Investment strategy, in any market

Tim Harford offers an excellent investment strategy, consistent with efficient market hypothesis.

First, ignore advertisements (and newspaper articles) that tout the past performance of particular sectors or funds. In an efficient market, past performance is not only no guarantee of future performance, it offers no clue whatsoever. Second, don’t try to pick stocks and don’t ask others to pick stocks for you: in other words, choose a low-cost index tracker. Third, don’t try to time the market: get in and out gradually.

This is more or less what Warren Buffett has suggested for non-professional investors.

Question: “What advice would you give to someone who is not a professional investor? Where should they put their money?”

Answer from Buffett: “Well, if they’re not going to be an active investor – and very few should try to do that – then they should just stay with index funds. Any low-cost index fund. And they should buy it over time. They’re not going to be able to pick the right price and the right time. What they want to do is avoid the wrong price and wrong stock. You just make sure you own a piece of American business, and you don’t buy all at one time.”