When there’s blood in the streets

When there’s blood in the streets

There is plenty of investment potential in turbulent political times, but don’t bother unless you have courage and time, says Katherine Azmeh.

May 26, 2010 2:07 by Katherine Azmeh

The quintessential accountant, my dad was fond of saying that “when the stock market is down, everything’s on sale.” It was usually followed by the admonition to “watch the pennies and the pounds will watch after themselves.” Not glitzy, perhaps, but the financial advice is as sound now as it was then. And the strategy is simple: The more distressed the market, the deeper the discounts. Dollars invested during the downtimes offer much greater payoff potential. Amidst the exuberance of an up market, the bargains can be hard to spot.

The requisite to participating in the fire sale stock market is, of course, nerve. Digging your heels in and reaping more shares for the same amount of cash is all well and good provided the fire sale doesn’t consume you first. So there’s the matter of nerves – and time. If you need a quick turnaround, the fire sale strategy probably isn’t your venue. But, the old investment advice about “buying when there’s blood in the streets,” is particularly apt now – provided, of course, you’ve got nerve and time. “ Contrarian investors find value in the worst market conditions,” investment gurus insist. “Take advantage of fear, even when it’s your own,” urges the popular Motley Fool investment website.

The investment strategy guide, Blood in the Streets: Investment Profits in a World Gone Mad, published in 1987, is garnering a new readership. The popular book details crisis investment strategies for the everyman, showing readers how to reap investment profits during financially uncertain times, and guess what? These are them. Iraq knows it: The country continues to court foreign investment despite ongoing violence, political indecision, and turmoil.

Palestine knows it, wooing investors in a road show to feature the diverse equities on offer at the Palestine stock exchange, with 93 listed companies in a variety of sectors. Now investment analysts are eying the potential in Thailand.

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Tags: blood in the streets investing, conflict investing, conflict-afflicted area investing, contrarian investors, fear investing, Iraq investing, motley fool, Palestine investing, PSE, war investing