In response to the new subscriber who voiced frustration, I offer these comments.

As a long-term subscriber (and investor for several decades) I have found Eoin's 'big picture' view very helpful and accurate over the years.

From my own study and experience, I have learned that one needs to have 2 factors in mind all the time:

1. What are the likely drivers of money flow into particular asset classes

2. Is that expectation actually being reflected in sector performance

The gains in our investments are determined much more by the sectors we choose than the individual shares. Some people say '90% performance depends on sector choice'. There's a lot of truth in that, and Eoin constantly points to the interesting sectors. So, I rank sectors each month. That is my primary focus. The chart library offers a great way to do that via the tab 'filter' / 'performance filter'. It's super-fast once we have set up a list of sector indices in our Favourites. I know no better way to do it and I can only be grateful to Eoin for the way he redesigned the chart library some years ago (and lot of effort and cost).

I then find the best performing shares in the top ranked sectors of interest and record their performance at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. If the numbers are increasing steadily across those time periods it identifies a strong trend. If the 1 month and 3-month performance is higher than 6 months and 12 months it identifies a possible breakout. I then check the steadiness of the chart patterns and the rate of gain (>30% annualised) before finally deciding whether to be interested.

Then I spread my investments across at least 4 of the best performing sectors, preferably as uncorrelated as possible,

That way I have beaten 99% of funds and most indices most years.

As Eoin states, private investors have a huge advantage over fund managers. We can increase cash - even to 100% at times - and avoid big falls in our portfolio value.

We have to be very analytical and unemotional. It feels hard to buy shares at the time that it's best to buy. I find that having a rule-based system has served me well. We all have to develop our own rules though, for three reasons.

First, we are all different, and someone else's investment style will not work for us.

Second, we will never have sufficient confidence in someone else's rules. Third, we will only learn and improve based on our mistakes if we develop our own methods.

I hope this helps new investors and new subscribers to Eoin's wonderful service.

Eoin Treacy's view

Thanks for this generous exposition of your method which will be of interest to the Collective. I created the Performance filter so it would easy to rank asset classes. For the much of the last few years investors have not been under pressure to actively manage their exposures. The strength of the Dollar and the technology sector have blown just about everything else away in terms of their performance. As the Dollar’s trend reverses, finding the best asset classes to be in, on an international basis will return to importance for investors.

https://vimeo.com/510829629

Here is a video of how to create sections in your Favourites and how to use the Performance Filter.

In the video I created a list of asset classes which I believe is reasonably reflective of the global investment picture. If subscribers would like me to add additional asset classes that should not be a problem, provided we have them in the Chart Library.

The clear outperformance of Tesla Motors, Bitcoin, Solar and IPOs over the last 12 months is quite clear but so is the loss of momentum for Tesla over the last month. What is less remarked on is how quickly the resources sector is climbing in terms of performance. The cannabis, copper miners, uranium and industrial miners have all broken out recently in very explosive fashion.