No time to be running with the herd

Is now the time to stop buying emerging market and commodity funds and to start taking profits? Why adopt this strategy in the face of a considerable argument in favour of these sectors?

Lately it seems the whole world has been piling into emerging markets and commodity funds on the back of some spectacular market gains, and that, if nothing else, should start alarm bells ringing with investors. We have been wary of these sectors for a while now and we have been advising investors to reduce their weighting and take profits. Indeed, that is the strategy we have been following in our discretionary and model portfolios. But why, I hear you ask, are we doing this at a time when there is so much talk about the potential of emerging markets – with many debates taking place ...