This story begins during height of investment madness in 2000, just prior to bear market. I had been managing an IRA account for "Bob" for around six years, with a better than average record of success. So I was surprised when Bob sheepishly called in July, 2000 to let me know he was transferring his IRA account, which had done particularly well during our latest Buy cycle going into year 2000.

However, his tax preparer, a long time personal friend of Bob's wife’s, was now also offering investment services, having recently received his Registered Representative’s license.

Fast forward to end of September. It had become increasingly clear to me that Bull market had run its course. So, in accordance with Sell signal from our trend tracking methodology, we sold all of our mutual fund positions on October 13, 2000 and went 100% into money market. (See my article “How we eluded Bear in 2000” at http://www.successful-investment.com/articles12.htm). From our safe haven we watched market crash and burn, causing most other investors to sustain double digit losses eventually reaching as high as 50 - 60% of their assets.

In 2002 Bob unexpectedly stopped by my office. As it turned out, things had not gone well at all with his IRA investments. As most advisors would have done, his tax preparer/advisor had quickly moved all of Bob’s assets into a variety of “load funds.”

Of course, being newly licensed he was clueless (as were many licensed advisors) as to market behavior or analysis of any kind. The end result was that Bob’s portfolio lost in excess of 50% over next 2 years. (Not to gloat, but my clients' losses in same period were non-existent.)

Unfortunately, degree of loss Bob sustained was experienced by many investors who did not follow a disciplined and methodical approach.