when you first drew attention to uranium producers! But I thought the last exercise date was too near."

David Fuller's view Thanks for sharing your catch-up strategy and well done in terms of seizing your opportunities. We will all have some regrets regarding opportunities missed in a rising market but we should only really be concerned if we are clearly on the wrong side of a trend. I would not worry about trying to 'shoot the lights out' as that is unnecessarily risky. Every year presents opportunities. As prudent investors we should aspire to identify and participate in some of them. And to stay in touch, it is a good idea to allow ourselves sufficient observation time, in the manner of a naturalist.